P6-a Set off direct quotations with quotation marks.
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P6-a Set off direct quotations with quotation marks.
direct quotation A speaker’s or writer’s exact words, which are enclosed in quotation marks.
indirect quotation A restatement of a speaker’s or writer’s ideas without quoting directly or using quotation marks.
A direct quotation is set off by a pair of quotation marks and by an initial capital letter. Indirect quotations, however, do not use quotation marks or capital letters.
| DIRECT QUOTATION | Ms. Goldman told her colleagues: “It’s time to face the real issues!” |
| INDIRECT QUOTATION | Ms. Goldman told her colleagues that it was time to face the real issues. |
When a phrase such as she said interrupts the quotation, do not capitalize the first word after the phrase unless the word actually begins a new quoted sentence. (See also M2-c.)
Note: In a research paper, indent a long quotation as a block, double-spaced, and omit quotation marks. See Chapter 26 to review using block quotations in MLA and APA style.