Quotes should NOT be used to say something that you could just as easily say yourself.   The purpose of quotes are to support a substantive point that you are trying to make. Often students quote because they are worried that they cannot summarize the author's points adequately without using the author's own words. The truth, however, is that any reader who has carefully considered what an author is saying can rewrite a passage. Given that point of writing assignments is to provide the student with experience in thinking, students must learn to read printed material and think about the material.

More Tips on Quoting

1) Quotes NEVER stand alone as a sentence.

WRONG:   Raymond argues that sugar causes hyperactivity.  "Sugar leads to energetic children."

Instead, quotes should always appear inside a sentence.

CORRECT:  Raymond claims that "sugar leads to energetic children" (p. 133: 1999).

2)  ALWAYS put the author's last name, year and page number when quoting.

For example.  Sugar is believed to lead "hyperactivity and other mood disorder"  (Raymond 1999: 133).

3)  Period ALWAYS goes after the end of the parenthesis NOT after the end of the quote.

4)  When a quote is three sentences or longer than put in in BLOCK form.