Remember that quoting should be done only sparingly; be sure that you have a good reason to include a direct quotation when you decide to do so. You'll find guidelines for citing sources and punctuating citations at our documentation guide pages.
In scientific subjects, the information itself is more important than how it was expressed, so quoting should generally be kept to a minimum. In the arts and humanities, however, well-chosen quotes are often essential to a good paper.
Quoting basics When you quote, you include the words and ideas of others in your text exactly as they have expressed them. You signal this inclusion by placing quotation marks (“ ”) around the source author’s words and providing an in-text citation after the quotation.
Quoting is when you use someone else’s exact words in your paper. It requires that quotation marks go around that author’s words, and the quotation is followed by an in-text citation.
Quoting is common in lower levels of academic writing, but at the college level, quoting directly should be done sparingly and only when paraphrasing will not justify the meaning of the original author.
For quotations of fewer than 40 words, add quotation marks around the words and incorporate the quote into your own text—there is no additional formatting needed. Do not insert an ellipsis at the beginning and/or end of a quotation unless the original source includes an ellipsis.
This page covers how to incorporate sources into your text through quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. These guidelines will help you to avoid unintentional plagiarism.
Success in Academic Reading and Writing, Second Edition 3.2 Quoting A quotation (sometimes called a direct quotation) is when you use the exact language from a source and place that language into your own paper.
Paraphrasing vs. Quoting — Explanation Should I paraphrase or quote? In general, use direct quotations only if you have a good reason. Most of your paper should be in your own words.
