Proofreading Tips: What to Do With Scare Quotes

As a proofreader, what scares you the most? If scare quotes are the spookiest things you can think of, don’t worry. It might be Halloween, but there’s no reason to fear them! As long as you know what they are and when it’s appropriate to use them, you’ll know exactly what to do when they come your way. No reason to scream – unless they’re overused, of course.

What Are Scare Quotes?

“Scare quotes” is what we call quotation marks when writers use them to:

• Distance themselves from certain words (e.g., to show they’re used ironically).
• Show that a term is slang or non-standard.
• Introduce borrowed or novel terminology.

Importantly, they are not actually used for quotations! Broadly, then, scare quotes can include any quotation marks that don’t indicate a quotation. But we’ll look a bit more closely at their most common uses in the following, starting with indicating irony.

Scare Quotes for Irony

Possibly the most common reason authors use scare quotes is to show they are using a word ironically or that they otherwise want to distance themselves from the usage. For instance:

The “fresh” fish had a suspicious smell.

When used like this, they are also known as “shudder quotes” and “sneer quotes.”

You can think of these scare quotes as like saying “so-called” before the quoted word. You can even try substituting the quotes with “so-called” to check if scare quotes are used correctly:

We had a “fun” day queuing in the rain. ✔

We had a so-called fun day queuing in the rain. ✔

The “expert” gave amazing proofreading advice. ✘

The so-called expert gave amazing proofreading advice. ✘

Here, the first writer chose to use scare quotes because queuing in the rain is not fun! But the second example is confusing because the quotes make it unclear whether the expert is actually an expert (and by extension whether or not they gave amazing advice).

If you spot quote marks being used incorrectly or unnecessarily in this type of situation, you can make a correction and leave a comment to explain the change.

Introducing Borrowed or Novel Terminology

Another common use of scare quotes is to introduce new terminology. This might be a term borrowed from elsewhere (e.g., a technical term associated with a particular thinker or school or thought). Or it could be a completely new term invented by the author.

For example, were we to invent the term “quotastic” to refer to a fantastic use of quotation marks in a piece of writing, we might introduce it as follows:

The superb use of quotation marks can be deemed “quotastic.”

Adding the quotation marks here acknowledges that the term will seem unusual or unfamiliar to most readers. But once a term has been introduced like this, there is no need to use quotation marks every time. Doing so would make it seem like it was being used ironically, such as with the examples above. If you see an unfamiliar or novel term consistently presented in quotation marks, you may need to make a change or advise the author to limit the usage to where the term is introduced.

What to Do With Scare Quotes as a Proofreader

As well as addressing the issues above, when proofreading, you should also:

• Remove any redundancies (e.g., if the writer has used both “so-called” and scare quotes, or cutting unnecessary quotation marks after a term has been introduced).
• Suggest edits where these quotes could be confused for a direct quotation.
• Edit any instances where these quotes have been used for emphasis (e.g., “Delicious” pastries sold here), since this is always incorrect.

And if your client is using a style guide, make sure to check their take on scare quotes.

Don’t Be Scared to Become a Proofreader

If you want to learn more about proofreading, including other punctuation errors to look out for, take our Becoming A Proofreader course. Sign up for a free trial today and find out more.