Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010
Quotations
Punctuation
Style
22.7.1 Summary
1. Reproduce all quoted words exactly; indicate omitted words with an ellipsis; indicate added or changed words with square brackets.
2. Change the first letter of a quotation so that complete sentences start with a capital and incomplete sentences begin with a lowercase letter.
3. For the introduction to a quotation, follow complete sentences with periods, question marks, or colons; phrases with commas; that with no punctuation.
4. Run-in: Enclose all quoted words in pairs of quotation marks. Place the final quotation mark
✵ outside periods and commas
✵ inside colons and semicolons
✵ outside question marks and parentheses that are part of the quotation
✵ inside question marks and parentheses that are part of your sentence
✵ inside a parenthetical reference
5. Block: Do not enclose the quotation in quotation marks; place a parenthetical reference after the final punctuation.
22.7.2 Punctuating Quotations
1. Reproduce all quoted words exactly as they appeared in the original. You may omit words if you replace them with an ellipsis (three dots); if an ellipsis comes at the end of a sentence, put the terminal punctuation of the original after the ellipsis. You may add or change words if you put them in square brackets.
Original: Posner focuses on religion not for its spirituality, but for its social functions: “A notable feature of American society is religious pluralism, and we should consider how this relates to the efficacy of governance by social norms” (299).
Changed version: In his discussion of religion, Posner says of American society that “a notable feature . . . is [its] religious pluralism” (299).
2. Change the first letter of a quotation so that complete sentences start with a capital and incomplete sentences begin with a lowercase letter. If you introduce the quotation with a clause ending in that, make the first letter lowercase. If you weave the quotation into your own sentence, change an initial capital to lowercase.
Original: As a result of these earlier developments, the Mexican people were bound to benefit from the change.
Lowercase changed to uppercase to begin complete sentence:
Fernandez claims, “The Mexican people were bound to benefit from the change.”“The Mexican people,” notes Fernandez, “were bound to benefit from the change.”
Initial capital changed to lowercase following that:
Fernandez points out that “as a result of these earlier developments, the Mexican people were bound to benefit from the change.”
Initial capital changed to lowercase to fit syntax of including sentence:
Fernandez points out that the people “were bound to benefit” but only “as a result of these earlier developments.”
3. If the introduction to a quotation is a complete sentence, put a period or a colon after it. If it is a phrase or incomplete clause, put a comma. If it is a clause ending in that, use no punctuation.
Posner focuses on religion for its social functions. “A notable feature . . .
Posner focuses on religion: “A notable feature . . .
Posner says, “A notable feature . . .
Posner says that “a notable feature . . .
4. Run-in: Enclose all quoted words in pairs of quotation marks. Place the final quotation mark
✵ outside periods and commas
. . . now is the time.”. . . now is the time,” but we also . . .
✵ inside colons and semicolons
. . . now is the time”; but we also . . .
✵ outside question marks and parentheses that are part of the quotation
He asked, “Is now the time?”
. . . now is the time (or so it seems).”
✵ inside question marks and parentheses that are part of your sentence
Will he say, “Now is the time”?
. . . yesterday (as he said, “Now is the time”).
✵ inside a parenthetical reference
. . . now is the time” (Walker 210).
5. Block: Do not enclose the quotation in quotation marks. Place a parenthetical reference after the final punctuation.
According to Jared Diamond,
Because technology begets more technology, . . . [t]echnology's history exemplifies what is termed an autocatalytic process: that is, one that speeds up at a rate that increases with time, because the process catalyzes itself. (301)