Today was not an entire waste -- I learned something. I've been beta reading (or maybe alpha reading) chapters of a friend's newest novel as he churns them out, and in the latest chapter he had a situation where a main character was reading aloud (thus, dialogue, in quotation marks) a letter written by a person not previously in the story (a second level of quote) in which the writer recalls something that was said in the past to the person to whom the letter was addressed (a third level). Oh ... and the letter ran for three paragraphs. He put quotation marks at the start and at the end, but it didn't look right. I initially told him I thought it was wrong but I didn't know what was right ... and then I looked at the Chicago Manual of Style. Sure enough, they address this exact situation. So, if y'all ever need it:
These are tricky, but immensely useful to learn! Had to do a few college papers with this type of thing when quoting a source that quoted other sources
Attending my month writing workshop meeting, that I'm advised 'single' quotation marks. Taught the old school ways, I'm used to "double". Thank you for the clarification
I'm American -- as is the Chicago Manual Of Style. In American usage, the primary level of quotation marks is double, the first nested layer is single, the second nested layer is double, and so it continues. British usage is exactly the reverse: single quotation marks first, then double, then single, etc.
