Quotes can be utilized to create your topic ideas or thesis statement as well as to support your argument. Direct quotes are a great approach to support and develop your arguments using reliable, fact-based information in your writing. However, you must know how to correctly credit any quotes you choose to utilize for your work to look professional and to completely exclude any chance of being accused of (or actually committing) plagiarism.
No matter what literary style you choose to write in, all of them call for the usage of correct citations whenever you utilize words that are not your own. Be aware that plagiarism occurs when you use a quote in your essay but fail to attribute the author of the original work properly. This might occasionally be disregarded at the elementary school or even high school levels as a rookie mistake or untrained oversight. However, this could lead to expulsion at the college level or higher. You must include a relevant reference page at the end of your essay if you want to use a quote in your paper.
How to Use a Quote in an Essay Opening
The most problematic aspect of writing an essay is frequently coming up with the ideal start. If you decided not to simply google “pay someone to write my paper” to get it done for you by professionals and want to do it yourself, you have to be prepared for the challenge. Although there are many different methods to compose an introduction, there are some instances when it makes sense to begin a paper with a quotation. A surefire strategy to start your essay is choosing the most appropriate quote and learning how best to combine it into an outline of your own words.
Avoid overused sayings and cliches, like the ones constantly appearing on your Facebook page. Your reader won’t want to read a quote they’ve already heard a thousand times unless it is very pertinent.
Use an astonishment or stunning comment if possible.
- Use a quotation from a person who said something unexpected
- Mention someone who is not a well-known figure (Ben Stiller and James Earl Jones have said enough!)
- Use a famous quotation as a starting point, but challenge it. Contradict, refute, or expand upon what the original author stated, interpreting their words to discover a more profound meaning
The best way to decide whether or not to include the quote in your essay is to research it in its context. Make sure you are aware of your audience before continuing.
- Will the reader be familiar with the source you’ve chosen to use?
- Could this quotation be interpreted as offensive anywhere?
According to the best college essay writing service, including quotes in your essay is an excellent approach to grabbing the reader’s attention, keeping them interested, and persuading them to keep reading. Whatever quotation you pick, ensure it enhances your essay rather than detracts from it. A quote without connection to your subject will function as a diversion and can lead your readers astray.
How to cite a quotation
Using a quote in your paper is rather simple; quoting a quote, on the other hand, calls for a little more care.
It would be best if you first chose the section of the secondary source that you wish to cite. For clarification, the work incorporating the quote you want to include in your paper is the secondary source, sometimes referred to as an indirect quote. It is recommended to use the most pertinent passage from the secondary source that makes a compelling statement about the quote being utilized indirectly if you try to draw on only a piece of the text from the source.
It is best to always remember to cite the secondary source correctly before using a quote from it.
In contrast to regular passages, secondary quotes are identified differently. To determine the secondary source and the actual quote, use “single quotation marks” and “double quotation marks,” respectively. After the author’s last name, you might additionally need to include a parenthetical citation.
- The publication year should come after the author’s name when using the APA citation style. After the quote, there will be a page number.
- By MLA citation standards, you must include the page number after the author’s name.
Every single source for which you have provided parenthetical citations in the body of your essay should be listed in your reference list. You only need to include the secondary source in your reference list using indirect quotes. Remember to add the entry to your reference list.
How to Credit a Phrase
How you cite a quote mostly depends on the citation style or method that you are required to follow. Every time you use a quote in your essay, for instance, you should cite it using the MLA (Modern Language Association) citation style, which requires you to give both the writer’s full name and the appropriate page number. The year the quote was penned would also need to be included if you were to format your essay in APA style, both in the essay’s body and on the reference page.
Citing short quotations: Following MLA style requirements, a brief quote is anything that is less than four typed lines in length. The quote will be enclosed in double quotation marks, the author’s last name will be written out, and the page number will be included if the quote you use in your work satisfies that criterion.
It is allowed to type the author’s name either before the quote or after it in parentheses. There is no need to include anything to indicate that it is a page number because the page number will be written at the conclusion.
Professional writers, according to the best essay writing service reddit reviews, recommend instead of simply inserting a quote and hoping that the readers would understand it on their own, make it a habit to introduce the quotation with a brief paragraph. As an alternative to putting the author’s name in parenthesis at the end, you can introduce the author in your introduction. The quote can also be presented, followed by your reference and remark.
Citing long quotations: By MLA guidelines, a long quotation is any passage longer than four printed lines. You must enter the quote as a free-standing block of text without quotation marks when using these in your writing. It is appropriate to indent the first line of the quote, use double spacing, and introduce the quotation with a single line of text and a colon. The author’s last name and the quoted page number should be included in parentheses after the quote to be correctly punctuated.
Block quotations must be used if you need to cite more than one paragraph. When transitioning from one section to the next, don’t forget to use ellipses at the end of each line and indent the beginning line of each paragraph. This stays consistent even if each paragraph’s component contains fewer than four typed lines.
Adding or deleting words: There are a few procedures you should take if you need to add to or change a quote so that it fits the context of your essay or if you need to delete words that might not be important to your argument:
To help the reader comprehend the context of a quotation, provide your information in brackets.
To omit portions of a quote that might now be pertinent to your paper, use ellipses (…).
Citing a passage with many authors: If you need to mention a passage written by more than one person, separate their names with commas and the word “and.”
Citing quotations from the Internet: Citing quotes from websites can be a little trickier than citing quotes from books or articles, mainly because you won’t be able to obtain pertinent details like page numbers. However, you should try to provide as much information as possible. Such as the author’s name, the publication year, or the title of the source the statement was derived from.
