Quotation marks examplesMaya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
My favorite poem is “From Blossoms” by Li-Young Lee.
This “free” cruise we won will cost an arm and a leg once we pay all the taxes and fees.
Many people roll their eyes at business jargon like “bandwidth” and “deliverable.”
Quotation marks always come in pairs. If there is an opening quotation mark, there must be a closing one. Quotation marks can be either curved/curly (sometimes called “smart”) or straight. If they are curved, opening and closing quotation marks curve in different directions.
QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker can help you ensure you’re using quotation marks correctly.
Y’all is a contraction of the phrase “you all” and is used frequently as a second-person plural pronoun (i.e., in place of “you”) in Southern American English and some other English variants. It is common in speech and casual writing but not in formal or academic writing.
Y’all in a sentence examplesCome on, y’all! We’re going to be late!
Where are y’all going to dinner? I might join you.
Y’all are the best! I can’t thank you enough.
Did Monica tell any of y’all where she wants this stuff delivered?
Happy Thanksgiving messages provide an opportunity to show gratitude for relationships of all kinds. You can send Thanksgiving greetings to family, friends, or colleagues via text or email or in a handwritten note.
QuillBot’s Paraphrasing Tool can help you find the right words for all of your Thanksgiving greetings.
Happy Thanksgiving message examplesHappy Thanksgiving, Leila! One of the things I am most grateful for this year is your friendship. I hope your day is full of delicious food and time with loved ones.
Happy Turkey Day! I have so enjoyed getting to know all of you through book club this year. May your tables be full and your pants be stretchy!
Chicago style (also sometimes known as Turabian style) is used by students and researchers in a wide variety of disciplines. The primary resource for applying Chicago style is A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (9th edition).
There are two citation formats to choose from in Chicago style:
Notes and bibliography style (used primarily in the humanities)
Author-date (used primarily in the sciences)
The general guidelines for both of these styles are explained below. QuillBot’s free Chicago Citation Generator will automatically apply these guidelines to create citations for a variety of source types.
Additionally, our Plagiarism Checker can help you avoid accidental plagiarism by identifying material that has not been correctly cited.
MLA style is commonly used by students and academics in the humanities. In this citation guide, we give a broad overview of the guidelines from the 9th edition (the most recent) of the MLA Handbook.
MLA citations have two parts:
In-text citation: Every quotation or paraphrase of another source is accompanied by a parenthetical citation including the author’s last name and the page number.
Works Cited entry: At the end of the paper, you include a Works Cited page, which gives a full reference for each source cited, listed alphabetically by the author’s last name.
APA Style is quite commonly used in the field of social and behavioral sciences. In this citation guide, we give a broad overview of the guidelines from the 7th edition (2020) of the APA Publication Manual.
An en dash (–) is used to indicate number ranges (e.g., 2022–2024), to show a connection or relationship (e.g., “the Boston–New York train”), and to connect certain compound adjectives (e.g., “a World War II–era building”).
The en dash is longer than a hyphen (-) but shorter than an em dash (—). It is so named because, historically, it was about the same length as a typeset N.
En dash examplesFor homework, read pages 195–230.
The Wildcats beat the Huskies 32–17 to win the championship.
The urban–rural political divide has grown in recent years.
Demure is an adjective that means “modest,” “shy,” or “reserved.” It is most commonly applied to women and girls or their clothing, though it can be used to describe people of any gender.
Demure in a sentence examplesThe CEO’s demure demeanor belied her shrewd negotiation skills.
She wore a demure dress to the gala, choosing understated elegance over flashy trends.
In response to the interviewer’s question, the actor gave a demure smile and changed the subject.
