QUOTING
How
do I punctuate quotes?
Correctly,
right? Here are some conventions:
1. Periods and commas always go
inside the quotation marks.
e.g., She writes,
"We need to remove his nose."
2. Semicolons, and
dashes always go outside the quotation marks. They are your additions.
e.g., He
writes that
3. Question marks and exclamation marks
can go either inside or outside of the quotation marks, depending on whether
they are part of the original quote, or are something that you added.
e.g., She asks, "Who is
really running
Who
created the phrase, "A stitch in time saves nine"?
4. When
the quote could stand alone as a sentence, the beginning of the quote should be
capitalized and introduced with a comma, even though the quote comes in the
middle of your sentence. If the quoted
material is a fragment (i.e., could not stand alone as the sentence), or
if the quote is introduced by "that," you do not capitalize
the first word:
e.g., She writes, "We need to remove his nose." but
She writes
that they need eliminate "his shnoz."
5. When you follow a quote with an
attributive tag (he said, Parker writes),
then you end the quote with a comma (unless it's a question), even when the
quote is a complete sentence.
e.g.,
"We need to remove his nose,"
she writes.
6. When the tag comes before the quote,
use a comma at the end of the tag.
e.g., She writes,
"We need to remove his nose."
Should
I tell the reader where the quote came from?
Normally, yes. And not only for
direct quotes; you’ll also want to do this for
paraphrases and other info that you get from a source. The reader might want to check on the context
in which the quote or piece of information appeared, in order to check its
credibility. The easiest way is to
follow the quote with the author and page number in parentheses. If the source is a book other than your
textbook, you'll need to add a Works Cited section or page to the end of your
paper; in this section you'll give all the necessary bibliographic
information.
"The typical suburban home is easy to
leave behind as its occupants move to another," he argues (
Also, remember that you will often want
to use the author's name, as part of a summary, as a lead-in to the quote. In that case, you won't need to repeat
her/his name in parentheses; just give the page number.
Oldenburg believes that most Americans,
unlike most Europeans, limit their everyday socializing to home and work:
"Americans do not make daily visits to sidewalk cafes or banquet
halls. We do not have that third realm
of satisfaction and social cohesion beyond the portals of home and work that
for others is an essential element of the good life" (112).
If you are using a source from the
internet, you most likely won't be able to include a page number. That’s because on the internet, you don’t
really have fixed page numbers (page numbers will vary from computer to
computer). Even when the source was
initially in print form before it went up on the internet, you generally lose
the pagination of the original article.
So, normally, when your source is from the internet, the author's name will
have to suffice. If there is no author,
use the first word(s) of the title, just as you've listed it in your Works
Cited:
There is a trend to enhance linkages between one government
entity and another. As a recent
editorial in The Oregonian states, "We
can no longer afford to have agencies that do not speak to one another"
("Tighten Tri-Met").
Sometimes you will be quoting a source
that is itself quoted by another source.
In this situation, it’s best to refer to the author by name as you
introduce the quote, then in parentheses give the source where you found
the quote.
According to Yank D. Coble, Jr., President
of the American Medical Association, “We face a crisis, and we need to
act. The good health of our patients—and
our society as a nation—depends on it”(qtd. in Epstein).