Hi all. I have a question that really bothers me and I need help on it right away. I do business transcription from home. The type of transcription that I do is general business, with a lot of interviews being typed up.
Does any one know, when someone is giving an answer where they are relating a conversation they had with another person, or even something they previously said, when do I put quotes around the statement(s), conversation, etc.?
For example, if I were typing this:
A: Yes, and then I said to her, I think this is no longer a viable working relationship, and she asked me what exactly was wrong.
In that answer, would I put quotes before and after the person's statement of "I think..." and then also before and after the what the other person said?
I know this is confusing. I don't know how to make it simple. Any help would be appreciated!
Your example is difficult, because it contains reported speech and quotations. Therefore, it should read:
"Yes", and then I said to her, "I think this is no longer a viable working relationship", and she asked me what exactly was wrong.
Easier examples:
I said, "I love the sea."
I said that I love the sea.
The first is an actual quote while the second is just reporting what I said; i.e. reported speech.
It becomes more obvious when the past tense applies:
Last year, I said, "I love the sea."
Last year, I said that I loved the sea.
On the second example, you have a choice of whether to use love or loved depending on the meaning; however, as the first one is a direct quotation, you must use the words spoken.
Once you have worked out what is a quotation and what is reported speech, you then have the question of whether to place punctuation inside or outside the quotation marks. In fact, this follows very logical rules, which are explained here.
There is lesson on quotation marks here. It includes a short section on reported speech.