WRC

Riverside Community College Name: ______________________________________ Writing and Reading Center Date: ______________________________________ Direct Learning Activity PM.7

Writing Conventions: Quotation Marks

Purpose: Upon completion of this activity, students will

understand how to use quotation marks and be able to

make corrections in errors of use.

This DLA should take approximately 30 to 45 minutes to complete.

Before you begin: To complete this DLA, you will need to view a video. If you need headphones,

you may check them out at the WRC’s reception desk using your student ID card.

Directions: Click on this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS0-8lQH_5Q to view a video

entitled “Quotation Marks” by Easy English Grammar. Then below, list the four rules for using quotation

marks and punctuating within and around quotation marks:

Rule #1:

Rule #2:

Rule #3:

Rule #4:

Once you have listed the rules, look below where you will find a passage that is in need of editing to

correct the use of quotation marks and punctuation used with quotation marks. The passage comes

from Developmental Exercises to Accompany A Writer’s Reference 6th edition.

Louis Braille entered the National Institute for Blind Youths in Paris when he was ten. At

twelve, he was already experimenting with a system or raised letters known as “night-writing”,

which was used by the military. Institute teachers decided that night-writing was impractical,

EQ: How are quotation marks used and how should quotations be

punctuated?

Riverside Community College Name: ______________________________________ Writing and Reading Center Date: ______________________________________ Direct Learning Activity PM.7

but Louis became proficient at it. When Charles Barbier, inventor of the system, visited the

institute, Louis told him “Your symbols are too large and too complicated. Impressed, Barbier

encouraged him and said that “since Louis was blind himself, he might discover the magic key

that had eluded his teachers.”

Louis Braille wanted a system that would work for everything from a textbook on

science to a poem like Heinrich Heine’s Loreley. At fifteen, he had worked out his own system

of six dots arranged in various patterns. “Read to me,” he said to one of his teachers, and I will

take down your words.” As the teacher read, Louis punched his paper and then read the

passage back without error. The teacher exclaimed, “Remarkable”! Government officials, not

impressed enough to take any action, said simply that Braille should be encouraged. “You didn’t

say “encouraged,” did you?” asked Braille. He wanted official acceptance, not simply

encouragement. “The system has proved itself,” said Louis. We have been using it for five years

now.”

For most people, the word Braille itself now means simply a system of reading and

writing used by blind people; for blind people, it means freedom and independence. Braille

himself died before his system was recognized by the institute. The plaque on the house of his

birth, however, records the world’s recognition of his work with these words: He opened the

doors of knowledge to all those who cannot see.

When you are all done, review your answers with an instructor or tutor in the WRC. Be sure you

can answer the EQ (essential question) above. Have that person sign and date this sheet.

Instructor Signature: ______________________________ Date: ____________________

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