Quote:
Originally Posted by boxcorner
Quite, also somewhere along the line, I've gathered the impression that double quotation marks are incorrect, unless they're being used to quote something someone has written, or said. Consequently, in a situation like this I would feel more inclined to use 'absorb', absorb or absorb, instead of "absorb". Not sure which is correct though. Perhaps you, or others, could educate me.
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According to Wiki (whose grammar articles are generally pretty good):
Quote:
Quotation marks are also used to indicate that the writer realizes that a word is not being used in its current commonly accepted sense.
Crystals somehow "know" which shape to grow into.
In addition to conveying a neutral attitude and to call attention to a neologism, or slang, or special terminology (also known as jargon), quoting can also indicate words or phrases that are descriptive but unusual, colloquial, folksy, startling, humorous, metaphoric, or contain a pun:
Dawkins's concept of a meme could be described as an "evolving idea".
People also use quotation marks in this way to:
* distance the writer from the terminology in question so as not to be associated with it. For example, to indicate that a quoted word is not official terminology, or that a quoted phrase presupposes things that the author does not necessarily agree with.
* indicate special terminology that should be identified for accuracy's sake as someone else's terminology, for example if a term (particularly a controversial term) pre-dates the writer or represents the views of someone else, perhaps without judgement (contrast this neutrally-distancing quoting to the negative use of scare quotes)
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), 15th edition[4] acknowledges this type of use but cautions against overuse in section 7.58, "Quotation marks are often used to alert readers that a term is used in a nonstandard, ironic, or other special sense […] They imply 'This is not my term,' or 'This is not how the term is usually applied.' Like any such device, scare quotes lose their force and irritate readers if overused."
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So I think I was OK to use "right" and "wrong" here
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