Guidelines for Direct Quotations, Commentary, and Ellipsis Usage

Direct quotes must strictly be kept under $6$ words in length.
Quotations should be embedded within whole sentences rather than copying and pasting entire sentences or multi-sentence blocks from source material.
A common error made by college freshmen assigned to complete length-based writing (such as a $3$ page paper) is inserting extensive direct quotes—spanning up to $7$ lines long—to fill space while minimizing original analysis.
Commentary constitutes exactly $30\%$ of the total grade on an assignment.
Written commentary must be equal to or longer in length than the direct quotes provided.
Longer direct quotes directly increase the required amount of commentary, as every included quote demands a proportional volume of critical analysis.
Restricting direct quotes to only the most vital information ensures that commentary properly reflects personal critical analysis rather than merely regurgitating source material.

Non-essential content in a source quote that does not contribute to the writer's central point must be omitted.
Analysis of non-essential content using an original excerpt example:
- Full original text: "she notes that she flew down every aisle checking curiously for signs of cheese. I stopped to take a sweep of my water. Then I found the holy grail of dairy, aisles and aisles of cheddar."
- Primary analytical objective: Capturing the subject's frantic search for cheese in the grocery store.
- Irrelevant detail: The mention of stopping to take a sip or sweep of water has no bearing on the argument regarding cheese and should be removed.
An ellipsis—defined specifically as $3$ consecutive dots or periods (...)—must be inserted into a quote to mark the exact location where text was removed.
Proper application of an ellipsis to the sample text: "she notes that she flew down every aisle, checking curiously for signs of cheese, … then she found the holy grail of dairy, Allison, Allison, Sharon".

While removing unnecessary words using an ellipsis is permitted, careless or unintentional omissions risk fundamentally altering the meaning of the original text.
Demonstration of context distortion:
- Original statement from source: "miss Albano said, I hate people who don't like cheese."
- Distorted text following improper omission: "I hate cheese."
Comparative analysis of meaning: Declaring hatred for people who dislike cheese carries a completely distinct meaning from declaring a personal hatred for cheese itself.
Rule for text omission: Whatever text remains after using an ellipsis must strictly preserve the identical meaning, tone, and intent of the original source article.