QUASI-QUOTEMARKS

from Fancyclopedia 2

(Speer) It frequently is impossible or inconvenient to quote a speaker's exact words, and not vital to do so. In such a case, you may merely give the substance of what he said; and in place of quotation marks, use quote-marks with a hyphen under each, "like this", instead of qualifying the quotation with a clumsy phrase like "or words to that effect". Such quasi-quotes indicate that you will be answerable for the substantial meaning and implications of the quotation but do not have the exact wording available or have altered the original construction and wording to fit conveniently into your sentence structure. Example: "But, 'Every intensely active fan I know is some kind of disgusting character' says Miske." "He said he " had just been too busy"." (In the first example Miske's actual wording was, "I know of no fan who ranks as 'intensely active' who is not some sort of disgusting character." In the second, original "have" is changed to "had".) Your K. Breul has been unable to trace the rumored connection between Speer's introduction of the " in fandom and Fletcher Pratt's use of the European quotemark, the three-em dash, for the same purpose in his historical works.