2.  All quotations should be introduced. They should never suddenly appear out of nowhere. Never use a quotation as a complete sentence by itself. Incorrect: Scout describes Walter Cunningham. “Walter looked as if he had been raised on fish food: his eyes, as blue as Dill Harris’s, were red-rimmed and watery” (23).

3.  Correct: Scout said, “Walter looked as if he had been raised on fish food: his eyes, as blue as Dill Harris’s were red-rimmed and watery” (23). Notice that “said” is a verb so needs a comma directly after and before the quotation.

4. Do not quote someone and then leave the words hanging as if they were self- explanatory. What does the quotation mean and how does it help establish the point you are making? Quotations are not substitutes for your ideas, and they do not stand by themselves.

5. Do not use:  “This quote shows” or “In this quote” or “This quote demonstrates”  Refer to specific words or ideas in the quotations in your next sentence and assume that your reader knows why you have used a quotation (as long as you have introduced it).

6.  The most effective use of quotations is to embed a part of the sentence into your writing. Effective: Scout recognizes Walter’s hunger in his “red- rimmed and watery eyes” and his looking “as if he had been raised on fish food” (23).

7.  Use an ellipsis, three periods with spaces between them (…), within a quotation to show that part of the original text is left out. An ellipsis at the beginning or end of a quotation is unnecessary.

8. Use single quotation marks around material that is already in quotations in the source you are quoting. Single quotation marks are used ONLY inside double quotation marks. Example: Harper Lee’s use of dialect adds to the character development. Jem’s age and almost brotherly concern show when he says, “‘she ain’t gonna get you. He’ll talk her out of it. That was fast thinkin’, son’” (55).

9.  Keep periods and commas inside of quotations marks.  Example: According to Professor Jones, Lincoln "feared the spread of slavery," but many of his aides advised him to "watch and wait."

10.  Sometimes it is necessary to change the form of a word in a quotation (“walks” to “walked”) or to add a word of your own to make the sentence flow. Use brackets, [ ], to indicate anything you have changed. Example: Regarding Mrs. Dubose, Atticus says to Jem that he “wanted [him] to see something about her” (112).

11.  Use block format for longer quotations (over 5 lines long). Indent and double-space.  Do not use quotation marks around the block.  Comment after the block.

12.  In rare situations, you may quote from a text that has non-standard grammar, spelling, or word choice. You may want to insert [sic], which means "thus" or "so" in Latin.  Using [sic] alerts your reader to the fact that this non-standard language is not the result of a typo on your part.

13.  Here's an example of when you might use [sic]: Twelve-year-old Betsy Smith wrote in her diary that “Father is afraid that he will be guilty of beach [sic] of contract.“

14.  Some examples adapted from:  http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/hand outs-demos/citation/quotations http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/hand outs-demos/citation/quotations