A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations, Ninth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2018

Integrate quotations into your text
Drafting your paper
Research and writing

Signal direct quotations in one of two ways:

✵ ▪ For four or fewer quoted lines, run them into your text, surrounded by quotation marks.

✵ ▪ For five or more lines, set them off as an indented block.

You can insert run-in and block quotations in your text in three ways.

1. 1. Drop in the quotation with a few identifying words (Author says, According to Author, As Author puts it, etc.).

Diamond says, “The histories of the Fertile Crescent and China . . . hold a salutary lesson for the modern world: circumstances change, and past primacy is no guarantee of future primacy” (417).

2. 2. Introduce the quotation with a sentence that interprets or characterizes it.

Diamond suggests what we can learn from the past: “The histories of the Fertile Crescent and China . . . hold a salutary lesson for the modern world” (417).

3. 3. Weave the grammar of the quotation into the grammar of your own sentence.

Diamond suggests that the chief “lesson for the modern world” in the history of the Fertile Crescent and China is that “circumstances change, and past primacy is no guarantee of future primacy” (417).

You can modify a quotation, so long as you don’t change its meaning and you signal deletions with three dots (called ellipses) and changes with square brackets. This sentence quotes the original intact:

As Hariman argues, “The realist style radically separates power and textuality, constructing the political realm as a state of nature and the political actor as someone either rationally calculating vectors of interest and power or foolishly believing in such verbal illusions as laws or ethical ideals” (4).

This version modifies the quotation to emphasize one part of it and to fit the grammar of the writer’s sentence:

Hariman argues that “the realist style radically separates power and textuality, constructing . . . the political actor as someone either rationally calculating vectors of interest and power or foolishly believing in such verbal illusions as laws or ethical ideals” (4).

See chapter 25 for more on integrating quotations with your text.

When you refer to a source the first time, use the author’s full name. Do not precede it with Mr., Mrs., Ms., or Professor (see 24.2.2 for the use of Dr., Reverend, Senator, and so on). When you mention a source thereafter, use just the author’s last name:

According to Steven Pinker, “claims about a language instinct . . . have virtually nothing to do with possible genetic differences between people.”¹ Pinker goes on to explain that . . .

Except when referring to royalty, never refer to an author only by his or her first name. You might write this:

In a recent speech, Prince Charles described his efforts to preserve the village pubs that are such a part of British culture.

But never this:

According to Steven Pinker, “claims about a language instinct . . .” Steven goes on to explain that . . .