PROPER QUOTING

Quotation - A passage, from an authority, that is quoted, cited, and attributed to its source Quoting - To repeat or copy the words of (another), usually with acknowledgment of the source.

Quotations are used to illuminate the meaning or to support the arguments of the work in which it is being quoted.

GUIDELINES

Do not put any space between the quotation marks and the text they surround:

While in normal writing commas and periods generally go inside quotation marks, even if they were not part of the original quotation, this rule changes when the sentence includes a parenthetical notation, in which case the final period goes after the reference:

 Other punctuation marks go outside, unless they are part of the quotation. This does not change when citing, but the citation comes after the final punctuation mark:

Note: In this case, the author is using the original statement to ask a question, but in the following case, the quoted material is already a question, not a statement. The next sentence just begins two spaces afterwards.

Note: No punctuation goes after the parentheses. The next sentence just begins two spaces afterwards.

 When a quotation contains quotation marks within it, the rule is to alternate single and double quotation marks. All quotation marks must curve in the appropriate direction, toward the quotation. Note that this may require a little fiddling to correct on most word processing programs: Wrong: Our city and the sky correspond so perfectly, they answered, that any change in Andria involves some novelty among the stars (Calvino 151). Right: Our city and the sky correspond so perfectly, they answered, that any change in Andria involves some novelty among the stars (Calvino 151).

Ellipses have spaces between the periods, and there should only be three periods. Ellipses are usually needed only in the middle of a quotation, not at the beginning or end. Put brackets around the ellipses to distinguish those you add from any that might be in the original text:

Wrong: The business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use ordinary ones...to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all....Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion but an escape from emotion (Eliot 43). Right: The business of the poet is not to find new emotions, but to use ordinary ones [. . .] to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all. [. . .] Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion but an escape from emotion (Eliot 43).

Parenthetical Citations
The reason for using parenthetical citations is to give your readers enough information so that they may easily (in conjunction with your Works Cited) find the source of the reference. If you mention the authors name immediately prior to the quotation, you should not put the authors name again in the citation.

 If you are using two or more works by the same author, you need either to mention the title before the quotation or include a shortened form of the title in the citation:
Right: In Tradition and the Individual Talent, Eliot rejecting Wordsworths famous dictum from the Preface to Lyrical Ballads claims The business of the poem is not to find new emotions, but to use the ordinary ones [. . .] to express feelings which are not in actual emotions at all [. . .] poetry is not a turning loose of emotion but an escape from emotion (43).