Introduction to Using and Citing Quotations in Your Essays
(Adapted from a handout compiled by Dr. Jane Hill)
1. Every quotation must be correctly attached to your prose. You can do that in one of three ways:
A. Use introductory words to set the quotation up: In “Nobody’s Perfect,” Carol Schaal says, “The perfectionist’s life . . . is one way to drive yourself crazy” (46).
B. Make the quotation part of the grammar of your sentence: Perfectionists often limit themselves and are afraid to take risks. That hesitance is “The real kicker of perfectionism” (Schaal 46).
C. Use a colon to connect your quotation to a complete sentence that the quotation illustrates or explains: Most of my problems can be explained by my mother’s high expectations: “‘All I wanted,’ she said, ‘was perfect children’” (Schaal 46).
2. Each quotation must be represented accurately. Reproduce exactly what is in the original source in terms of punctuation, capitalization, etc. If you omit words within the quotation, use ellipsis (three spaced periods) to indicate that omission. (See example A above.) If a sentence ends and a new sentence begins within your ellipsis, you need four periods instead of three: one to end the sentence that ends (typed without a space), followed by the three spaced periods. Refer to section 62g in A Writer’s Resource for further information concerning the use of ellipsis.
3. Each quotation’s source must be correctly cited parenthetically after you close the quotation but before you put the end punctuation (or other appropriate punctuation, if the sentence does not end when the quotation does). See examples A, B, and C above. Notice that in example A, because the sentence itself reveals the source of the quotation, only a page number is necessary In examples B and C, because the sentence does not reveal the source, the parenthetic citation contains the author’s last name, followed by a space, and then the page number. For practical purposes, almost all of your sentences in these essays will make clear, either directly or from the context that surrounds them, which primary text you quotations are from. Thus, you will only very rarely be in a situation that requires you to include the author’s name in the parenthetic citation. In citing secondary sources, you are usually writing a better sentence if the sentence makes the source of the quotation clear rather than needing the author’s name in the citation to clarify the source.
4. Note that example C also provides a model for using a quotation that itself contains quotations. See section 61c in A Writer’s Resource for further details on representing quotations within quotations.
5. Quotations of less than four typed lines in length are simply run in with the text. Quotations of more than four typed lines in length need to be blocked. See section 61b in A Writer’s Resource for additional information about blocking quotes. Avoid using block quotes as filler for your essay. If you choose to use block quotes in your essay, make the paper longer to compensate for the quote length.