Tardis:Quotation marks

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Even though we generally favour the use of British English, you should use the American style when it comes to quotation marks. Double quotation marks (") should surround single ones (') — not the other way around. This will create less problems, because of the special meaning that the single quote has in wikitext.

You may be looking for our guidelines about when and how to quote people.

Shortcut:

T:QUOTATION MARKS
T:QUOTATION MARK
T:QM

The use of quotation marks shall favour the American usage, as it's less ambiguous for the MediaWiki software underpinning the wiki. Use double quotation marks (") surrounding single ones ('), even though most Doctor Who fiction uses the precise opposite format.

Correct	Incorrect
The Doctor said, "Oh, I know he said he was 'important', but, trust me, that's just the Dalek id talking."	The Doctor said, 'Oh, I know he said he was "important", but, trust me, that's just the Dalek id talking.'

The reason for this ruling is simple. Since the single inverted comma has an actual meaning in everyday wiki markup, it's all too easy for it to throw off the formatting of a sentence. Indeed, we even have to have a special template, {{'}}, to counteract the problem. Thus, even though it goes against years of schooling for some of us, it's best to use double-quotations on the outside, then follow with single-quotations only as needed.