Cited Text Format: Correct Usage of Text from a Book

Cited Text Format: Correct Usage of Text from a Book

Below are ten text passages from Of Mice and Men. They are reproduced here in their original format, exactly as they appear in the book.

To cite these texts correctly -- to use them either as a CD in an essay or as support to an answer to a study question -- you need to know when to add or modify quotation marks.

For cited text, the closing quotation mark is always followed by a pair of parentheses, ( ), within which appear the number(s) of the page(s) from which the text was copied.

How to use quotation marks, “ ” , when copying text from a book:

• If the passage is all narration (lacks dialogue) there should be no existing quotation marks, so add quotation marks to the beginning and end of the passage.
• If the passage is all dialogue (lacksnarration) and already begins and ends with quotation marks add nothing. However, if an opening or closing quotation mark is missing, add it in so that the whole passage is enclosed in quotation marks.
• Mixed quotations, passages with both dialogue and narration, may use both regular quotation marks, “ ” , and single quotation marks, ‘ ’ . With mixed quotations, first surround the whole passage in one extra set of regular quotation marks. Then, for the text enclosed between these extra “external” quotation marks, change all pre-existing double quotation marks to single ones.

Model:

As in the original:

“I . . . I,” Lennie thought. His face grew tight with thought. “I . . . ain’t gonna say nothin’.

When being cited:

“ ‘I . . . I,’ Lennie thought. His face grew tight with thought. ‘I . . . ain’t gonna say nothin’ ’ ” (8).

Directions:

Take the following passages and revise them from their original format into cited text format. [In order, the correct pages for each text are: 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31, 33, 35.]

1. The boss turned on George. “Then why don’t you let him answer? What you trying to put over?”

1. He stopped suddenly, stepped to the open front door and peered out. “Say what the hell you doin’ listenin’?”

1. At that moment a young man came into the bunkhouse; a thin young man with a brown face, with brown eyes, and a head of tightly curled hair.

1. The swamper considered. . . . “Well . . . tell you what. Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He’s alla time picking scraps with big guys.

1. “Well, I think Curley’s married . . . a tart.”

1. “Look, Lennie. You try to keep away from him, will you?

1. She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages.

1. There was a gravity in his manner and a quiet so profound that all talk stopped when he spoke. His authority was so great that his word was taken on any subject, be it politics or love.

1. Why’n’t you get Candy to shoot his old dog and give him one of the pups to raise up?

Hallowitz 2009