: "Quote" within a quote MLA So I have a quote that has double quotation marks inside it. Would I leave those in? Or replace them with single quotes? In Carolyn Gregoire’s article “What

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Ditto Lauren Ipsum. Let me just add that my copy of MLA, Fourth Edition, 1995, says on page 91, section 2.7.7, "Use double quotation marks around quotations incorporated into the text, single quotation marks around quotations within those quotations. ... Except for changing internal double quotation marks to single ones when you incorporate quotations into your text, you should reproduce internal punctuation exactly as in the original."

That is, MLA agrees with Lauren Ipsum. (They probably copied from her.)

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Why would MLA violate standard typesetting rules? In American English, quoted material nested inside double quotes uses single quotes. (In British English it's the reverse: single quotes on the outside, double on the inside.)

In Carolyn Gregoire’s article “What Your 'Life Story' Really Says About You,” she points out that “studies have found that 'realistic optimists'...may be happier and more successful that strict optimists or pessimists.”

In both cases (please note the nested single quotes in the article name), the single quotes are understood to be material which was in double quotes in the original.

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