Quoting involves using a source’s exact words. You might use a direct quotation to catch readers’ attention or make an introduction memorable. Quotations from respected authorities can help establish your credibility by showing that you’ve sought out experts in the field. In addition, quoting authors who disagree with your opinions helps demonstrate your fairness.

Finally, well-chosen quotations can broaden the appeal of your project by drawing on emotion as well as logic. A student writing on the ethics of bullfighting, for example, might quote Ernest Hemingway’s striking comment that “the formal bullfight is a tragedy, not a sport, and the bull is certain to be killed.”

Although quotations can add interest and authenticity to an essay, be careful not to overuse them: your research project is primarily your own work, meant to showcase your ideas and your argument.

Integrating brief quotations

Short prose quotations should be run in with your text, enclosed in quotation marks that mark where someone else’s words begin and end. When you include such quotations—or other source material—use both signal phrases and parenthetical references or notes, depending on the requirements of the documentation style you are using. Signal phrases introduce the material, often including the author’s name. Parenthetical references and notes direct your readers to full bibliographic entries included elsewhere in your text.

The following brief quotation uses Modern Language Association (MLA) style:

In this example, the signal phrase that introduces the quotation (In Miss Eckhart, Welty recognizes) includes the author’s name, so MLA style requires only the page number in parentheses for this print source.

Integrating long quotations

If you are following MLA style, set off a prose quotation longer than four lines. If you are following the style of the American Psychological Association (known as APA style), set off a quotation of more than forty words or more than one paragraph. If you are following Chicago style, set off a quotation of more than one hundred words or more than one paragraph. Begin such a quotation on a new line. For MLA style, indent every line one inch; for APA style, five to seven spaces; for Chicago style, indent the text or use a smaller font (check your instructor’s preference). Quotation marks are unnecessary. Introduce long quotations with a signal phrase or a sentence followed by a colon.

The following long quotation follows MLA style:

Note that the parenthetical citation comes after the period at the end of the quotation and does not have a period after it.

Though long quotations are often necessary in research projects, use them cautiously. Too many of them may make your writing seem choppy—or suggest that you have not relied enough on your own thinking.

Using signal phrases

Carefully integrate quotations into your text so that they flow smoothly and clearly into the surrounding sentences by using a signal phrase or signal verb.

Remember that the signal verb must be appropriate to the idea you are expressing. In the following example, the verb notes tells us that the writer probably agrees with what Welty is saying. If that were not the case, the writer might have chosen a different verb, such as asserts or contends.

In the next example, the signal phrase Some instructors claim indicates that other authorities might disagree with the teacher’s opinion or that the writer of this example disagrees. To support a point, the writer might have used entirely different wording, such as Many instructors agree.

Notice that these examples also feature neutral signal verbs—continues and said—where appropriate. The signal verbs you choose allow you to characterize the author’s viewpoint or perspective as well as your own, so choose them with care.

Marking changes with square brackets and ellipses

Sometimes you may wish to alter a direct quotation in some way—to make a verb tense fit smoothly into your text, to replace a pronoun with a noun, to eliminate unnecessary detail, to change a capital letter to lowercase or vice versa. Enclose any changed or added words or letters in square brackets, and indicate any deletions with ellipsis points. Do not use ellipses at the beginning or end of a quotation unless the last sentence as you cite it is incomplete.

Here are two examples of quotations that have been altered with bracketed information or ellipsis points and integrated smoothly into the surrounding text.

The brackets indicate that this information was added by the writer and is not part of the original quotation.

Whenever you change a quotation, be careful not to alter its meaning. In addition, use brackets and ellipses sparingly; too many of them make for difficult reading and might suggest that you have removed some of the context for the quotation.