75 PRS Proofreading and Editing Service PhD Experts • All Academic Areas • Fast Turnaround • High Quality phrases and longer examples of the forms I’m discussing are enclosed in single quotation marks (‘emphasis’), but direct quotations from other sources are enclosed in double quotation marks (“quotation”). Emphasis on terms and phrases can also be achieved through the use of italic font, and some journal guidelines express preferences in this regard, but italics should not be used as an indication of quotation: that is, every quoted word need not be in italics. Italics should only be used in quotations for two specific reasons: for one, they are used if italic font is already on certain words in the quotation (for emphasis perhaps, or on foreign vocabulary), in which case including them on the same words is simply quoting accurately. Sometimes, especially in informal publications (theses and dissertations, for example), underlining (or underscoring) will appear instead of italics: since this is simply a form of emphasis used when the italic font is not available, underlining can be represented in quotation by either underlining or italics. Italics can also be used in quotations if you wish to add your own emphasis to some of the quoted words, but if you choose to do this, you need to acknowledge the italics as your own: Smith explains that his ‘results did not reveal the trend of rapid deterioration noted in previous studies’ (2010, p. 222; italics my own). Punctuation practices with regard to quotations differ among styles and guidelines, with some systems, for instance, placing the full stop or comma associated with your own sentence within the closing quotation mark (‘…noted in previous studies.’) and others placing it outside (‘…noted in previous studies’.). In this Guide I’ve set full stops and commas inside quotation marks. If a parenthetical reference follows a quotation, the closing punctuation should always come after the reference. Colons, semi-colons, question marks and exclamations PARt II: PRePARIng, PResentIng And PolIsHIng YoUR woRk