Define the use of Quotation Marks and Apostrophes

Define the use of quotation marks in the sentence structure guidelines. CC_ID 06145

Use quotation marks in writing compliance and governance documents to show the reader the exact words used by a person, found in documentation, or found in a dialog box. This is called a direct quotation. You can convey the same meaning without the use of the quotation marks by paraphrasing the original statement.

Direct: The warning label states, "Do not handle without gloves."

Indirect: You must wear gloves, if the warning label states not to handle without them.

Guideline 1

When using quotation marks, always put the closing quotation mark at the very end of what you are quoting, not at the end of every sentence or paragraph you are quoting.

Guideline 2

You should put quotation marks around all jargon or other expressions your readers normally don't use. Do not put quotation marks around all technical terms; instead, add them to your dictionary or terms list.

Guideline 3

When inserting quoted material, any punctuation that is to be included at the end of (and as a part of) the quoted material should appear within the quotes. Any punctuation after the quoted material that is a part of the amending sentence (and not a part of the quoted material itself) should appear after the closing quotation marks.

Optional exception

If the quoted material ends with a period (and the amending sentence goes no further), it is correct either to place another period after the closing quotation marks as the final punctuation mark of the amending sentence or to let the period within the quotes serve as the final period of the amending sentence, as well.

Define the use of apostrophes in the sentence structure guidelines. CC_ID 06146

Apostrophes are not used to indicate the plural. They are used in contractions, and they are used to indicate possession.

Contractions

You may use contractions within Controls. A contraction indicates that a letter has been omitted from a word. The contraction "doesn't" stands for "does not". The contraction "won't" stands for "will not". Some common contractions are as follows:

Contraction	Term
can't	cannot
he's	he is
isn't	is not
she'll	she will
you've	you have

Possession

Possession means that one thing belongs to another. For instance, the CIO's beer bottle denotes that the beer bottle in the sentence belongs to the CIO. There are three guidelines to help you place this apostrophe.

Guideline 1

For singular nouns, the possession should be written as 's. "The administrator's logbook." Follow this rule, even if the singular noun already ends in an s. "Fred Jones's logbook."

Guideline 2

For plural nouns that end in s, the apostrophe should be added as the last character. "The administrators' logbooks."

Guideline 3

For collective nouns and plural words that do not end in s, the possession should be written as 's. "The IT staff's logbooks."