If you’re like me you’ll sometimes get these wrong or at least question which are correct.
Some are correct in one Geolocation and then the opposite in another.
Let’s take a look.
Smart quotes are usually curved in shape and have different opening and closing versions for use at the beginning and end of quoted material, respectively.
Dumb (or straight) quotes are usually simple tapered vertical or angled marks.
The design of smart quotes will vary between serif and sans-serif typefaces, but they will never point straight up-and-down.
Here are some helpful pointers:
- Single quotes should be used inside of double quotes.
- All punctuation should be inside the quotes
- Always capitalize the first letter of a quote if the quote is a complete sentence.
- Don’t use quotes for emphasis, use italics
There are a few types of dashes/hyphens that are used. These are: En Dash, Em Dash, Figure Dash, Hyphen-Minus, Hyphen & Minus Sign.
We are going to cover the first two here, En Dash & Em Dash
En Dash
An unspaced En Dash can be used in place of the word “through to” when indicating a range of values, such as numbers, times and dates. For example, 5th–9th July. It’s also used to show relationships between two things, such as a Sydney–LA flight. An en dash with spaces can also be used in place of an em dash, depending on editorial style.
Em Dash
Em Dashes can be used where parentheses might otherwise be used. They can also be used in place of a colon or when a comma is too weak but a full stop is too strong. An em dash is also used to show attribution of a quote, placed in front of the person’s name.