Answer: Hello! I may be wrong, but think you may have forgotten to provide the literary terms that go after "following". Nonetheless, the quotation (or quotation mark) is an example of punctuation.
Explanation: You'd most commonly see this "(insert word)" around dialogue, citations, or even around words to imply emphasis or sarcasm somehow. Some examples are as follows:
I hope that this helps out! Have a good day! :)