9/1/09

3 Ways to Quote Text

3 Ways to Quote Text...

When you quote text to use in your own writing, it has to be connected to your writing. If it's not connected, it's said to be floating. Here's an example of a floating quote:

Charles Dickens describes the unique time period. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." He is explaining how things were both good and bad in England and France. 

The quote in the middle of this passage is floating because there's nothing connecting it to the sentence before it or after.

There are three ways to fix it:
embedded: The quotation is a part of your sentence so that it sounds like your own words. Ex: Dickens describes the unique time period in England and France as both the "best of times" and "the worst of times."

tagged: The quotation has a tag (he said, she answered, John commented,) that identifies it as someone else’s words. Ex: Charles Dickens describes the unique time period. He writes, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." He is explaining how things were both good and bad in England and France. 

colon: The quotation follows a complete sentence and colon. The quotation explains or demonstrates what’s been stated in the intro sentence. For this example, this method is probably the easiest to use: Charles Dickens describes the unique time period: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." He is explaining how things were both good and bad in England and France.