Source: https://developers.google.com/style/quotation-marks\n\n# Quotation marks
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Save and categorize content based on your preferences.\n\n- Home\n- Products\n- Style\n\n\n## Page Summary\n\n- In technical writing, quotation marks are primarily used for titles of shorter works and in specific cases outlined in the provided table.\n- Commas and periods generally go inside quotation marks, with exceptions for literal strings in code font.\n- Always use straight quotation marks and apostrophes in developer documentation for consistency and ease of writing and reviewing.\n- Single quotation marks are reserved for code examples and nesting quotations within other quotations.\n\nIn technical writing, quotation marks are primarily used for titles of shorter works and in specific cases outlined in the provided table.\n\nCommas and periods generally go inside quotation marks, with exceptions for literal strings in code font.\n\nAlways use straight quotation marks and apostrophes in developer documentation for consistency and ease of writing and reviewing.\n\nSingle quotation marks are reserved for code examples and nesting quotations within other quotations.\n\nUse straight double quotation marks and apostrophes.\n\n\n## When to use quotation marks\n\nIn technical writing, we don't use quotation marks much, aside from instances of code.\n\nGenerally, you can use quotation marks for
titles of shorter works such as articles or episodes in a web series, unless
they're part of a link. For more information, see cross-references.\n\nFor most titles that are full-length works, we use italics.\n\nFor examples of when to use quotation marks in regular text, see the following table:
Guidance
Example
Referring to a section of a larger document or piece, if you can't link to the section directly.
The technique is described in the section "Deploying containers" of the Containers overview
video.
Referring to the title of a parent document when you're already linking to a
section
The machine learning (ML) workflow section
of "Introduction to Vertex AI" describes the machine learning workflow for Vertex AI.
Directly citing a person or quoting a slogan or motto.
Martin Fowler has said, "We are still learning the techniques to write software effectively."
Using a term metaphorically, but only if it's not an established usage in the domain.
This configuration forms an "island" within the network that is not connected to the external
network.
For more information, see Text-formatting summary.
Commas and periods with quotation marks
Commas and periods go inside quotation marks.
Recommended: See the section
titled "Care and feeding of the emu."
Not recommended: See the section titled "Care
and feeding of the emu".
Exception: When you put a keyword or other literal string in quotation
marks, put any other punctuation outside the quotation marks. In those cases,
the quotation marks indicate an exact literal string, so don't add anything
extraneous inside the quotation marks. However, in general, don't put quotation marks
around an item that's in code font, unless the quotation marks are part of the
item.
Recommended: If you enter escape,
the program crashes.
Acceptable: If you enter "escape", the program
crashes.
Not recommended: If you enter "escape," the
program crashes.
Straight and curly quotation marks
Most typefaces support two forms of quotation marks and apostrophes:
straight marks and curly, or typographic, marks. Some tools, like
Google Docs, automatically convert straight quotation marks and
apostrophes to the curly versions as you type. However, our guidance is
to always use straight quotation marks and straight apostrophes in developer documentation, for
the following reasons:
It makes writing documents easier.
Code requires straight marks, so it's simpler to use straight marks everywhere
in developer documentation than to use them in code but not in text.
Tools that automatically change straight marks to curly marks (such as word processors)
often make mistakes.
Humans who manually type curly marks also often make mistakes.
Manually typing curly marks can be difficult on some platforms.
It makes reviewing documents easier.
When you're proofreading a document, it can be hard to see whether marks are straight or
curly, and which direction they point in.
In the following examples, the first example uses straight quotation marks and the second example
uses curly quotation marks:
Recommended: The section's title is "Care
and feeding of the emu."
Not recommended: The section’s title
is “Care and feeding of the emu.”
Single quotation marks
The only times to use single quotation marks in our documentation are the following:
In code examples, in languages that use single quotation marks.
When nesting a quotation inside another quotation.
In the latter case, put the primary speaker's quote in double quotation marks and the quote inside
the primary speaker's quote in single quotation marks.
