Introducing Quotations

One of your jobs as a writer is to guide your reader through your text. Do not simply drop quotations into your thesis and leave it to the reader to make connections. Integrating a quotation into your text usually involves two elements:

· A signal that a quotation is coming—generally the author’s name and/or a reference to the work

· An assertion that indicates the relationship of the quotation to your text

Often both the signal and the assertion appear in a single introductory statement, as in the example below. Notice how a transitional phrase also serves to connect the quotation smoothly to the introductory statement.

Ross (1993), in her study of poor and working-class mothers in London from 1870-1918 [signal], makes it clear that economic status to a large extent determined the meaning of motherhood [assertion]. Among this population [connection], ‘To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence’ (p. 9).

The signal can also come after the assertion, again with a connecting word or phrase:

Illness was rarely a routine matter in the nineteenth century [assertion]. As [connection] Ross observes [signal], ‘Maternal thinking about children’s health revolved around the possibility of a child’s maiming or death’ (p. 166).

Formatting Quotations

Incorporate short direct prose quotations into the text of your thesis and enclose them in double quotation marks, as in the examples above. Begin longer quotations (2 lines or more) on a new line and indent the entire quotation (i.e., put in block form), with no quotation marks at beginning or end, as in the quoted passage

Punctuation with Quotation Marks

1. Parenthetical citations. With short quotations, place citations outside of closing quotation marks, followed by sentence punctuation (period, question mark, comma, semi-colon, colon):

Menand (2002) characterizes language as ‘a social weapon’ (p. 115).

2. Commas and periods. Place inside closing quotation marks when no parenthetical citation follows:

Hertzberg (2002) notes that ‘treating the Constitution as imperfect is not new,’ but because of Dahl’s credentials, his ‘apostasy merits attention’ (p. 85).

3. Question marks and exclamation points. Place inside closing quotation marks if the quotation is a question/exclamation:

Menand (2001) acknowledges that H. W. Fowler’s Modern English Usage is ‘a classic of the language,’ but he asks, ‘Is it a dead classic?’ (p. 114). [Note that a period still follows the closing parenthesis.]

Place outside of closing quotation marks if the entire sentence containing the quotation is a question or exclamation:

How many students actually read the guide to find out what is meant by ‘academic misconduct’?

4. Quotations within quotations. Use double quotation marks for the embedded quotation:

According to Hertzberg (2002), Dahl gives the U. S. Constitution ‘bad marks in ‘democratic fairness’ and ‘encouraging consensus’’’ (p. 90). [The phrases ‘democratic fairness’ and ‘encouraging consensus’ are already in quotation marks in Dahl’s sentence.]

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 874