Quotation Marks When Witness Believes the Quote Is Accurate
The Quotation Mark
Rulebase Summary
When a witness testifies to his or her own words or those of someone else in the form of a direct quote and believes those words to be accurate, use quotation marks — even if the speaker does not render the quote perfectly. On rare occasions when it is difficult to tell where the quote begins or ends, do not use quotation marks; let the record speak for itself.
Examples
A. He shouted watch out watch out the train's coming.
A. He shouted, 'Watch out. Watch out. The train's coming.'
Witness believes these were the speaker's direct words — use quotes.
A. She said, 'You'll want the certificates. Believe me.'
A. She said, You'll want the certificates. Believe me.
When unclear where the quote begins or ends, omit the quotation marks.
Transcript Notes
If you can tell where the quotation begins, introduce the remark with a comma, capitalize the first letter of the first word, separate the disclaimer from the rest of the sentence, and end the sentence with a period. The witness is testifying under oath — even an imperfectly remembered quote should be marked as a direct quote when the witness frames it that way.
Style Guide References (1)
Morson's