Recommended: She said, "I heard
him shout 'Help,' and saw him floundering in the water."
Not recommended: She said, 'I heard him shout
"Help", and saw him floundering in the water'.
Note: For information about how to use quotation marks with links, see
Quotation marks and italics.\n\n\nGuidance | Example\nReferring to a section of a larger document or piece, if you can't link to the section directly. | The technique is described in the section "Deploying containers" of the Containers overview
video.\nReferring to the title of a parent document when you're already linking to a
section | The machine learning (ML) workflow section
of "Introduction to Vertex AI" describes the machine learning workflow for Vertex AI.\nDirectly citing a person or quoting a slogan or motto. | Martin Fowler has said, "We are still learning the techniques to write software effectively."\nUsing a term metaphorically, but only if it's not an established usage in the domain. | This configuration forms an "island" within the network that is not connected to the external
network.\n\n\n## Commas and periods with quotation marks\n\nCommas and periods go inside quotation marks.\n\nRecommended: See the section
titled "Care and feeding of the emu."\n\nNot recommended: See the section titled "Care
and feeding of the emu".\n\nException: When you put a keyword or other literal string in quotation
marks, put any other punctuation outside the quotation marks. In those cases,
the quotation marks indicate an exact literal string, so don't add anything
extraneous inside the quotation marks. However, in general, don't put quotation marks
around an item that's in code font, unless the quotation marks are part of the
item.\n\nRecommended: If you enter escape,
the program crashes.\n\nAcceptable: If you enter "escape", the program
crashes.\n\nNot recommended: If you enter "escape," the
program crashes.\n\n\n## Straight and curly quotation marks\n\nMost typefaces support two forms of quotation marks and apostrophes:
straight marks and curly, or typographic, marks. Some tools, like
Google Docs, automatically convert straight quotation marks and
apostrophes to the curly versions as you type. However, our guidance is
to always use straight quotation marks and straight apostrophes in developer documentation, for
the following reasons:\n\n- It makes writing documents easier.
Code requires straight marks, so it's simpler to use straight marks everywhere
in developer documentation than to use them in code but not in text.
Tools that automatically change straight marks to curly marks (such as word processors)
often make mistakes.
Humans who manually type curly marks also often make mistakes.
Manually typing curly marks can be difficult on some platforms.\n- Code requires straight marks, so it's simpler to use straight marks everywhere
in developer documentation than to use them in code but not in text.\n- Tools that automatically change straight marks to curly marks (such as word processors)
often make mistakes.\n- Humans who manually type curly marks also often make mistakes.\n- Manually typing curly marks can be difficult on some platforms.\n- It makes reviewing documents easier.
When you're proofreading a document, it can be hard to see whether marks are straight or
curly, and which direction they point in.\n- When you're proofreading a document, it can be hard to see whether marks are straight or
curly, and which direction they point in.\n\n- Code requires straight marks, so it's simpler to use straight marks everywhere
in developer documentation than to use them in code but not in text.\n- Tools that automatically change straight marks to curly marks (such as word processors)
often make mistakes.\n- Humans who manually type curly marks also often make mistakes.\n- Manually typing curly marks can be difficult on some platforms.\n\n- When you're proofreading a document, it can be hard to see whether marks are straight or
curly, and which direction they point in.\n\nIn the following examples, the first example uses straight quotation marks and the second example
uses curly quotation marks:\n\nRecommended: The section's title is "Care
and feeding of the emu."\n\nNot recommended: The section’s title
is “Care and feeding of the emu.”\n\n\n## Single quotation marks\n\nThe only times to use single quotation marks in our documentation are the following:\n\n- In code examples, in languages that use single quotation marks.\n- When nesting a quotation inside another quotation.\n\nIn the latter case, put the primary speaker's quote in double quotation marks and the quote inside
the primary speaker's quote in single quotation marks.\n\nRecommended: She said, "I heard
him shout 'Help,' and saw him floundering in the water."\n\nNot recommended: She said, 'I heard him shout
"Help", and saw him floundering in the water'.\n