When you’ve finished reading the literature and are ready to synthesize your findings, make sure to acknowledge original writers by citing them properly.

Every time you use research, words, ideas, statistics, or material that is not your own, you must cite the source. In addition, you must cite any concept that is not your own while synthesizing and often summarizing a lot of information. This includes any source that contributes to your knowledge and understanding of the content, as well as the formation of your arguments, whether directly or indirectly.

The Basic Principles of Quoting

Here are five essential ideas to help you with your citations.

Paraphrasing

You must rephrase or restate the original notion while paraphrasing. You should not simply change substitutes for key terms and claim them as your own. A citation is still required even if you do not explicitly cite a passage and instead paraphrase it. The length of the paraphrased sentences is usually the same as the original text.

Quoting

In-text citations are required whenever you use the actual words of the source author. To indicate that it is not your original work, the wording should be in quote marks. Instructors want to see your knowledge and synthesis of the content, not your ability to extract relevant quotes, so use quoting sparingly. The usual rule is to cite only when you cannot express the subject more clearly in your own words. You should only quote three lines of text at a time.

Summarizing

Because you are still borrowing the author’s original ideas, summaries also demand a citation. Summaries are usually shorter than the original text and focus on the main points raised by the author. Each sentence containing non-original content should include a citation. You should cite in each sentence rather than after the paragraph, even if the entire paragraph is a summary.

Information, facts, figures, and dates

You should cite the source if you use facts, figures, dates, or non-original material. It’s especially crucial to base your arguments on credible sources. Take, for example, a statistic from the United States. A census is more authoritative than a Facebook poll. When including these items in your essay, look for reputable sources.

Indebtedness

Even if you do not directly reference the source in the text, you must cite it if it contributed to your grasp of the content or the formation of your arguments. Anyone who assisted you in clarifying your points, such as crucial informants or other correspondents, falls into this category. This can be in the form of a bibliography or an acknowledgements section.

Ways to Introduce a Quote in a Paragraph

It’s best to introduce or contextualize another writer’s words when you quote them.

Using a full sentence

Write a phrase that supports or illustrates the point you wish to make using the quotation. To introduce your sentence, end the sentence with a colon. According to various authors, graduate education, particularly at the Doctoral level, differs from earlier education in several respects (Cathrine, p. )

According to

The name of a magazine or a person might be followed by according to. Then, after the name of the person who introduced the quotation, add a comma. For example, “To study in the IEP, you must be 18 years old, and your English level must be ‘high beginning’ or higher,” according to the IEP student manual (p. 7).

With a reporting verb

A reporting verb followed by a comma should be used to begin a citation. After a reporting verb, capitalize the initial letter of the first word in the quotation, despite the fact that it wasn’t capitalized in the initial quotation. This is because the verb you employ to start the quote tells your audience how you think the original author perceived the information you’re citing.

Reporting verbs, such as “explain” and “describe” are neutral. Addityionally, some like “argue” and “insist,” indicate that the writer was presenting a compelling point. Some reporting verbs imply that you are criqueng the initial writer or that you do not trust them. “Claim” and “assumed” are two examples.

Using the word “that” after a reporting verb

Most verbs, but not all, can be followed by a “that” phrase. The verbs “describe,” “develop,” and “use” can’t be followed by a “that” sentence (that plus a subject and a verb, like “Smith suggested the statistics were deceptive”). The verbs describe and similar ones should be followed by a noun or a noun phrase, such as “The writers described the study’s findings.” Another note on “that”: “That” is frequently used to precede reported speech, or speech that has been altered from the original quotation: My mother once said, “I can’t walk as fast as I used to.” My mother complained that she couldn’t walk as rapidly as she used to.

Including the quote as part of your sentence

This is ideal for quoting a few words: “nasty, short, and brutish” has been used to describe life in the Middle Ages. Saddam Hussein coined the phrase “the mother of all conflicts”.

When to Use Quotations

Quote marks were almost exclusively used to indicate dialogue before the introduction of sarcasm and facetiousness into our lives, but they now have a whole new meaning.

Let’s look at how quote marks are employed in today’s world.

Dialogue is denoted with quotation marks.

When John and Mary were little, they probably used quote marks to communicate about seeing Spot run, which was probably the first thing you learned about quotation marks in elementary school.

When someone begins to speak, open the quotation marks; when they stop speaking, close the quotation marks; and make sure your closing punctuation is contained within the quotation marks.

Quotation marks denote titles of poems, essays, or shorter works.

One of my earliest memories of poetry is Robert Frost’s “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The most popular piece on The Write Practice is “How to Use Either, Neither, Or, and Nor Correctly.”

When referring to a scholarly article, a newspaper piece, or something similar, put quotation marks around the title of a piece.

The use of quotation marks indicates the use of sarcasm, irony, euphemisms, or slang.

Air quotes have become a thing in American society; for those who don’t know, air quotes are when you curl your first two fingers into bunny ears.

