There are two important aspects to the use of quotations. The first is selecting the best word, phrase, or passage to quote; the second is incorporating the words you have chosen to quote into your own text. The second of these is a matter that will be dealt with later.Rules for QuotingWe may be inclined to think of quotations as belonging primarily to academic writing, particularly literary essays. There is a virtual obligation to quote if you are discussing a play, a novel, or the work of other scholars, but a well-chosen quotation can enhance any type of writing. Words taken directly from a source document can be used to support your own arguments and to give them greater authority by showing that others think the same way that you do (or, alternatively, to give you something to argue against) or to illustrate a point you are making. In the preparatory stages of writing, too, you will frequently find that the easiest way of writing a note is to put down exactly what is said in the source material rather than putting the idea into your own words.There are certain rules for quotation, however, that should be observed even if you are only quickly jotting down something for use primarily as a note:- You must quote accurately
- You should quote a meaningful section of text
- You should make a note of where your quotation comes from
These are the essential rules. There are also additional rules that will mainly apply to people writing academic assignments:- You should always quote for a purpose
- You should not quote too often
- You should not make your quotations too long
- You should not always rely on your quotations to speak for themselves
The reason for the first rule is obvious. There is no point in appealing to another writer for assistance in assembling your text—which is essentially what you are doing when you quote—and then carelessly distorting that other author's meaning. When you jot down a quotation as a note, you may believe at the time that it is unlikely to form part of your final text, but you may very well change your mind later, so always follow the exact wording of the original.The phrase "a meaningful section of text" in the second rule is deliberately all inclusive. It may often be sufficient for your purposes to quote a single word from a text if you want to call attention to the particular term that an author uses to describe or explain something. When you are taking notes, however, it is usually better to put down a longer piece of text, because you will probably need a certain amount of context to remind yourself of why you selected those words to quote. Alternatively, or in addition, it is often useful to jot down immediately some indication of what you intend to use the quotation for, as in the following example:"… Bring forth men-children only, / For thy undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males." (Macbeth 1.7, 72—74) Shows that Macbeth is thinking in terms of having a family "A meaningful section of text" also implies a piece of text that can stand alone and convey meaning. As the above lines from Macbeth indicate, a single line of poetry, while it may look complete in itself, does not always convey any meaning unless it is attached to what comes before or after.The third rule has been mentioned before. A quotation is like any other note. You may want to check later whether there is more useful material where you found the first piece. And if you use the quotation in the text, you will need to give a reference for it.It is also worth adding here that if you are taking notes and you jot down a quotation, you should put it in quotation marks. It is unlikely that you will confuse Shakespearean verse with your own comments, but a piece of ordinary prose might be indistinguishable from one of your own paraphrases if you do not mark it at the time.The first of the additional rules, number 4, stems from the general injunction that all the material you assemble in the preparatory stages of the writing process should be oriented toward the task set by yourself in your original mission statement. Over and above this, however, when you come to write your text, you should avoid quoting simply for the sake of it. The essential element in anything you write is your own input. This applies as much to an essay on an author or a literary topic as to any other piece of work. Do not quote merely to show that you have read the text. You can show your familiarity with it much better by making informed and intelligent comments on it than by reproducing large chunks in every paragraph. Do quote, however, to back up or illustrate a specific point.It is irritating to find the flow of an argument continually broken up by contributions from other authors, especially when the bibliographical references have to be included: "What Jones terms 'a complete waste of time' (1987, 111) and Smith castigates as 'a willful squandering of public money' (2002, 67), Robinson applauds as 'a highly successful experiment in social engineering' (1999, 533)." We do not necessarily need the exact words of Smith, Jones, and Robinson to get the point. Be selective when quoting. One apposite quotation is better than four or five that do not add anything substantial to the text. The familiar adage "Less is more" applies to quotations, as it does to many aspects of the writing process.A further justification for rule 5 is the limit established by law to the amount that you can quote from a copyrighted work if your own work is published. A few relatively brief quotations will normally count as fair use, meaning that your citations taken from another publication are permitted without obtaining the express permission of the copyright holder (though it may still be courteous to obtain permission). Lengthy and frequent quotation from a particular published work will involve obtaining such permission.The longer the passage you quote, the greater the justification needed for including it. While it is impossible to prescribe a maximum length for a quotation, the point of rule 6 is that you should think carefully before suspending the flow of your own ideas to interrupt with a lengthy exposition of someone else's ideas.Rule 7 is intended as a reminder that you