Learn English – Quotation marks within parentheses within a quotation

punctuation

My example is this:

The agency stated, "Our draft environmental assessment ("EA") will be ready when it's ready".

My question is: when one is writing a direct quote from a statement and the original statement has double quotation marks in parentheses within the original source material, is one supposed to use double or single quotation marks within the parentheses?

Best Answer

Interesting question! The parenthetical statement within the quotation is still a quotation within a quotation. The parentheses do not alter the single-double quotation mark rule. As you probably have noticed in your own research, grammar handbooks don't mention parentheses at all in regards to quotations within quotations.

A few examples of grammar guides:

  1. http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/quotation-marks.html#quoteswithinquotes
  2. https://www.grammarly.com/handbook/punctuation/quotation-marks/6/quotations-within-a-quotation/
  3. http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/quotation-marks/quoting-a-question-within-a-question/