Today’s topic is scare quotes – quotation marks used to call attention to an unusual way to use a word. Here’s an example:

While I was reading about Charles Dickens yesterday, I “stumbled” onto something interesting.

The person who wrote this didn’t really stumble, of course. They were sitting down and reading. To show that it wasn’t a real stumble, they used scare quotes: I “stumbled” onto something interesting.

 The pros don’t use scare quotes, and you shouldn’t either. It’s like wearing a t-shirt that says, “I’m an amateur!”

The sentence about Charles Dickens is stronger if you omit the quotation marks:

While I was reading about Charles Dickens yesterday, I stumbled onto something interesting.  BETTER

I’ve always told my students not to apologize if they use an unusual word – or if they use a word in an unusual way. The pros do it all the time, and so can you.

Stand by your word choices! If it’s the word you want, go ahead and use it. If it’s not the word you want, find a better word.

Take a look at this sentence: “Jenny and Tom were wrapped up in each other.”

I doubt that Jenny and Tom were Scotch-taped together in shiny Christmas paper! Anyone can figure out what the sentence means: Jenny and Tom were deeply involved with each other. No quotation marks are needed.

Next week I’ll have more to say about quotation marks.