Research

Deciding to use quotations

Page contents:

Reasons to use quotations
Quotation notes

Quoting involves using a source’s exact words. 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.

Reasons to use quotations

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.”

Quotation notes

When you have decided that you need a source’s exact words in your writing, take careful notes to avoid inadvertent plagiarism:

Copy the quotation carefully, with punctuation, capitalization, and spelling exactly as in the original.
Identify the note as a quotation. Use quotation marks; don’t rely on your memory to distinguish your own words from those of the source. If you are copying and pasting from a digital source, use a different color to identify the quoted material.
Use square brackets if you introduce words of your own into a quotation or make changes in it, and use ellipses if you omit material. If you later incorporate the quotation into your own writing, copy it faithfully—brackets, ellipses, and all.
If the quotation appears on more than one page of a print source, use a slash ( / ) to indicate where one page ends and another begins.

Here is a note with a quotation that student Benjy Mercer-Golden used in his research project:

Name of document indicates subject

Author and short title of source (no page number for electronic source)

Direct quotation