Highlight: Use straight double quotation marks.
Quotation marks with commas and periods
Place commas and periods inside quotation marks; in the American (US) English style.
Examples
If punctuation is part of the quoted material, include it inside the quotation marks.
Examples
When you put a specific string, term, or phrase in quotation marks, put any punctuation outside the quotation marks. Don’t add or remove anything from the string or term. Altering it may cause unforeseen issues or difficulties.
Examples
password, the file needs to be updated.
Straight and curly quotation marks
The direction of curly quotation marks (“ ”) and apostrophes are often confused while writing documentation. If you use straight quotation marks (” “) the trouble of tracking and writing the starting and closing curly quotation marks is eliminated. Code specifically needs straight quotation marks for its syntax, in addition to user input fields. Furthermore, not all software environments use curly quotation marks.
Hence, in general, use straight quotation marks (” “).
Examples
Single quotation marks
Use single quotation marks only in the following cases:
- In code, where single quotation marks are used.
- When you have to nest a quotation inside quotation marks.
While nesting a quotation inside another quotation, use the American (US) English style, which is to use double quotation marks for the outer quotation, and single quotation marks for the inner one.
Examples
