Using Quotes in Research & Writing
Name: __________________________________
When using a source—be it a web site for research or a poem we read in Language Arts—we pull words
and ideas from the text to support our writing. Of course, since we don’t want to plagiarize, we give the
writer credit. The table below shows several different kinds of quotes and the appropriate in-text citation.
The highlighted text shows how the writer setup or introduced the quote.
Definitions:
A quote is evidence—words—that we pull from a text to use in our own writing. When we pull the words
from the text, they become quotes.
In-text citations show where the quote comes from. Depending on the kind of quote we use and how
much information we include in our setup, we need different information in the in-text citation. The in-text
citations are the () parentheses following each quote below.
Why use quotes?

To backup your ideas with research or
with evidence from a text.
Material
Quoted
Word or
phrase


To add interest or flavor to your writing.
To add credibility.
How to use the Quotation in Your Paper
Include the quotation in a sentence of your own. The quotation must fit with the structure
and tense of the sentence surrounding it.
For her birthday, Aaron presented Lily with a new watch that was “fancier than
anything she had ever imagined,” with diamonds sparkling across the band (Smythe 28).
Sentence
Introduce a sentence-long quotation in your own words. The author’s name is included in
the following sentence, so it does not have to be included in the parenthetical/in-text
citation.
Jones’s novel An Odd Day opens with the description, “On the first morning after the
visit, the People of Highbury work up to a yellow sky with a purple sun” (173).
Parts of one
or more
sentences
To quote part of a sentence, introduce it with your own words. Use ellipsis […] to indicate
any portion of text you have omitted (i.e., taken out). Bracket [ ] words you have added to
help the quotation make sense.
Ms. Ainslie surprised everyone by wearing a top hat as she “jogged down the path at a
moderate pace…[and] sneered at the people sitting on the benches that lined the path”
(North 267).
Long
passage
(more than
three lines)
Introduce a long quotation with a sentence that ends with a colon. Indent the quotation
one-half inch from the left margin. Do not place it in quotation marks.
The serious nature of Bartholomew’s thoughts is reflected in his following statement:
The problem is that I don’t know what to do about this situation. I’m not exactly sure
who I can talk to, and I’ve been lying awake nights trying to figure it out. I wish that
some sort of book existed where I could find the answers to all of my problems, but I
suppose there are no easy answers. (French 754)
(Based on The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Research and Report Writing.)