Punctuation query

I hadn't noticed that the double mark had become old hat, but looking through novels I've read in the last year, I see you're right. What do people think of colons and semi-colons? I like them.

As far as I know, colons and semi-colons are not considered to be very good form, and should be avoided if at all poss. Dogstar's also right about the double "'s, although it comes in handy if there's a thought involved, which would be enclosed in a single ', so I have to confess to using the double, myself. And right again - Emmerdale, Smirnoff and HI! (I thought it was Hello! :-)) shouldn't be enclosed in apos'. Nor the 'OK' in your last post - I just appo'd it to indicate that *I* hadn't written it. Strewth! Hope I'm right...

Inside, Emma. Likewise a question mark, exclamation mark, comma, or anything else...

It depends of course: With speech usually inside - The woman said, "I like anything to do with knitting." With quoted phrases, they can go on the outside - Men are what Germaine Greer describes as "dildo subsitutes". Hope that helps.

Quite right, K - I assumed Emma was asking about dialogue.

OK I used to know this but it's slipped. You use ' ' if you're quoting the title of something or introducing the reader to a nickname. i.e. " Duncan decided to go round to his grandmother's place for a cuppa and watch his favourite soap 'Emmerdale Farm'. When he arrived she was already zonked out next to half a bottle of 'Smirnoff' with a copy of 'Hi!' magazine open on her lap. Just then the phone rang , it was his father " Can I have a quick word with 'The Queen Mother'?" In this case is it permissible to enclose Smirnoff and Hi! in apostrophes? Old fashioned? Or just unnecessary?

quotation/speech marks can appear rather patronising to readers, particularly when you consider consumer products like Emmerdale or Smirnoff which are firmly established in our culture - the words themselves are enough to refer to what they mean. the double mark " is a bit old hat for dailogue nowadays too, most modern literary writers opting for the single mark ' or a dash at the beginning of the line, or nothing at all. the more punctuation and paranetheses used can quite often indicate that the actual writing is somewhat lazy and the language is not realising its potential. so keep it clean. unless you want to be a popular author.

I think popular is 'OK' but I know what you mean. It looks fussy and using the single marks would make it a lot easier for lazy gits like me.

I was joking about the popular thing. kind of. Read something like James Kelman's HOW LATE IT WAS, HOW LATE and you find no indication of dialogue at all - the point of view is with a protagonist who is blinded, the narrative is in the vernacular and the dialogue (from various characters) looks no different from the inner consciousness of this one guy. The upshot is that it's not the easiest if of reads because the lack of punctuation and standard english grammar explodes the reader's expectations. But most folk pick up a book because they want a good story, we don't always want our cultural/social values, the constructedness of our world, undermined - which is what most real good writing does. Or should do.