Other Uses for Quotation Marks

Both single and double quotation marks are sometimes used to set off words and phrases used ironically or as slang, or to draw attention to the use of a term or word as word. However, current practice is to reserve the use of single quotation marks exclusively to indicate a quotation within a quotation.

Most writing handbooks advise against the practice of using double quotation marks to emphasize individual words or phrases. Italic font is more commonly used for this effect.

Canadian fighters were asked to divert back into Serbian airspace as air-to-air fighters to investigate "pop-up" enemy air activity.

[Double quotation marks or italic font are acceptable means of drawing attention to a term or phrase. Be
sure to use only one method consistently throughout a paper.]

The term ‘peacekeeping' gained currency after the Suez Crisis with the
landmark deployment of a UN Emergency Force to the Sinai in 1956.

[Italic font or double quotation marks should be used to emphasize a word or term.]

Having defined its task as peacekeeping and not peacemaking, the UN
 discovered that its role in Yugoslavia was seriously undermined.

See the Quotations and Documentation section for further illustration of conventions and formats used when quoting.