will usually need to show, directly or indirectly, why you have chosen to insert a quotation. A quotation should work for you in the sense that it should advance or strengthen your argument. It is up to you, however, to make sure that it does its job by providing an appropriate context for it, which means indicating how it contributes. The following, for example, is insufficient:Macbeth has Macduff's children murdered out of jealousy: "Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown / And put a barren scepter in my grip" (3.1.62–63). The quotation is not inappropriate, if you are discussing the role of children in the play, but you are expecting the reader to make a mental leap or to fill in the gaps you have left by not explaining that, in your view, the fact that Macbeth has given up any hope of passing on his crown to a son of his own sharpens his hatred of any man with children (and, in any event, Macbeth's immediate target in act 3 scene 1 is Banquo's son, Fleance).Selecting QuotationsThe principles that should govern the selection of quotations are implicit in the rules suggested in the previous subsection. Quotations should be selected because they make a point better than you could make it in your own words, or because it is particularly important to include the testimony of the particular person in your argument in his or her own words. The words you quote should be clear, should constitute "a meaningful section of text" (rule 2), and should, if possible, be striking. It is seldom worth quoting someone saying something that anyone could have said.It is difficult to illustrate the process of selecting quotations, because each source text is different and each writer will have a different purpose in view. Nevertheless, readers who have reached this point in the present text should have acquired some familiarity with the relations between Charles Dickens and the 19th-century American public. Let us return to the example of a writing project proposed earlier. Here is a section from John Forster's biography of Dickens in which Forster puts forward an explanation for the particular enthusiasm with which Dickens was received at the beginning of his first visit to the United States. Let us see what we might extract from it.Unmistakably to be seen, in this the earliest of his letters, is the quite fresh and unalloyed impression first received by him at this memorable visit; and it is due, as well to himself as to the country which welcomed him, that this should be considered independently of any modification or change it afterwards underwent. Of the fervency and the universality of the welcome there could be no doubt, and as little that it sprang from feelings honourable both to giver and receiver. The sources of Dickens's popularity in England were in truth multiplied many-fold in America. The hearty, cordial, and humane side of his genius had fascinated them quite as much; but there was also something beyond this…. I do not say it either to lessen or increase the value of the tribute, but to express simply what it was; and there cannot be a question that the young English author, whom by his language the Americans claimed equally for their own, was almost universally regarded by them as a kind of embodied protest against what was believed to be worst in the institutions of England, depressing and overshadowing in a social sense, and adverse to purely intellectual influences. In all their newspapers of every grade of the time, the feeling of triumph over the Mother Country in this particular is predominant. You worship titles, they said, and military heroes, and millionaires, and we of the New World want to show you, by extending the kind of homage that the Old World reserves for kings and conquerors to a young man with nothing to distinguish him but his heart and his genius, what it we think in these parts worthier of honour than birth or wealth, a title or a sword (Forster, n.d., 425). Great writers such as William Shakespeare or Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Frost, or Oscar Wilde sometimes seem to write in quotations. There are gold nuggets on every page, memorable lines in plenty. Forster was not a great writer. He is important insofar as he was a personal friend of Dickens, knew him intimately for most of his adult life, wrote the first biography after consulting Dickens about the project during the latter's lifetime and drawing extensively on personal letters he had received from him, and published the work within four years of Dickens's death. He is consequently a very valuable source of information, but his words are not particularly striking. That deficiency, however, gives him more in common with the average kind of author you might be using as a source. Quotations do not choose themselves but have to be chosen. There is always, incidentally, the option of paraphrasing material that is not particularly quotable.Probably the most striking aspect of this passage is its ending, a fine, rolling, 19th-century sentence full of noble sentiment and high-sounding words. Forster is attempting to speak as the voice of America and adopts a suitably grand style. Unfortunately, what the voice of America has to say is not really reducible into conveniently sized material suitable for quotation. You might want to extract from it the description of Dickens as "a young man with nothing to distinguish him but his heart or his genius," but otherwise you really have to quote the sentence as a whole—and it is a rather long sentence—or set it aside. Moreover, an American voice speaking for itself would probably be of more interest than that of an Englishman draping himself in the Stars and Stripes.The criterion of "strikingness," then, is not particularly useful in this instance. What other criteria might we apply? The most useful are those that were used in the process of summarizing. If we can distinguish the main points and the key details of the passage, we will get to the heart of what the author is trying to say. That is where we should find the most quotable elements.Forster seems to be saying four things essentially:- At first, Dickens was genuinely glad to be in America, and Americans were genuinely glad to welcome him.
