Fascinating perspectives, including comments on 2010.07.26, on the use or omission of quotation marks for a variety of pragmatic purposes and stylistic effects.
In this post, the author (Andrew Sullivan?) quotes Clive Thompson (Globe and Mail, 2013.09.13) suggesting "academic studies have found that whenever students write for other actual, live people, they throw their back into the work - producing stuff with better organization and content, and nearly 40 per cent longer than when they write for just their instructor."