Punctuation Question

[awanderingbard]

Does anyone know the proper format for quotations within quotations within dialogue? I have a character reading from a book, and there is dialogue in the book. For example:

"Oh no!" the rabbit said.

How would you quote that in a piece of dialogue. Would it be something like:

"'"Oh no," the rabbit said,"'" Lisa read.

Or

"''Oh no,' the rabbit said,''" Lisa read.

Or something else?

Comments

[joyfulfeather.livejournal.com]

Interesting question! I'm curious to hear the answer - hopefully someone knows!

If I was writing it, I would probably leave off the internal quotation marks:

"'Oh no, the rabbit said,'" Lisa read.

I don't know if that follows the rules, but it looks cleaner and is still understandable.

[bookblather.livejournal.com]

Second one is correct. Source is the Purdue Writing Lab, quotations within quotations on this page. (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/577/02/)

[bookblather.livejournal.com]

I think my last comment got marked as spam thanks to the link (curse you, librarian-citation instincts!), but it essentially said the second one is correct.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

It's okay, I have a copy in my inbox. Thank you!

[aelfgyfu_mead]

They're not showing up right on my screen, I think, because I"m seeing too many quotn marks everywhere. Inside double quotns, you have single. If you need to go any levels deeper, you alternate.

"'Oh no!' the rabbit said," Lisa read.

[awanderingbard.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Super Beta! I think I was over-complicating things.