- Americans appreciated Dickens's novels for the same reasons that the English did, but they also had additional reasons for appreciating them.
- Democratic Americans felt that Dickens shared their distaste for repressive, class-ridden English institutions.
- Consequently, Americans felt that they, rather than the English, were the people who could truly honor his genius.
If we could find phrases or sentences relating to some or all of these points (the quotations do not necessarily have to encapsulate them), we should come away with a useful haul.The phrase "the fervency and universality of his welcome" seems to capture the essence of the first point. It is not perhaps a form of words that would occur at once to a modern writer, but it would not be difficult to fit it into a modern sentence: "Dickens's earliest letter home shows that he was amazed and delighted by what Forster calls 'the fervency and universality of his welcome.' " Continuing on, Forster's sentence "The sources of Dickens's popularity were multiplied many-fold in America" could be retained to exemplify the second point—with the option of extracting the core of it, "were multiplied many-fold," if that fits in more conveniently.There is quite a striking phrase in the passage that sums up the third point. Dickens was seen as an "embodied protest against what was believed to be worst in the institutions of England." Here we have arrived at the center of interest in this passage. Forster's formulation of the point is strong and neat. The rest of that sentence, however, is not particularly easy to follow, and if we need to expand on the point, we could probably do better by explaining it in our own words. This statement is definitely worth keeping.The final point takes us into Forster's grand conclusion, but the sentence preceding it might be worth noting down: "In all their newspapers of every grade at the time, the feeling of triumph over the Mother Country in this particular is predominant." It is not a very neat sentence but could be made more suitable for reuse, perhaps, by the omission of some words and the insertion of ellipses (see incorporating quotations into text immediately below): "In all their newspapers …, the feeling of triumph over the Mother Country … is predominant." (On the basis of the rule that quotations should not be relied on to speak for themselves, we might need to remind a reader that at that time, 1842, many British people, and perhaps some Americans, still thought of Britain as the mother country of the United States, despite the lapse of nearly 70 years from the Declaration of Independence.)Incorporating Quotations into TextIt is very likely that at some point in your work, you will want to include the exact words said or written by another person. There are rules governing the way in which quotations should be presented in text. These are dealt with briefly here.The first rule to remember is that you should always quote accurately. When you are taking notes, be very careful that you copy out the extract that you need exactly as it is written in the source. The same applies if you write down words spoken by somebody, although in this case you will have to add your own punctuation.The second rule stems from the first: Do not quote from memory. Even if you think you have a crystal-clear recollection of what was written or said, always check the source to confirm that your memory is correct. If you cannot find the source, it is usually safer to offer a paraphrase in your own words than to risk misquoting the original. Memory does play tricks. Some misquotations become almost better known than originals. Shakespeare is often credited with writing "We are such stuff as dreams are made of," when he actually wrote, "We are such stuff / As dreams are made on" (The Tempest 4.1.156–157). Similarly, the saying "Money is the root of all evil" is in fact a misquotation from the Bible; the actual quotation is "The love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10, King James Version). Always check.The third rule also stems from the first. If you need to alter anything in the passage you are quoting, you must make it plain to the reader that you have done so. For instance, if you omit part of the passage because it is irrelevant to the point you are making or because the quotation as it stands is uncomfortably long, you should represent the omitted words by an ellipsis (…). Forster, in the passage previously quoted from his biography of Dickens, writes, "In all their newspapers of every grade of the time, the feeling of triumph over the Mother Country in this particular is predominant." If you feel that the phrases "of every grade of the time" and "in this particular" do not add greatly to the essential meaning of the sentence, you may omit them and write instead: "In all their