the comma quotes, punctuation, and intro. to citations

FRIDAY ORAL LANGUAGEEXPOSITORY WRITING

The CommaQuotes, Punctuation, and Intro. To

Citations

Quotes, Punctuation and Intro. to Citations

The primary function of quotation marks is to set off and represent exact language (either spoken or written) that has come from somebody else

Used to designate speech acts in fiction and non-fiction

Practical defense against accidental plagiarism and an excellent practice in academic honesty

Quotations are most effective if you use them sparingly and keep them relatively short


Quotation marks always come in pairsDo not open a quotation and fail to close it at

the end of the quoted materialCapitalize the first letter of a direct quote when

the quoted material is a complete sentence.Ex.: Mr. Johnson, who was working in his field

that morning, said, “The alien spaceship appeared right before my own two eyes.”

NOTE: Commas separate a quotation that is a full sentence (and is typically preceded by said, says, questions, exclaims, etc.).


Do not use a capital letter when the quoted material is a fragment or only a piece of the original material's complete sentence.

Ex.: Although Mr. Johnson has seen odd happenings on the farm, he stated that the spaceship “certainly takes the cake” when it comes to unexplainable activity.


If a direct quotation is interrupted mid-sentence, do not capitalize the second part of the quotation

Ex.:“I didn't see an actual alien being,” Mr. Johnson

said, “but I sure wish I had.”

NOTE: When sentence that ends with a quotations, the punctuation (e.g. period, exclamation point, question mark) falls within the quotes.


Indirect quotations: not exact wordings but rather re-phrasings or summaries of another person’s words

Indirect quotes: not necessary to use quotation marks

BUT, indirect quotes still require a citation (source)


Use direct quotations when the source material uses language that is powerful and noteworthy

Ex.: Martin Luther King Jr. believed that the end of slavery was important and of great hope to millions of slaves done horribly wrong.

vs.Martin Luther King Jr. said of the Emancipation

Proclamation, “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.”


To summarize : Use an indirect quotation (or paraphrase)

when you merely need to summarize key incidents or details of the text

Use direct quotations when the author you are quoting has coined a term unique to her or his research and relevant within your own paper


Introduction to basic in-text citation formats (this will be covered in greater depth next week)

Ex.: Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”(263).

NOTE: The author is referenced in the sentence, therefore, page number is only required within parenthesis.


If the author and source (the article) are not stated in the sentence but still incorporates a quotation from the source, the author and page number must follow the quotation.

Ex.: Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”(Wordsworth 263).


Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Why don’t we need quotation marks in this sentence?

Give it a try!

Sources

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

the comma quotes, punctuation, and intro. to citations

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