Scare quotes

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Scare quotes are "quotes" put around a "proposition" because it is "unreliable". They are the written equivalent of air quotes.

Legitimate quotation marks are used when you wish to quote, or state without endorsing, the words of another:

According to Deepak Chopra, "Quantum healing is healing the bodymind from a quantum level."

This is classic quantum woo and a legitimate use of quotation marks.

Scare quotes, by contrast, accurately represent a correct statement in such a way as to imply it is held only by the one or a few people, for example:

The "negative result" for homeopathy caused a massive furoré

when describing a study that produced highly credible, respected, widely reported, rigorous and unambiguously negative result for homeopathy.

In general, scare-quotes are among the cheapest of cheap rhetorical tactics, and used in excess they tend to detract from a text's credibility by suggesting that the writer is unable to resort to more substantial maneuvers.

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