newspapers …, the feeling of triumph over the Mother Country … is predominant."The fourth rule is that you should always be careful to ensure that the words you quote fit grammatically into the framework you provide for them and that the framework and the quotation together make good sense. For instance, suppose the person you are quoting says, "I woke and found myself alone." You could write "Belinda said, 'I woke and found myself alone.' " The use of a verb such as say without a conjunction such as that enables you to put down the exact words the person uses. But you cannot write "Belinda said that 'I woke and found myself alone,' " or "Belinda described how 'I woke and found myself alone.' " Both of these are ungrammatical according to the rules for reported speech. If you were reporting what Belinda said without actually quoting it, you would have to write "Belinda said that she woke and found herself alone." You must follow the same pattern even if you use quotation marks to show that you are using the same words that she used.There is a problem here that we can solve only by referring to rule three. You must indicate any departures from the wording of the original. If you change a word in the original in order to make it fit inside your sentence, you must put the replacement word into brackets ([]). So, continuing with the example used in the previous paragraph, you could write "Belinda described how '[she] woke and found [herself] alone,' " though it would be neater to write "Belinda described how she 'woke and found [herself] alone.' "The elements you will most likely need to change to fit a quotation into text are the personal and reflexive pronouns, the tense of verbs, and the capital letters at the beginnings of sentences. Here are examples of each of these three.Original: We must cultivate our garden.
Altered to fit context: You should follow Voltaire's advice and "cultivate [your] garden." Original: A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.
Altered to fit context: "If ever the day should come when a "nightingale [sings] in Berkeley Square," … Original: The country is obviously in terminal decline. Economic prospects are worse than they have ever been.
Altered to fit context: The country's "[e]conomic prospects are worse than they have ever been," according to the Wall Street Journal. For further discussion on the use of brackets, see brackets (page 353). For further discussion on the use of ellipsis, see ellipsis (page 348). For the correct punctuation to use with quotation marks, see chapter 4, page 167, and chapter 7, page 356.PlagiarismPlagiarism is the offense of passing off another person's written work or ideas as your own. To avoid charges of plagiarism, all quotations should be shown in quotation marks and attributed to their original author by means of a reference. When you are paraphrasing or generally presenting ideas that are identifiable as coming from another person's works—that is, usually another person's particular opinions as opposed to facts that are available from a variety of sources—you should indicate where the ideas came from. For example, referring to the passage used as a source of quotations in the previous subsection, you should not borrow Forster's insight that, in honoring Dickens, Americans felt that they were showing the superiority of their values to those of the "Mother Country," without indicating that it comes from Forster, even if you use your own words rather than a direct quotation. Simply adding a phrase such as "as Forster suggests" or "according to Forster" is sufficient to keep things straight.PhotocopyingThroughout this section there has been an implicit assumption that all the material collected in preparation for a writing project is written down by hand or by machine. It has probably occurred to many readers that it would be much simpler to make a photocopy of anything required. If you cannot, for example, borrow a book from the library because it belongs in the reference section, then you can simply photocopy the relevant pages.The only problems with photocopying are the following. First, there are legal restrictions on the photocopying of copyrighted works. The staff at your library should be able to advise on the extent to which it is permissible to make photocopies, or you can seek guidance from a book such as The Chicago Manual of Style, but photocopying limits lie in a legal gray area. Second, assembling material means, first and foremost, selecting it. It may be convenient to have some photocopied pages, but you still have to go through them and pick out the passages that relate to your project. Admittedly, it may be easier to do this by highlighting the relevant passages with a fluorescent marker, but the work still has to be done.
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