not believe that, etc._

Sometimes marks of punctuation belong inside quotation marks and
sometimes outside, as: "_Did you hear him say, 'I am here'?_" But in
this case: "_I heard him say, 'Are you here?'_" Continental usage
permits this form: "_Are you shot!?_" but it is not in good use on this
side.

Use no quotation marks with slang of your own writing.

Use no quotes in writing testimony with question and answer. This is the
style:

Q.--What is your name?
A.--John Jones.

Observe the style on quotes within quotes: _The witness said: "I asked
him, 'Where is my copy of "Paradise Lost"?'"_

OBSERVATION

Writes Arnold Bennett: One is curious about one's fellow-creatures:
therefore one watches them. And generally the more intelligent one is,
the more curious one is, and the more one observes. The mere
satisfaction of this curiosity is in itself a worthy end, and would
alone justify the business of systemized observation. But the aim of
observation may, and should, be expressed in terms more grandiose. Human
curiosity counts among the highest social virtues (as indifference
counts among the basest defects), because it leads to a disclosure of
the causes of character and temperament and thereby to a better
understanding of the springs of human conduct. Observation is not
practiced directly with this high end in view (save by prigs and other
futile souls); nevertheless it is a moral act and must inevitably
promote kindliness--whether we like it or not. It also sharpens the
sense of beauty. An ugly deed--such as a deed of cruelty--takes on
artistic beauty when its origin and hence its fitness in the general
scheme begin to be comprehended. In the perspective of history we can
derive esthetic pleasure from the tranquil scrutiny of all kinds of
conduct--as well, for example, of a Renaissance Pope as of a Savonarola.
Observation endows our day and our street with the romantic charm of
history, and stimulates charity--not the charity which signs cheques,
but the more precious charity which puts itself to the trouble of
understanding. The condition is that the observer must never lose sight
of the fact that what he is to see is life, is the woman next door, is
the man in the train--and not a concourse of abstractions. To appreciate
all this is the first inspiring preliminary to sound observation.

NOUNS

Watch for nouns ending in _-ics_. Many of them are singular, such as
_politics_, _mathematics_,