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What is the best way to search for open quotes without a closing quote in between?

Anonymous
2022-10-24T02:53:54+00:00

I want to find every instance where I have an open quote (could be at the start of a paragraph or in the middle of a paragraph) followed by the next paragraph also starting with an open quote, but only when there is not a closing quote between them. In short, I want to find all my unclosed quotes in my dialog (same speaker, multiple paragraphs).

I think it should be the same results if I could also find two open quotes (double quotes, not single quotes) without a closing quote between them.

I think I can do this with wildcards, but I'm a novice with wildcards and have been struggling to find the right combination.

Any suggestions how to perform this search in Word?

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  1. Jay Freedman 207.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-10-25T12:02:50+00:00

    The middle of the search expression is

    [!”^13]@

    Inside the brackets, the exclamation mark ! means "not". So the grouping in the brackets will match any character that is not a closing quote or a paragraph mark. The @ at the end means "any sequence of characters that match the preceding expression".

    So the whole search expression matches everything between an opening quote and the next paragraph mark, except a closing quote. In your example, the closing quote in the middle of the paragraph causes the expression to stop matching.

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  1. Jay Freedman 207.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-10-24T14:30:38+00:00

    I agree with Charles and Suzanne, but I can understand that you may just want to locate these passages.

    Assuming you have used curly quotes (what Word calls "smart quotes") in your document, the following wildcard expression will find each paragraph that starts with an opening quote and doesn't end with a closing quote:

    “[!”^13]@^13

    The first quote here is an opening quote (ASCII 147) and the second one is a closing quote (ASCII 148). If you want to select all such paragraphs at once, instead of clicking the Find Next button, click the Find In button and choose Main Document in the menu. (This will not select the last paragraph of each sequence.)

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-10-25T01:51:34+00:00

    I'm sure you realize that's not an answer to my question. I respect you because I've seen many useful and helpful posts from you (including to other questions I've posted). From what I know of wildcards, this is possible, so your answer is frustrating.

    I am familiar with the proper grammar and punctuation rules. I would still like to search for cases where I've done this.

    If you're truly curious why, and not just being snarky, then, I apologize for my reaction here. To answer your question: In fiction writing, while technically correct to punctuate like this, it's generally considered poor writing to do this very often. Instead, it's better to include a dialog tag or brief action, like "She paused, glared at him, then continued." Those are usually better for breaking up a multi-paragraph quotation. It's like using adverbs -- technically correct, but if used more than rarely, they become a sign of weak writing. I want to search through my text to find every place I've done this to consider if I want to update the quote or leave it as-is.

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  2. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2022-10-24T11:38:04+00:00

    I concur with what Charles said. As a copy editor, I see that many writers are unaware of this quoting convention. Continued dialog gets an opening quote for each paragraph, a closing quote only at the end of the entire speech.

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  3. Charles Kenyon 167.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-10-24T03:15:16+00:00

    I am unsure why you need this. No closing quotation mark at the end of a paragraph within a quoted passage, with an opening mark at the beginning of the next paragraph is standard marking.

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