A. Separated
1. Comma or
colon and quotation marks separate citation and quotation
2. The first
letter of the quotation is capitalized
3. You are distinguishing
between your ideas and those of your source
For example: St. Paul declared, "It is better to marry than to burn." [use the comma to separate when the quote grammatically completes your sentence]
In his first epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul commented on lust: "It is better to marry than to burn." [use a colon if the quotation follows a clause that could stand alone as a complete sentence]
B. Integrated
1. No punctuation (except for quotation marks) separates citation and quotation
2. The first letter of the quotation is not capitalized
3. You are integrating your ideas with those of your source
For example: St.Paul declared that "it is better to marry than to burn."
Thoreau warned his readers to "beware of all enterprises that require new clothes."
The effect is very smooth, and the reader's attention is not distracted from the flow of sentences.
Often, we use the historical present tense when quoting a variety of different sources from different eras in order to put them on equal terms--even if the author is dead. If their ideas remain 'true' or if their ideas are still verv important, that's another reason to use the historical present tense. For example,
When Shelley acknowledges that poets are creators of language and music and art, he also asserts that they have a civic role: They are the institutors of laws, and the founders of civil society, and the inventors of the arts of life. Writing one hundred years later, Benedetto Croce affirms Shelley's insistence upon the social and spiritual responsibilities of the poet. According to Croce, Shelley sees poetry "as the eternal source of all intellectual, moral, and civil vitality."
PUNCTUATING QUOTATIONS
1. All periods and commas are placed inside the terminal quotation marks (it doesn't matter if whether the period belongs to your sentence or the quoted sentence!) unless you are using a citation format that gives the page number after the quote.
P.T. Barnam is reputed to have said that "there's a sucker born every minute."
or
P.T. Barnam is reputed to have said that "there's a sucker born every
minute" (Smith 79).
or
P.T. Barnam is reputed to have said that "there's a sucker bom every minute," and Barnam's circuses undertook to entertain each and every one.
2. All semicolons, colons, and dashes are placed outside the terminal quotation marks.
For example: George Santayan wrote that "those who cannot remember the
past are condemned
to repeat it" ; today, we are in danger of forgetting the lessons of history.
3. Question marks and exclamation points are sometimes placed inside the quotation marks (if part of the quote) and sometimes placed outside (if part of your own sentence).
For example: In 1864, General Sherman signaled the arrival of his reinforcements:
"Hold the
fort! I am coming!" [the exclamation is part of the original quotation]
Can anyone in the 1980s agree with Dumas that "woman inspires us to great things and prevents us from achieving them"? [the question is the writer's/student's, not Dumas']
4. Quoting inside a quote:
Use single
quotation marks for the words that are already quoted by your source, but
double quotation marks around words you are quoting.
For example: At the beginning of World War I, Winston Churchill observed
that "the maxim of the British people is 'Business as usual."'
[notice the single then double quote marks at the end]
5. If you want to leave out some words from a long quotation, use ellipses [...] to indicate to the reader that you've deleted something. Do not delete words in order to change the meaning of the quotation!
For example: Maugham does not believe that "suffering ennobles the character; ... suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive."
6. For variety, interrupt a quote like this: "I do not mind lying,"
wrote Samuel Butler, "but I hate inaccuracy."