Limiting your use of quotations

Although it is tempting to insert many quotations in your paper and to use your own words only for connecting passages, do not quote excessively. It is almost impossible to integrate numerous long quotations smoothly into your own text.

Except for the following legitimate uses of quotations, use your own words to summarize and paraphrase your sources and to explain your own ideas.

WHEN TO USE QUOTATIONS

It is not always necessary to quote full sentences from a source. At times you may wish to borrow only a phrase or to weave part of a source’s sentence into your own sentence structure.

As Hurst has pointed out, until “an outcry erupted in the Northern press,” even the Confederates did not deny that there had been a massacre at Fort Pillow.4

Union surgeon Dr. Charles Fitch testified that after he was in custody he “saw” Confederate soldiers “kill every negro that made his appearance dressed in Federal uniform.”20

Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 1

Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 2

Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 3

Exercise: Integrating sources in Chicago (CMS) papers 4