Air quotes imply that what you’re saying shouldn’t be taken at face value, that you’re being sarcastic, or that you’re lying outright, and they’re used in your work in the same way. Consider the following scenario:

Alice sat on a park seat, watching as the “runners” made eye contact with her by turning their heads.

The quote marks in the preceding example indicate that the runners are not so much jogging as they are scrutinizing her, and they are not being subtle about it.

Guidelines for Using Quotation Marks

The fundamental purpose of quote marks is to distinguish and reflect someone else’s exact words (spoken or written). The quotation is also utilized to denote speaking activities in poetry and fiction. Because you will most likely employ quote marks when dealing with external sources, fruitful usage of quotation marks protects against inadvertent plagiarism. The following are the normal guidelines for using quotation marks in the United States, though it’s important to note that these regulations differ per country.

Here are some guidelines for using quotation marks.

• Quotations and quotation marks are usually used in pairs. Do not begin a quotation and then abandon it halfway through the quoted material.

Where there is a complete sentence, capitalize the first letter of the quoted item.

Mr Simon, who was outside that evening, said, “The alien spaceship appeared right before my own two eyes.”

• Avoid utilizing capital letter when the quoted content is a piece of the original material’s whole phrase.

Mr Johnson thinks that the spaceship “definitely takes the cake” in terms of unexplained activity, despite having witnessed weird things on the farm.

• The second half of a direct quotation should not be capitalized if it is stopped in the middle of a phrase.

Mr Johnson said, “I didn’t truly witness an alien being, but I sure wish I had.”

• In all of the instances above, notice how the punctuation always occurs before the final quotation mark. It’s also worth noting that depending on whether you’re using APA or another sort of documentation, this punctuation requirement may change.
• To quote text that contains a typo or a grammatical error, you must replicate the error verbatim in your own work. However, put the term sic in italics and enclose it in brackets right after the error. Sic is a Latin term that meaning “thus,” “so,” or “exactly like that,” and it serves as a reminder to your audience that your quote replicates what you found, and that the fault is not yours.

Mr Johnson said of the incident, “It’s made me rethink the existence of extraterrestrials [sic].”

• Quotations work best when they’re utilized sparingly and in quick bursts. If you overuse them in your thesis or any other paper, you risk being blamed of not coming up with new ideas or content.

When Should Single or Double Quote Marks be used?

Quotation marks can be confusing, especially for those unfamiliar with English language and punctuation conventions. It’s considerably more difficult to know whether to use single and double quotation marks. This article will explain the two types of quotations.

How Do I Know Whether to Use Single or Double Quotes?

This is an enthralling query. The precise answer is that it relies on whatever country you are writing in. In Australian and British English, single quote marks are often employed. In North American writing, double quote marks are widely used.

On rare occasions, though, the style of a publication or even an author may take priority over general tastes. Some writers, for example, employ their own quotation marks, such as double quotation marks for talking and single quotation marks for thinking, as Judith Butcher points out in Copy-Editing. The most important thing to remember when employing these small punctuation marks is to match the opening and closing quotation marks. James would respond, “Good morning, Ruth,” or Caro might answer, “Good morning, Deaniel.”

One of the most common ESL errors our editors find is the use of quotation marks. If you’re simply using quote marks to identify quotations, start each paragraph with an opening quotation mark if you’re quoting more than one paragraph.

Is it better to use single or double quotation marks for quotes within quotes?

First and foremost, decide whether the first quote should be in double or single quotation marks. If a quote within a quote is written in single quotation marks, it should be written in double quotation marks. A quote within a quote should be written in single quotation quotations if you use double quotation marks. Consider the following scenario:

Using a double quote mark as a starting point:

The manager clarified, “When I say ‘immediately,’ I mean before August.”

Write, starting with a single quotation mark:

‘What made her call him a “traitor”?’

Is it better to use single or double quotation marks for block quotations?

You usually don’t need to use opening and closing quote marks to punctuate content that has been separated apart from the main text as a block quotation. Block quotations are often indented or written in a smaller font. Within the block, quotations will have double or single quotes, depending on the standard (British or American). The varied closing punctuation rules, as is typical, add to the confusion.

Should I Use Quotation Marks in My Writing for Specialized Terms? Should I Use Quotation Marks for Specialized Terms if I’m Writing in a Specialized Field?

In specialized literature, such as linguistics, philosophy, and theology, several terms having distinct meanings that are unique to that discipline are typically contained in single quotation marks:

The gutter is the term for a book’s inner margins.’

Many people are unaware that the terms “cultivar” and “clone” are interchangeable.

However, adding too many of these minor punctuation marks will cause your readers to become confused. It’s possible that you won’t need to use quote marks in your argument. Horticultural cultivar names, on the other hand, should be enclosed in single quotation marks:

‘Jonathon’ is a type of apple, ‘Chardonnay’ is a type of grape, and ‘Rosa Munda’ is a type of Gallica rose.

While quote marks are essential in almost all types of writing, employing too many of them, whether single or double, can make your writing appear heavy-handed. Consider having your manuscript proofread by Scribendi to ensure that quote marks are used correctly.