Difference between revisions of "Documentation/Writer for Students/Quotes"

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Short quotes need “double quotation marks” to set them off from the rest of the text. Longer ones need a paragraph of their own – usually indented and possibly in slightly smaller font size. If you have a line spacing of 1.5 for your Body Text, you might want to choose a slightly smaller one of say 130% for your quotes.
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Short quotes (from a few words up to two or three lines) need “double quotation marks” to set them off from the rest of the text, quotes within quotes ‘simple quotation marks’. A quote exceeding three or four lines needs to be put in a paragraph of its own using the paragraph style '''Quotations''' which provides for an '''Indent before text''' of '''1cm''' and an '''Indent after text''' also of '''1cm'''. You could further adapt the '''Quotations''' style, choosing '''Proportional Line spacing''' of '''130%''' instead of 1.5 and giving it a slightly smaller sized font of '''11pt''' instead of '''12pt'''. ''Italics'' are not commonly used any more for quotes.
  
Ellipses in square brackets […] are used as a stand-in for left-out parts of your quote. Square brackets can also be used to insert explanatory words into your quote, but which are not actually part of the original.
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Ellipses in square brackets […] are used as a stand-in for left-out parts of your quote. The amount of left-out text should not, however, be too large, otherwise the whole thing could become quite arbitrary and you could end up using bits of the original text but completely devoid of the original context. Square brackets can also be used to signify change of capitalisation. Sometimes they are used to insert translations of unfamiliar words. Example: “The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation […]. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of
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social, political, and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.” (Karl Marx, Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, 1859)
  
<blockquote>In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely [the] relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure, and to which correspond definite forms of consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. (Karl Marx, Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, 1859)</blockquote>
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An ellipsis ''without'' square brackets is often used as a stylistic means for symbolizing incomplete
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utterances. “I don’t know …”, he said, wanting to gain time.
  
Take care that these fill-in words don’t in any way alter the meaning of the quote!
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== When to Quote? ==
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Use quotes sparingly. If you are say simply describing the views of an author on child education, then preferably do it in your own words. Too many direct quotes could easily give the reader the impression you are just beefing up your text.
  
An ellipsis ''without'' square brackets you would use for words left out already in the original quote or for symbolizing incomplete utterances. ‘Single quotation marks’ you would use for quotes ''within'' a quote.
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There are two circumstances where you would in my opinion need direct quotes: You want to analyse a possibly controversial or particularly difficult passage in depth, in which case you of course need to quote the object of your analysis – not forgetting of course to take into consideration the textual as well as the historical and social context in which it is embedded and which readership it addresses. Another situation would be if you want to ''prove'' that the author is contradicting him or herself or that his or her public face does not correspond to what she writes in this or that other publication.
 
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== When to Quote? ==
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Use quotes sparingly. If you are say simply reproducing the views of an author on child education in your own words, then there might well be no reason for any direct quotes. If on the other hand you want to dwell on one of his or her theses or formulations which you find especially controversial or difficult to interpret or even in contradiction with other statements by the same author, then you ''would'' want to quote the passage in question.
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Revision as of 11:31, 9 June 2014



Short quotes (from a few words up to two or three lines) need “double quotation marks” to set them off from the rest of the text, quotes within quotes ‘simple quotation marks’. A quote exceeding three or four lines needs to be put in a paragraph of its own using the paragraph style Quotations which provides for an Indent before text of 1cm and an Indent after text also of 1cm. You could further adapt the Quotations style, choosing Proportional Line spacing of 130% instead of 1.5 and giving it a slightly smaller sized font of 11pt instead of 12pt. Italics are not commonly used any more for quotes.

Ellipses in square brackets […] are used as a stand-in for left-out parts of your quote. The amount of left-out text should not, however, be too large, otherwise the whole thing could become quite arbitrary and you could end up using bits of the original text but completely devoid of the original context. Square brackets can also be used to signify change of capitalisation. Sometimes they are used to insert translations of unfamiliar words. Example: “The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation […]. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political, and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.” (Karl Marx, Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, 1859)

An ellipsis without square brackets is often used as a stylistic means for symbolizing incomplete utterances. “I don’t know …”, he said, wanting to gain time.

When to Quote?

Use quotes sparingly. If you are say simply describing the views of an author on child education, then preferably do it in your own words. Too many direct quotes could easily give the reader the impression you are just beefing up your text.

There are two circumstances where you would in my opinion need direct quotes: You want to analyse a possibly controversial or particularly difficult passage in depth, in which case you of course need to quote the object of your analysis – not forgetting of course to take into consideration the textual as well as the historical and social context in which it is embedded and which readership it addresses. Another situation would be if you want to prove that the author is contradicting him or herself or that his or her public face does not correspond to what she writes in this or that other publication.


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