Quotation marks

April 15, 2026 · View on GitHub

Guidance

Use quotation marks only when quoting a source directly or when required for syntax. Never use quotation marks for emphasis — use bold instead.

Do:

The Cardinal Rule states: "Don't make any change that will sound unnatural to native speakers of English."

Find the string "font-family:Segoe UI Semibold" in the code.

Select Save to apply your changes. (bold for UI label, not quotes)

Don't:

Make sure to "save" your work before closing.

The system enters a "failed" state when the pool member is unavailable.

Select "Save" to apply your changes.

Acceptable uses of quotation marks:

Direct quotations from a source
Syntax references where the quoted string is literal content the user must match exactly
Single quotation marks when required for syntax only

Never use quotation marks:

For emphasis — use bold instead
For UI labels — use bold instead
In titles or headings — recast the title if needed
As scare quotes to distance yourself from a term — if the term needs distancing, choose a different term

Do not use curly (smart) quotes in source files. Use straight quotes and let the publishing system handle typographic conversion.

Single quotes follow the same rules as double quotes. Don't use single quotes as apostrophes in running text — use the standard apostrophe character.