I know this sounds like a silly question, but what is the correct punctuation around direct speech?

I have always used " " yet on checking most of the books on my bookshelf and several e-books, it seems that ' ' is the most commonly used format.

I am in the final edit of my novel and have used " " throughout! The thought of changing every instance is a little daunting as you can imagine but I will do obviously do it if ' ' is the accepted rule.

Please help!

Cheers!

Stu

As far as I've ever been able to work out, in UK books it's usual to use single, and double for anything inside them. In US publications, and in UK magazines, it's usual to use double, with single inside (which I think is more sensible. Single closing ' is so easy to read as an apostrophe).

But to my mind it doesn't really matter, as long as you're consistent.

But you could do a search-and-replace for " to ' if you want to change it.

Stuayris, I write for women's mags and have to tailor my speech marks to the house style. So depending on who I'm intending my story for I'll use either " " or ' '.

Hi Stu, either is fine. Emma is correct that single is a little more common in the UK but there are publishers that use double as house style, it's just a matter of preference/house style.

Even in the UK when house-style is single, if the book is typeset from the US edition it's quite common to use double.

Thanks people! That's a relief that I don't have to change everything! Although I'm English I think I will stick with the "" format.

Thank you again!!

Stu

I used to use " years ago, but now I use the single ' as I think it looks nicer.