Rules for writers, Tenth edition - Diana Hacker, Nancy Sommers 2021

Use quotations effectively
Integrating sources
Writing Papers in MLA Style

When you quote a source, you borrow the author’s exact words and enclose them in quotation marks. Quotation marks show your readers that both the idea and the words belong to the author.

WHEN TO USE QUOTATIONS

✵ When language is especially vivid or expressive

✵ When exact wording is needed for technical accuracy

✵ When it is important to let the debaters of an issue explain their positions in their own words

✵ When the words of an authority lend weight to an argument

✵ When the language of a source is the topic of your discussion

Limiting your use of quotations

Keep the emphasis on your own ideas, and, as much as possible, keep your ideas in your own voice. It is not always necessary to quote full sentences from a source. Often you can integrate words and phrases from a source into your own sentence structure quite effectively. (For the use of signal phrases in integrating quotations, see 56c.)

Resnik acknowledges that his argument relies on “slippery slope” thinking, but he insists that “social and political pressures” regarding food regulation make his concerns valid (31).

Using the ellipsis

To condense a quoted passage, you can use an ellipsis — a series of three spaced periods — to indicate that you have omitted words. What remains must be grammatically complete.

In Mississippi, legislators passed “a ban on bans—a law that forbids . . . local restrictions on food or drink” (Conly A23).

The writer has omitted the words municipalities to place before local restrictions in the original source.

If you want to leave out one or more full sentences, use a period before the ellipsis.

Legal scholars Gostin and Gostin argue that “individuals have limited willpower to defer immediate gratification for longer-term health benefits. . . . A person understands that high-fat foods or a sedentary lifestyle will cause adverse health effects, or that excessive spending or gambling will cause financial hardship, but it is not always easy to refrain” (217).

Ordinarily, do not use an ellipsis at the beginning or at the end of a quotation. Your readers will understand that you have taken the quoted material from a longer passage. The only exception occurs when you have dropped words at the end of the final quoted sentence. In such cases, put an ellipsis before the closing quotation mark and parenthetical reference.

Using sources responsibly Make sure omissions and ellipses do not distort the meaning of your source.

Using brackets

Brackets allow you to insert your own words into quoted material to clarify a confusing reference or to keep a sentence grammatical in the context of your writing. You also use brackets to indicate that you are changing a letter from capital to lowercase (or vice versa) to fit your sentence. In the following example, the writer inserted words in brackets to clarify the meaning of help.

Neergaard and Agiesta argue that “a new poll finds people are split on how much the government should do to help [find solutions to the national health crisis]—and most draw the line at attempts to force healthier eating.”

To indicate an error such as a misspelling in a quotation, insert the word “sic” in brackets right after the error.

“While Americans of every race, gender and ethnicity are affected by this disease, diabetes disproportionately effects [sic] minority populations.”

Setting off long quotations

When you quote more than four typed lines of prose or more than three lines of poetry, set off the quotation by indenting it one-half inch from the left margin, and use the normal right margin.

Long quotations should be introduced by an informative sentence, usually followed by a colon. Quotation marks are unnecessary because the indented format tells readers that the passage is taken word for word from the source.

✵ In response to critics who claim that laws aimed at stopping us from eating whatever we want are an assault on our freedom of choice, Conly offers a persuasive counterargument:

o [L]aws aren’t designed for each one of us individually. Some of us can drive safely at 90 miles per hour, but we’re bound by the same laws as the people who can’t, because individual speeding laws aren’t practical. Giving up a little liberty is something we agree to when we agree to live in a democratic society that is governed by laws. (A23)

NOTE: At the end of an indented quotation, the parenthetical citation goes outside the final mark of punctuation.

QUOTATION MARKS WITH OTHER PUNCTUATION

Integrating sources smoothly into your own sentences is easier when you follow guidelines about using periods, commas, and question marks with quotation marks.

Quotation with no page number, author mentioned in sentence

The ban, according to MacMillan, “gave consumers a healthier default option.”

The ban “gave consumers a healthier default option,” according to MacMillan.

NOTE: Place periods and commas inside quotation marks.

Quotation with no page number, author name in parentheses

✵ The ban “gave consumers a healthier default option” (Macmillan).

Quotation with page number

✵ Fortin notes that instead of a ban, the FDA “took a more moderate approach” (113).

Quotation within a writer’s own question

✵ Why did the FDA choose “a more moderate approach” (Fortin 113)?

Quotation that is itself a question

✵ Fortin begins with a key question: “Why do we have food laws?” (3).

Long quotation

✵ Hilts argues that Americans have faith in the FDA:

o The Roper Organization has tracked the FDA and government issues consistently, and found that among all government agencies, the FDA has been among the most popular, and routinely number one among regulatory agencies. (295)

NOTE: For a quotation of more than four typed lines, indent the quoted words, do not use quotation marks, and place the parenthetical citation outside of the final punctuation.