Quotes to indicate a made up word

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Abacus
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Quotes to indicate a made up word

Post by Abacus »

In a piece of writing, if one uses a made-up word that needs quotes, would you use quotes on each occurrence, or just the first time it is used?
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Louanne Piccolo
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Post by Louanne Piccolo »

Hi Abacus,
What I learnt at university and have been using ever since is that you should use double quotation marks to introduce a word or phrase which is invented ONLY the FIRST time. After that, treat it like any other word in your writing.
I write professionally and no editor has ever corrected me on that, so it obviously works!
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Abacus
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Post by Abacus »

Thank-you, that's great to know. A good place to come for answers.
Aditi Sapate
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Post by Aditi Sapate »

I've seen authors not use quotes even the first time and managed to pull it off. It's just a matter of how you weave it into your writing. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to put quotes.
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bespectacledpetal
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Post by bespectacledpetal »

I even see some authors put the word in italics as well
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Post by Nikolas Farmakis »

I think you should use quotes only the first time you use it, and then you do not have to, because it can be considered like any other word.
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