A few years ago while copy editing an article, I was shocked to see something like this: “I lecture my sales staff about what I call ‘me syndrome,’” Jones said. What shocked me was the punctuation.

I don’t remember when I first learned about single quotation marks, but I have a vague memory of assuming they were as useful as quotation marks, or close to it. Sometimes you quote someone. Sometimes ...

Most often, quotation marks are used to show someone’s exact words. Sometimes, they also signal sarcasm or irony. In most cases, there is nothing especially unusual about this little punctuation mark.