Incorporating Quotes
USING QUOTATIONS
Researchers use quotations in their written reports for many reasons. Quotations provide
evidence or help support opinions. They add interest or "flavor." They also lend credibility to
the researcher's work.
As a researcher and writer, you may quote a word, a phrase, a sentence, or even a longer
passage of someone else's writing in your report. Of course, you must always give credit to
your source, and you must be as clear as possible about your sources. You can work a
quotation into your research paper in one of several ways. Study the chart below.
MATERIALS QUOTED
HOW TO USE THE QUOTATION IN YOUR PAPER
Word or Phrase
Include the quotation in a sentence of your own. The quotation
must fit with the structure and the tense of the sentence
surrounding it.
For her birthday, Aaron presented Lily with a new watch that was
"fancier than anything she has ever imagined," with diamonds
sparkling across the band (Smythe 28).
Sentence
Introduce a sentence-long quotation in your own words. (Because
the author’s name is included in the following sentence, it does
not have to be included in parenthesis.)
Jones’s novel An Odd Day opens with the description, "On the
first morning after the visit, the people of Highbury woke up to a
yellow sky with a purple sun" (173).
Parts of One
To quote part of a sentence, introduce it in your own words. Use
ellipsis points […] to indicate any portion of text you have
or More Sentences
omitted. 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).
Introduce a long quotation with a sentence that ends with a
colon. Indent the quotation one-half inch from the left margin.
Long Passage
(more than 4
Do not place it in quotation marks.
The serious nature of Bartholomew’s thoughts is reflected in the
following statement:
lines)
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.