Quoting

Quoting

How to include exact wording from a source appropriately

Direct Quotes

• Direct quotes appear within your sentences and paragraphs, and are usually under 40 words.

• A quote means someone else said this – like dialogue. Putting something in quotation marks is like putting it in a speech bubble. Everything inside of the quotation marks is expected to be the same wording the other person used.

• If you find something you want to include word-for-word in your own writing, use a quote.

Introducing Quotes

• You always need to introduce quotes in your own words! Direct quotes cannot be left alone in their own sentence.

• To combine quote introduction and attribution, you can use a signal phrase:

  • Moran and Henderson say that they generally “include the source’s name and a signal verb; they ‘signal’ an upcoming reference” (251).

Examples

• Sabri insists that “you should always introduce a direct quote in your own words” (6).

• Within western, academic settings, “plagiarism is considered a punishable offense and should be taken seriously” (Sabri 6).

Common Mistakes

1. Drop quotes:

   • Incorrect: Sabri taught us about quoting. “You should always introduce a direct quote in your own words” (6).

2. Citing without quotation marks:

   • Incorrect: Within western, academic settings, plagiarism is considered a punishable offense and should be taken seriously (Sabri 6).

Block Quotes

• Definition: “Block quotation is a method of setting off a large quotation (4 or more lines or 40 or more words) from the rest of the essay’s text” (Moran and Henderson 248).

• When creating a block quote, you need to:

  1. Introduce the block quotation with a complete sentence followed by a colon.

  2. Indent the block quotation from the left margin.

  3. Do not put quotation marks around the block quotation.

Example

In "American Origins of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Movement," David Russell argues:
Writing has been an issue in American secondary and higher education since papers and examinations came into wide use in the 1870s, eventually driving out formal recitation and oral examination. . . . From its birth in the late nineteenth century, progressive education has wrestled with the conflict within industrial society between pressure to increase specialization of knowledge and of professional work (upholding disciplinary standards) and pressure to integrate more fully an ever-widening number of citizens into intellectually meaningful activity within mass society (promoting social equity). . . . (3)

Common Mistakes with Block Quotes

1. Not introducing the quote or leaving it like its own paragraph.

2. Too long relative to the assignment – not selective enough.

Indirect Quotes

• What do you do when the words you want to quote are something the author you’re reading quoted from somewhere else?

Quoting Someone Quoting Someone Else

• If there are “quote marks around something” in the text you are reading, that means it’s a quote from somewhere else.

• Use the format: (Original author qtd. in current author page)

Example

• We were taught that “block quotation is a method of setting off a large quotation (4 or more lines or 40 or more words) from the rest of the essay’s text” (Moran and Henderson qtd. in Sabri 7).

Common Mistakes

1. Including the in-text citation for the quote you found, instead of citing it properly as a secondary source.

2. Using qtd. in when the text was paraphrased, not quoted.

Omissions and Insertions

• What if you want to quote word-for-word but the quote is awkward?

• Use square brackets for changes and ellipses ([...]) for omissions.

Example with Brackets and Ellipses

• The author instructs the reader “to be careful not to pick the [thimbleberry and salmonberry shoots] higher than your knees, because once they [are] that tall the stalks [become] woody and no amount of chewing [will] make them soft” (Robinson 73).

• Ellipses can indicate omitted text:

  • “One significant aspect of Indigenous writing […] has to do with a culturally specific understanding of one’s relationship to the land” (Lacombe 254).

Retain the Meaning – Don’t Abuse It!

• Do not change the meaning of a quote using brackets or ellipses.

• Example of abuse:

  • Original: “I will not give you an extension on your assignment.”

  • Abused: “I will […] give you [a hundred dollars and] an extension on your assignment.”

Selecting Quotes

• Quote when the exact wording is important or when rephrasing would lose meaning.

What to Quote in an Essay

1. Directly relevant material for body paragraphs.

2. Background information for introductions.

3. Selective quotes to support your argument.

Common Mistakes in Quoting

1. Quoting material that isn’t relevant.

2. Quoting excessively to make the assignment longer.

3. Overusing secondary quotes (qtd. in situations).

Balance Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Your Own Ideas

• Not everything should be quoted; practice paraphrasing and include your own thoughts.

Let’s Try Quoting!

• First as a class, then individually.

Let me know if you need adjustments or more work with this! 😊