Straight Quote Typing
The habit of typing vertical quote characters where typographic curly quotes belong.
The straight marks on a keyboard are typewriter compromises: one glyph serving as opening quote, closing quote, apostrophe, and in technical contexts as a string delimiter. Proper typography uses distinct opening and closing forms.
Automatic conversion is now standard in word processors and content systems, which is where the real problem starts: the same conversion mangles code, measurements, and search strings, turning valid quoted commands into broken text.
The working rule is contextual. In running prose, use typographic quotes; in code blocks, filenames, and anything meant to be copied and executed, keep straight marks and disable smart substitution.
Common mistake: pasting curled quotes into a terminal or config file. The characters look correct on screen and produce a syntax error, which is among the hardest typographic bugs for a non-technical author to spot.
“'code' versus ‘prose’”
Keep reading the glossary
Curly typographic quote marks ('smart') versus the vertical marks of typewriters and code ('straight').
The curled apostrophe (’) used in typeset text, as opposed to the straight foot-mark (').
The straight vertical marks (′ and ″) that denote feet, inches, minutes, and seconds — often confused with quotation marks.
The punctuation that signals direct speech or a quoted phrase — single or double, depending on locale.