Direct Quotations
How to properly use direct quotes
in your writing.
When should you use them?
You will use a direct quotation when exact
wording is essential to convey the meaning of
the speaker.
General Rules
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Copy the author’s exact words and enclose them in quotation marks ( “ …”)
Follow the rules for punctuation and capitalization:
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Place commas and periods inside the quotation marks
Place colons ( : ), semi-colons ( ; ), and dashes outside quotation marks
Place question marks or exclamation points inside quotation marks when
they punctuate the quotation, place them outside when they punctuate the
sentence.
Use single quotation marks (‘ ...’) for a quotation within a quotation.
Alter initial capitals when a quotation forms a grammatical part of a sentence.
Each time you use a quote
you must provide…
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A lead-in, that is, introductory words or phrases
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Could often be the credentials of the speaker:
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A follow-up, that is, an explanation of its meaning,
relevance, or significance.
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English professor at Yale University, Dr. Brown, states, “Shakespeare
is perhaps the best literary figure of all time.”
You must explain the quote and connect it to your text. If
you fail to do so, the quote will appear as a filler, rather than
meaningful to your paper.
A parenthetical citation to give credit (discussed later)
When using direct quotes…
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Avoid using the word “said” over and over
again. Try replacing it with one of the following
where appropriate:
Stacey maintains….
 According to Stacey….
 Stacey presents…..
 Stacey argues…..
 Stacey claims….
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What if I just want to use a portion
of the quote?
If you do not want to use the ENTIRE quote,
follow these rules:
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Use ellipses [. . . ] enclosed in brackets to indicate that
you have omitted something. For example, if the quote
was: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times, it was the age of beauty”, and you didn’t want to
use the whole thing, you could do one of the following:
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“[. . .] it was the worst of times, it was the age of beauty.”
“It was the best of times, [. . .], it was the age of beauty”
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, [. . .]”
Paraphrasing Quotes
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Keep in mind that just because you find a great quote,
does not mean that you have to put it in your paper as a
direct quotation. It is possible to paraphrase quotes:
Quotation:
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Fred Hein explains, “Except for identical twins, each person’s
heredity is unique”.
Paraphrase:
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Fred Hein explains that heredity is special and distinct for
each of us, unless a person is one of identical twins (294).
Homework
Go online tonight, and find 5 quotes that you find
inspiring, or ones that you particularly like.
An easy way to do this is to type into Google
“quotes about _______”.
Write or type 5 quotes that you like, and provide
the URL for each as well as the name of the
person given credit for coining the phrase.