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Grammar
Course: Grammar > Unit 7
Lesson 3: Formatting stylesUsing quotation marks in titles
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- At, David said:"Paige Finch." What is the meaning of "Finch" in here? 0:06(21 votes)
- It means / it is a bird here's what it means:
A seed-eating songbird that typically has a stout bill and colourful plumage.
I have no clue why he said Paige finch(3 votes)
- I should stop loafing around, But I doughn't know any bread puns.
get it?(15 votes)- this comment changed my life. My entire view of everything that exists in this world, in fact, even in the entire universe. I can never look at anything I know the same way again. This comment represents emotions that most humans could never understand. But I can. Thanks to this comment i was awakened to many things previously considered unimaginable. Thank you for this exquisite comment, I will never forget this experience.(5 votes)
- why are quotation marks so important to all of human stuff like english and other common things we do a(9 votes)
- Well, a part of telling a good story (but not the only way) we can use dialogue. Quotation marks help us be able to determine if someone is speaking or not. If we don't use them, it will get quite confusing. So we need them, and in ways, we use them whether in a book, quoting someone, or something else, we use them and it's just as important as anything else. I hope that helped.(19 votes)
- Was there originally a transcript?(6 votes)
- No—those emerge a little after the video is published; hard-working people transcribe the videos and then they go up on the site!(21 votes)
- I am little confused here.
My English teacher always tells me to use ONLY quotation marks for titles of books, albums, and virtually anything with a title. This statement of hers is backed by the fact that the same thing is mentioned in our English grammar textbook.
But over here, fromto 0:30, David mentions the use of italics or underlines for the titles. 0:40
So, who is correct??(4 votes)- There are many areas of life in which scholarly people like your English teacher and David Rheinstrom hold different opinions, and neither is wrong. What is important is to communicate clearly. It's also important when you write a Master's degree thesis, a Doctoral dissertation, or even a college term paper, to keep to the assigned "style" for presentation of your work. (There are two or three standard style guides out there, they differ on these things.) Short of those high-level places, it's helpful if, when you begin writing a middle school report or an essay for your English teacher to choose how you will punctuate in that piece of work and use that style consistently from beginning to end.(12 votes)
- Are there certain times where you need a comma at the end of the quote?(7 votes)
- Short answer: "Yes". Longer answer: When the thing you are quoting includes the comma, you may wish to retain it, followed by an ellipsis before the close quote marks.(6 votes)
- to 0:50made me wonder if you could write, for instance, "My favorite song is Gentle Giant's Free Hand: 'On Reflection'?" I'm guessing not, correct? You'd have to write, "My favorite song is 'On Reflection' from Gentle Giant's Free Hand album." Because in the previous section, it was said that colons are used to separate parts of a title, but "Free Hand: 'On Reflection'" is not actually a valid title. 1:05(9 votes)
- Can't quotation marks be used for a title like in this sentence:
In the epic fantasy book "The Lord of the Rings," by J.R.R TOLKIEN, the author portrays an epic battle between good and evil.(4 votes)- Yes, but sometimes instead of quotation marks around a title, people will commonly italicizes the title.(3 votes)
- What is the Bread Poetry?(3 votes)
- At, David says, "Paige, let's say you and Jake wrote a book of bread poetry." 1:12
In this case, "bread poetry" just means poems about bread. The word bread is being used as an adjective.
Then he mentions that the title of the poetry book is The Yeast I Can Do, which is sort of a joke:
"The least I can do" is a common expression, but he has replaced least with yeast. Yeast is often used to help bread dough rise... get it?
It's a pun.(5 votes)
- Loaves of Grass?? 3:11(3 votes)
- In the 19th Century, the American poet Walt Whitman published a volume of poetry entitled "Leaves of Grass". People still read and enjoy it in 2023. Way back in 2016, when this lesson was recorded, the presenters used the title "loaves of grass" as an example in a grammar lesson. Their title was based on the 19th Century poetry. When you get a good liberal arts education, you learn how to do and use things like this.(3 votes)
Video transcript
- [David] Hello, grammarians. Hello, Paige. - [Paige] Hi, David. - [David] So, today we're gonna be talking about quotation marks. What are they and what do they do? Paige Finch. - [Paige] We use quotation
marks to indicate when someone is speaking, right? So, if we're writing dialogue, we can say, "I like strawberry jam,"
said Lady Boffington. - [David] So, that's one
use of quotation marks, which is to quote direct dialogue or to quote from a broader work. We can also use quotation
marks for the titles of things. So, Paige, if you remember,
you can use underlines or italics to indicate
the title of something big like a book of poetry or an album of songs or a movie or a television show. - [Paige] Yep. - [David] So, Paige, for instance,
one of my favorite albums is Gentle Giant's 1975 album Free Hand. - [Paige] Okay, but that's
with italics or an underline. - [David] It's with italics,
or an underline in this case since I'm writing it by hand. But track two on that record
is called "On Reflection." - [Paige] Okay, so we put quotes around each individual song on the album. - [David] Right. So, this is the album, and this is a single song on it. Paige, let's say you and Jake
wrote a book of bread poetry. - [Paige] Okay, yes.
- [David] Right? - [Paige] That is something I would do. - [David] And you called
it The Yeast I Can Do. - [Paige] That is a great title. (laughs) - [David] Thank you. - Right, so underline it to indicate that that's the full title. So, this is the book. And then, this book is made
up of individual poems, so let's say you wrote a poem in the book called "Rye Do You Love Me?" Sure, why not? So that's in quotes and that indicates that this is a single
work or a single poem. - [Paige] Okay. - [David] Also, let me know
when that book is coming out 'cause I'll buy your book of poetry. (Paige laughs) So, it's not just songs and poems, right? But it's also magazine
and newspaper articles, TV episodes. Really, it's anything that is
smaller than a larger work. - [Paige] Right, it's something
inside of a larger thing like a collection or-- - [David] Right. - [Paige] Yeah, an album. - [David] So, if you were
writing for a magazine or a newspaper, that newspaper's title, the Khan Academy Times, would be either italicized or underlined. But an article that you wrote
for it would be in quotes. I think that about does it
for quotation marks, Paige. - [Paige] Yeah, David? - [David] Yeah. - [Paige] I think I thought
of a bread poetry book name. - [David] Okay, what is it? - [Paige] Loaves of Grass? - [David] Yep.
- [Paige] Yep. - [David] Yep, that's pretty good! - [Paige] Okay.
- [David] All right. Putting it in there.
(Paige laughs) That's quotation marks. You can learn anything. David out. - [Paige] Paige out. - [David] Loaves of Grass.
(Paige laughs)