Researching

Finding information, using the ideas of others, citing sources.

Quotation

When you quote someone in writing, you are using the exact words of someone else to support your point. When using quotations, it is extremely important to keep the exact words of the original, making it different from paraphrasing and summarizing.

Reasons to Quote

There are three reasons to quote the words of another:

When the words themselves are important or memorable or remarkable
When the language is specific (and often technical) so that paraphrasing it would make the meaning unclear or too convoluted
When you need to quote the words of an authority to give your ideas credibility

Tip

Select the shortest amount you can from the original source while still making the point you need to. Don’t quote a whole sentence when you really only need a five-word phrase from it.

Editing Quotations

When you quote someone else’s words, you must quote exactly as it is written. There are only very limited conditions under which you can change anything in a quotation, and all of them leave markers in the quotation to point out the change.

Tip

To make sure your quotations are exact, check each of them against the original source.

Adding Words

You can add words to a quotation only to clarify a reference or make the sentence fit grammatically into your own text. However, all additions should be minimal. When adding new words to a quotation, place brackets around the addition. This lets the reader know that it wasn’t apart of the original quote.

Example:

Thoreau says that he “heartily accept[s] the motto, — ‘That government is best which governs least’; and [he] should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.”

The brackets here indicate a change in the verb conjugation to make the sentence flow grammatically and a replacement of a pronoun, which was “I” in the original.

Omitting Words

You can take words out of a quotation to focus on the part of the quotation you want to use, as long as the omission doesn’t change the meaning of the quotation. When words are omitted from the quote, use an ellipsis mark (…) to denote the missing text. When the omission comes at the end of a sentence, and you wish to include the next sentence, make sure you also include the period.

Example:

Original:

Thoreau argues that “The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government.”

With Omission:

Thoreau argues that “The objections which have been brought against a standing army…may also at last be brought against a standing government.”

Notice that the omission does not change the meaning of the quotation.

Noting an Error or Potential Confusion

If you find an error or a potentially confusing spelling or word choice in the original quotation, you want to use, you may not correct it. Instead, you use [sic] (meaning “thus” or “so” in Latin) immediately after the potential problem. When you use [sic], your reader knows that you have accurately typed the quotation and that the text is written that way in the original.

Example:

“The Smiths enjoyed the colours [sic] in their new home.”

The [sic] here lets your reader know that you haven’t made a typo and that the original uses the British spelling of the American “color.” Of course, if your reader already knows you are quoting a British text, you don’t need this [sic].

Source

Hacker, Diana. A Writer’s Reference. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.