Who Said What? Introducing and Contextualizing Quotations

The next section will tackle how you can properly quote a quote. Have you ever wondered how to put a quote in your essay? Remember that using proper quotation format not only adds polish and smoothness to your paper, it also guards against potential plagiarism.

A sentence should not commence with the conjunctions and, for, or however…. Before you get started constructing a sentence, consider what your essential point is. … The following general steps address how to properly integrate a quotation into an essay. Changing verb tense or pronouns in order to be consistent with the rest of the sentence. For example, if you take material from the end of a sentence, keep the period in as usual. Twenty times, in the course of my late reading, have I been on the point of breaking out, ‘this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!!!!

Shared Language

In the first example, the author placed the exclamation point outside the quotation mark because she added it herself to emphasize the outrageous nature of the parking price change. The original note had not included an exclamation mark. In the second example, the exclamation mark remains within the quotation mark because it is indicating the excited tone in which the coach yelled introducing a quote examples the command. Thus, the exclamation mark is considered to be part of the original quotation. Place all other punctuation marks outside the quotation marks, except when they were part of the original quotation. You don’t want to just drop a quote in your paragraph and keep writing. This doesn’t help you support your arguments, as you haven’t linked the quote back to your own ideas.

Fortunately, the MLA has offered clear guidelines for doing so. Consult the MLA Handbook to learn more about quoting in MLA. Choose quotes that are related to the topic or theme of your essay. Before you begin incorporating a quote in your essay, I ought to teach you writing an in-text citation first. When using quotations in a paper, the quotation should become part of your sentence. Here are some tips that might help you produce this seamless effect.

How to Quote a Source

The question mark is not part of the quoted material, so it should be placed outside the closing quotation mark. Try to use the words/signal phrases I enumerated in the guide. I hope you will get an A+ in your next academic paper. You can use a quote to emphasize or support your arguments. Moreover, quotes are added to provide additional insights to the topic of the paper. It is up to you how you are going to incorporate a quote into your essay. Paraphrasing is the act of putting information from another source in your own words.

• You don’t need to separate them with a comma, and you don’t need to put “p.” or “page” before the page number.
• When you formally introduce a quote, such as with a complete sentence, precede it with a colon .
• Godfried remarks, “Ignorance is a skill learned by many of the greatest fools” (author’s last name p.##).

Use double quotation marks (“”) around a direct quote. A direct quote informational essay definition is a word- for-word report of what someone else said or wrote.

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And remember that a semicolon (;) never is used to introduce quotations. Remembering just a few simple rules can help you use the correct punctuation as you introduce quotations. There are some exceptions to the rules below, but they should help you use the correct punctuation with quotations most of the time. Semicolons and colons go outside of the final quotation mark («like this»;). Make the quotation a part of your own sentence without any punctuation between your own words and the words you are quoting. Godfried remarks, “Ignorance is a skill learned by many of the greatest fools” (author’s last name p.##).

However, it is appropriate to use quotations in your writing, especially in research writing. Even in research writing, quotations should be used to support your ideas! Let’s review some guidelines for using quotations in your writing. If you quote words that are in quotation marks in the original, such as character dialogue in a novel, then use double quote marks enclosing single quote marks.

ICE: Introduce, Cite, and Explain Your Evidence

This scenario is probably most common in literature and linguistics courses, but you might also find yourself writing about the use of language in history and social science classes. If the use of language is your primary topic, then you will obviously need to quote users of that language.

• Smith suggests that “if the introduction to your quote isn’t a dependent clause, it doesn’t need to be followed by a comma” .
• Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in public company—I mean hell.
• Additionally, choose quotes that will substantiate the content of your paper.

Quotation marks are primarily used to indicate material that is being reproduced word for word, as well as some other important uses. In the example above, the writer is referring to a research article, so when he introduces the quotation, he uses present tense . There are two rules about verb tense when introducing quotations.

Words that introduce Quotes or Paraphrases

Although you don’t need to use quotes around a paraphrase, you do need to cite it. Notice as well the punctuation of the sentences above in relation to the quotations. If there are no parenthetical citations in the sentences (no author’s name and page number in parentheses), the commas and periods go inside the final quotation mark («like this.»).

Use ellipsis points (. . .) to indicate an omission within a quotation–but not at the beginning or end unless it’s not obvious that you’re quoting only a portion of the whole. These materials will help you avoid plagiarism by teaching you how to properly integrate information from published sources into your own writing. In the example above, the writer refers to something that was said at a well-known past event, so the quotation is introduced with the past tense . You should find the right quote that fits your purpose and use it within the framework of your own words. Smith suggests that “if the introduction to your quote isn’t a dependent clause, it doesn’t need to be followed by a comma” . Similarly, if a quotation referenced an event with which the reader might be unfamiliar, you could identify that event in brackets.

How do you in text cite a quote in an essay?

By introducing a quotation or paraphrase with a signal phrase, you provide an effective transition between your own ideas and the evidence used to explore your ideas. Use an ellipsis to omit a word or words from a direct quote. Sometimes you want to shorten a quote to help your reader better understand why it supports your argument.

Additionally, introducing the quote with a signal phrase helps you smoothly incorporate the quotation (“Quotations” 75). When you quote, you include the words and ideas of others in your text exactly as they have expressed them. You signal this inclusion by placing quotation marks (“ ”) around the source author’s words and providing an in-text citation after the quotation. One of the best ways to let readers know more about your source is to use a signal phrase. Signal phrases help readers “move from your own words to the words of a source without feeling a jolt” .

Scare quotes

Do NOT capitalize if the information following the colon is not a complete sentence. A punctuation mark that is used to indicate a full stop. Colons can introduce lists, quotes, examples, and explanations.

Field-specific common knowledge is “common” only within a particular field or specialty. It may include facts, theories, or methods that are familiar to readers within that discipline. When using the word “that” to add an introductory clause to a quotation, you will usually begin with a citation or reference to the authors, include the word “that,” and then include the quotation. The second way to avoid using too many quotations in your writing is to paraphrase. Paraphrasing is explaining someone’s ideas in your own words and style. Paraphrasing allows you to share the ideas you find in your research, but without quoting. If the quotation ends in a punctuation mark such as a period or a comma, drop that final punctuation mark (keep it only if it’s an exclamation mark or a question mark).