Quotations

Importance of Quotations

Ultimately, quoting a source (instead of using the source without credit) is important because it helps prevent plagiarism.

Writers commit plagiarism when they do not use quotations for information from an outside source or provide references for quotations.

Plagiarizing is the act of stealing another's work and passing it off as one's own. Even if a writer accidentally plagiarizes, there are serious consequences. Writers can be suspended or expelled from school, fail an assignment or a class, and lose their academic credibility.

So basically, if you quote something, you need to give credit where it's due. You need to create a reference.

Referencing a Quotation

Here is a chart for MLA style.

Here is a chart for APA style.

Academic writers must include in-text citations and a reference list at the end of their paper. In-text citations go at the end of the sentence that references the author's last name, the year of publication (if using APA), and the page number where the writer found the quotation. For example: (Fitzgerald, 1925, p. 24) is an example of an APA in-text citation.

Applications of Quotations

You can use quotes in two ways for a 5 paragraph essay.

Quotations for Introductions

Quotations can be the hook for your introduction.

Say you are writing a 5 paragraph essay about the importance of the Civil Rights movement. To draw readers into this topic, you might include a snippet of the speech given by Martin Luther King, Jr. at the March on Washington in 1963.

A quote can provide a powerful insight into history, culture, and more.

Fig. 2 - Use quotes to introduce a topic.

Quotations for Body Paragraphs

Secondly, you can use quotations as a form of evidence in the body paragraphs of your 5 paragraph essay. This evidence would help support the specific argument of a given paragraph.

For instance, imagine a writer is trying to argue that the character Holden Caufield from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951) suffers from depression. Using quotations from Holden that reveal his feelings and perspectives helps the writer prove this point. Similarly, imagine a writer trying to convince readers they can help the environment by following a vegetarian diet. Including quotations from scientists about the link between meat production and climate change strengthens the argument, because the quotations show that credible people support this view.

Quoting isn’t always as simple as putting quotation marks around something, though. In fact, some quotes don’t have quotation marks at all! Now is a good time to understand the different ways you can quote a source.

Types of Quotations

There are several types of quotations, and the formatting and referencing style for quotations vary a bit depending on the type used.

Direct Quotations

Direct quotations are quotations that a writer takes verbatim from another source.

It is effective for writers to use direct quotations when referencing the definition of a term, using quotations to support an argument, or analyzing other writing.

For example, in a literary analysis essay, writers often include short, direct quotations from a piece of literature and then break them down through detailed analysis. Writers should strive to avoid including too many direct quotations when writing an academic essay, as their priority should be developing original arguments. Direct quotations only offer support or evidence for a writer's unique ideas.

Quotation Marks

Writers need to put direct quotations in quotation marks. Quotation marks denote that the information is from another source. There are two types of quotation marks: opening and closing. Opening quotation marks go at the beginning of a sentence, and closing quotation marks go at the end of a sentence.

Fig. 3 - Direct quotations require quotation marks.

When using an in-text citation, punctuation goes after the parentheses at the end of the sentence. For example, this is how you would format the following quotation from chapter 5 of Kurt Vonnegut's book Slaughterhouse Five (1969) using APA style: "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt" (Vonnegut, 1969, p. 156). Note how the period comes after the closing parentheses, not before the closing quotation mark.

Indirect Quotations

Indirect quotations are statements that writers paraphrase from another source. When writers paraphrase, they do not take information word for word, but they put the information in their own words. For example, imagine a writer wants to indirectly quote Barack Obama, who said,

The writer might say:

Indirect quotations like this one do not go in quotation marks since the writer is not quoting the source verbatim. However, indirect quotations still need proper citation because the idea came from another source.

Quotations in Fictional Dialogue

Fiction writers also use quotation marks to surround dialogue. This is because these characters are speaking to one another. The quotation marks denote that those lines of text are spoken and are verbatim records of what a person said. For instance, the following example features lines of dialogue between the narrator Nick and the character Gatsby in Chapter 6 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925). Note how Fitzgerald used quotation marks around the dialogue.

Direct quotations from fiction novels like this can be used as evidence in an analytical essay. For example, imagine a writer wanting to argue that Gatsby's love for Daisy caused his downfall. They might reference the above dialogue as evidence for this claim.

Fig. 4 - Dialogue between fictional characters is always put in quotations.

Examples of Quotations

Many quotations come from other texts such as books, scholarly journal articles, official reports, or essays. Such quotations could be used to support unique arguments in research papers and literary analysis essays. For example, imagine a prompt asking a student to write an essay about how historical context can impact writing. The student might argue that historical context shapes the themes writers choose to explore. The student could then use the following direct quotation from James Baldwin's essay "Stranger in the Village" (1953) in which he reflects on the way historical stereotypes about African Americans impact how white people treat him:

Sometimes writers need to put single quotation marks around the quotations within the text. For instance, the following passage cites dialogue from Ernest Hemingway's fictional novel A Farewell to Arms (1929):

Note how the writer of this sentence put double quotations around the entire passage and then single quotations around what the character Catherine said. Writers use single quotation marks like these to indicate a quotation within a quotation. This is an important skill for writers who analyze literature, as they often need to include quotations from books like this to support their analysis.

1. Barack Obama. "Super Tuesday Speech." 2008.