Academic Tricks of How to Quote Someone

Many students are baffled when the time comes to compose papers. Plagiarizing is strictly prohibited. In fact, the prospect of being kicked out of school if you are caught doing it is real. But what is to be done? Because the sources must be used anyway, it’s part of the learning experience. The answer here is quoting. If you want to include a theory or an argument or an example that you found in another person’s work, just quote it! mention their name, their work and the page, and you’re all set. Simple, right? But the rules and schemes still must be applied, and they are confusing to a newbie. We’re here to help.

Employ the MLA Style in Your Work (Easy Steps)

Use this plan to make your next quote:
  • Name
  • Page
  • Verse (for poetry)
  • Year

What Style Is Better?

There’s no better style, or the best for that matter. Scholars of course have their favourites, some refer to MLA, some use only APA. Ultimately, it depends on where the paper will go. Is it internal assignment? Is it for publishing in a serious journal? Is it for your blog that focuses on science? The chances are, you’ll have the requirements set out for you from the start. And then your task is to only put your citations in a needed format. If you have doubts, what to use, utilize those office hours your teacher must offer! They will clarify the vague points of the assignment and armed with knowledge, you will know how to go about adding info from your source text into your own precious work.

Citing Brief Fragments

Short piece means that it’s not a whole paragraph on the page. And not the whole poem if it’s poetry you specialize in. If it’s under 3 lines or less than 2 verses, it’s considered brief and special rules are used. Therefore, for such a quotation to be included in your work, the following rules should be adhered to:
  • The use of double quotation marks on the piece
  • Mentioning the writer’s surname
  • Include the number of the page where the quote ends.

Tricks How to Make It Look Organic

Bear in mind that you should, using your own unique lexicon, mention a few things before including the intended quote. If you are to add a quotation without presenting a few ideas before it, you will bring confusion to your writers for they will have a problem comprehending the point you intended to put across. As you are through with the process brought forward, ensure that a period has been added to enable the reader to understand the quotation better. Alternatively, you can include the writer’s final name in the text. In this way, you can be in apposition to avoid adding it in between the brackets at the last section of a sentence. An example can be:
  • Olivia argues that “Individuals who love literary texts are broad-minded towards other people” (70).Another way that is effective is by presenting the fragment, citing it and then making the added comments that regard the quote as explained below:
  • Many individuals reason that “Art has no value these days.” (Clark 33) while others argue the opposite.

Citation of Lengthy Pieces

Chunky fragments of work have other regulations. If you choose a longer quote, ensure it’s imbedded well in your own. Long means anything more than 4 lines or 2 verses. More so, you don’t have to use the quotation marks because the quote that is going to be introduced can be by using a line of text, or even a colon. The only part in the piece that should be indented is the first line. Half an inch indentation is what’s needed from the left side of the page. At the final part of the fragment, ensure that double spacing is not modified. Make sure that you’ve added a period, the writer’s last name and finally the number of pages should be indicated in brackets. For instance, this is an illustration of how lengthy a fragment can be introduced and cited: In this book of many short stories “The Things They Had,” the author here briefly describes the harsh reality of war whereby bringing out the emphasis that nothing good that comes from it.” (O’Brien 87).

Citation of Poetry

Just as with the regular scheme for citing, poems do not require much more. The only noticeable difference is formatting and overall look, see below: Gladys in the poem she composed, puts across a compelling message, “Still I wake up.” You may punch me with the words you speak. You may despise me with how you look at me. With your hatred, you may pursue to eliminate me, But like a feather I still, soar. (15-20).

Include or Delete Words in Quotations

Not all words and points in a long-long sentence are of use to you. If you know what to leave behind and what to include, you show your competence to the teacher. No use to try and make your paper bigger by adding long but useless lines that don’t even belong to you. Learn to pinpoint the accurate and relevant info. Here is an example that can help you to realize the marks that are to be included in the text of citation: James, a wordsmith of short stories, mentioned, “Many mortals who are writers of novels have a perspective to those who write fairy tale stories that they are people of superior qualities.” (45) Use of ellipsis (..) When you are required to leave a piece of no importance to your work. Here is how it is done. Flounder reasons that many university students “Prefer creative activities over boring theory. (78).

Quoting Numerous Writers

When you are citing a fragment that has many authors, you will have to use commas and conjunctions between their names. Here is an example to clarify what we mean: Following the observations of a lot of investigations, MFA programs “Contribute in the best way possible in aiding armatures in the field of writing, to become successful in the future. (Anderson, James, and Derrick 86)

Quoting of Articles Sourced From the Internet

In the past, teachers specifically prohibited using internet for writing your own papers. It was widely believed that information online is inaccurate at best and harmful at worst. But today, we can see that multiple blogs and websites and forums sprouted that are actually solid sources of any kinds of info. Teachers and professors have changed their stance on this as well. And still, this means that proper quoting scheme must be used. There’s no pages on the internet so how to go about it? For example, the name of author, the article’s title, the date when the article was uploaded is enough. A link to the webpage will be at the end, in the list of references. An example can be: A movie analyst commented that Bumblebee was the best movie of in the history of Hollywood “James Film analysis.”

How The APA is Used in Quotation

A scheme to refer to will be this:
  • Name
  • Page (do not forget letter “p”, for example, p785)
  • Year
  • Citing Concise Fragments
When a short piece is being quoted, the number of words that are typically used is 40 words. By adding the writer’s final name, mention the year of publication, the number of pages while using in advance the page number, the letter “p”. These are some of the examples that have these keywords: As Coval stated (2000). “Global warming is a dangerous outcome of capitalism.” (p34). Coval also mentions that “without taking action and listening to the scientists, we may doom our climate and our planet to suffer an untimely end.” (p76) She points out “Big corporations are the first and foremost influence on our climate and they need to start taking warnings seriously and contribute to green way of life.” (Coval p 34).

Citing a Long Fragment

The same techniques are used for this. Include all the references you usually use but you have to remember to give a longer fragment its special place in your work. Distinguish it by using proper spacing – half an inch should do – before the first word. Finish it with author’s name. It’s not, however, a solid rule. You may insert a long-ish quote in the middle of a paragraph if you feel like it fits there best and benefits you and your audience there.

Citing Pieces from the Internet

When you are citing from online sources, pinpoint and note the name of the author, the date of publication and the number po paragraphs. That’s right, although we call the sites webpages, you can’t exactly count them like you would in a book or journal. So we determine the amount of paragraphs and base the scheme on that. See here: In her blog article, Valerych mentioned that “Convergent nozzles in engines have been used since the invention of the mechanism but a number of modification were suggested through the years.” (2018 para 34). Often is the case that there’s simply no name of the author. Don’t be alarmed and use the article title in this case. It’s a standard. If the date for publishing isn’t found, include the letters “n.d.” An example here can be: According to statistics, people who spend less time on message boards are more likely to have full life, complete with good career and friends. (The research club n.d.)

Conclusion

The use of citation marks correctly has been a subject of confusion for many students. All in all, we hope that you find this guide useful as you strive to be competent in writing using quotation marks. If you still find it challenging, don’t shy away from requesting help. We have professional writers available to help you on an one on one basis, contact us any time you need help!