Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames Fan, Ph.D.
Nope.
Unfortunately, I'm just burdened by the English language and admittedly have trouble when people are using their own rules.
But the absolutes in your post came through crystal clear.
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To be fair, in North America double quotes (") are used to signify verbatim text and single quotes (') do not imply verbatim but can used to signify a summary or when a word is used out of it's usual context. In verbal conversation, the use of 'air-quotes' frequently correlates to a single quote in text.
My understanding is that in England single quotes are used to designate a verbatim phrase.
From
wikipedia:
"To avoid the potential for confusion between ironic quotes and direct quotations, some style guides specify single quotation marks for this usage, and double quotation marks for verbatim speech. Quotes indicating irony, or other special use, are sometimes called scare, sneer, shock, distance, or horror quotes. They are sometimes gestured in oral speech using air quotes."