Definition and Examples of Direct Quotations.
Use quotations to support an idea rather than to just put them here and there within your essay just to fill space or word count. Make sure it links to your own writing and become seamless. Quote credible people within the field of study to offer a convincing argument. Keep quotations as succinct as possible.
Here are a set of rules to clearly distinguish your writing from the quotation: You may describe the quotation in your own words before using it. In this case, you should use a colon (:) to indicate the beginning of the quotation. The sentence in which the quotation is embedded might not explicitly.
NOTE: Always put quotation marks around a direct quote and include the page number. Remember, direct quotes should only be used to illustrate a specific point or view. In most cases it is preferable to present information in your own words.
Direct quotations. enclose it in quotation marks. give the author, date and page number(s) that the quotation was taken from, in brackets.
Using quotes in your essay is a good way to hook the reader, engaging with them and enticing them to continue reading. Whichever quote you choose to use, make sure that it contributes to your essay and doesn’t distract from it.
In these two examples, observe the forms of punctuation used to introduce the quotations. When you introduce a quotation with a full sentence, you should always place a colon at the end of the introductory sentence. When you introduce a quotation with an incomplete sentence, you usually place a comma after the introductory phrase.
When writers insert or alter words in a direct quotation, square brackets—( )—are placed around the change. The brackets, always used in pairs, enclose words intended to clarify meaning, provide a brief explanation, or to help integrate the quote into the writer’s sentence.
Many students tend to overuse direct quotations in their essays. Direct quotations should be used only when paraphrasing would change the effectiveness or meaning of the author's words or when the author is a noted authority and the idea could not be better expressed or said more succinctly. Although quotations are common in essays in the.
The types of evidence you use will depend in part on the conventions of the discipline or audience for which you are writing. For example, papers analyzing literature may rely heavily on direct quotations of the text, while papers in the social sciences may have more paraphrasing, data, and statistics than quotations.
Don’t Quote Just for the Sake of Quoting. We all know you should use at least a few quotes to support your research essay, but you shouldn’t just throw them in because a research paper needs quotes. Don’t pick a few random quotes from one of those quote websites (you know which sites I’m talking about). Those random quotes from famous people—such as, “People who think they know.
Do: Don’t: Insert one space between each of the three ellipsis points. Use ellipsis points at the beginning or end of a direct quotation (except in rare instances). Insert a space before and after the ellipsis points. Use ellipses to make a quote say something other than what the author originally intended.
Direct quotes should be placed in quotation marks within the text in which they reappear in order to emphasize that these quoted lines are taken from another text or source such as an essay, a research paper or a book chapter.
Do not overquote: The excessive use of quotation will destroy the clarity of your arguments. Generally speaking, in an essay of 750 words, if you have included 10 or more quotes, you have a problem! Two or less will also be a problem. Quotations by themselves do not constitute indisputable evidence.
