Use quotation marks around titles of short works: essays, short stories, newspaper and magazine articles, songs, poems, chapter titles, and TV show episodes.

Surround direct quotations with double quotation marks. A change of speaker is usually indicated with a new paragraph. For more, see Quotations.

You don’t necessarily have to change paragraphs each time the speaker switches. If you decide to cover a conversation in one paragraph, be sure to identify who’s speaking so your readers don’t get confused.

Do not use quotation marks unless you are quoting direct speech.

Similarly, do not use quotation marks if you are explaining what someone said without actually quoting her.

You can surround thoughts with quotation marks or not, according to your preference.

You can use quotation marks to indicate a translation of a non-English word.

If you want to mention someone’s nickname within his or her name, put the nickname in quotes.

Quotation marks can be used to suggest that you’re using a word ironically or in an unusual way. When used this way, quotation marks are called scare quotes. Try to use scare quotes as little as possible. They almost always make you sound condescending and snotty.

There is no need to enclose familiar slang words or expressions in quotation marks.

If you think your readers will be completely baffled by a particular slang word or expression, you might want to enclose it in quotation marks.