Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:   
      
   [quoting a message from several years ago]   
     AH>  I can't imagine how anyone could gather all rules   
     AH>  from all schools without consulting Fowler's   
     AH>  MODERN ENGLISH USAGE or the BBC NEWS.   
      
      
             Would I say a thing like that?  Yes, I would.  :-))   
      
             Anne Stilman offers very little information WRT the use of quotation   
   marks in British English.  But I think both she & Geraldine Woods are probably   
   writing for North Americans who want short, snappy answers like "foreigners do   
   it backwards" so they can get on with the next topic.  For those who are ready   
   to learn more I suggest MODERN ENGLISH USAGE or MODERN AMERICAN USAGE....  :-)   
      
                                       ...   
      
             Anyway, your concern here was about what to do when using italics is   
   definitely not an option.  I'll start with lengthy quotations because you need   
   to cite various people's writings in this echo from time to time.  In academic   
   circles it's customary to indent each line when quoting three lines or more...   
   and leave an equal number of extra spaces at the right margin.  I do that when   
   I'm quoting songs or poetry which I don't want messed up by a line wrap.  I've   
   seen indentation & italics used together in various recent (and not-so-recent)   
   non-fiction books, but the indentation will suffice if you don't have italics.   
      
             In novels where there's a lengthy dialogue between two people & it's   
   obvious who said what the attribution may be omitted.  But quotation marks are   
   used the same way they would be if the attribution was included.   
      
             The "he said -- she said" stuff sounds boring after awhile.  Another   
   alternative is to use synonyms for "said".  By way of example, I often pointed   
   out to my students how creative sports announcers & reporters can be when they   
   want to say something more engaging than "defeated".  Just don't count on such   
   people to get their verb tenses straight, in the heat of the moment... [grin].   
      
             In newspaper & magazine articles where the columns are narrow it may   
   be undesirable... but is usually also unecessary... to indent long quotations.   
   Although such works are classified as non-fiction, the quoted material is more   
   likely to be derived from (e.g.) interviews &/or speeches than from historical   
   documents or from Shakespeare's plays.  If it's interjected with narrative, as   
   it would be in a novel, it's treated in the same way.  And if the author wants   
   to quote a response which includes more than one paragraph it's treated in the   
   same way as well.  The quotation begins with a quotation mark.  All subsequent   
   paragraphs included within the same quotation begin with quotation marks.  The   
   last paragraph ends with a quotation mark so we know it's someone else's turn.   
      
                                       ...   
      
             That is probably about enough for now.  I'll continue later....  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)