Integrating Quotations

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Dropped Quotation
Quotation With a Signal Phrase
Part of a Quotation
Quotation Using Brackets

Use quotations sparingly in your research paper: too many quotations in a short paper sends the message that you are unable to think for yourself. Sometimes, though, a source quotation is particularly clear or distinctly expressive, or it is important to present a debater's side of an issue in his/her exact words. In such cases verbatim quotes are appropriate.

When you do use quotations, integrate them smoothly into the structure and the grammar of your own text. Quotations which are dropped into your text without warning are unlikely to achieve the results you desire. Instead, use signal phrases.

Dropped Quotation

Canadian biologists have learned a great deal from peregrine conservation. "The formula for success - sound biology combined with vision, dedication and international cooperation - is now being applied to other endangered species" (Bryson, 33).

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Quotation with a Signal Phrase

Canadian biologists have learned a great deal from peregrine conservation. According to Connie Bryson, "The formula for success - sound biology combined with vision, dedication and international cooperation - is now being applied to other species" (33).

Sometimes it is appropriate to include only part of a quotation rather than the whole thing; in such cases, use ellipsis (three periods, with spaces between) to indicate that you have omitted words.

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Part of a Quotation

In a recent Globe and Mail article, Garth Vader reports that "a 4-year-old pygmy chimpanzee . . . has demonstrated what scientists say are the most human-like linguistic skills ever documented in another animal" (A1).

At other times, it is necessary to insert words of your own into the quotation in order to make the quotation fit into the grammar of your sentence. To do this correctly, use square brackets to set off your words from those of the quotation.

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Quotation using Brackets

The most prominent group to feel this way was the "government led by Governor Seymour [which] desired neither union with Canada nor annexation with the United States" (Careless and Brown 40). It simply wanted to remain loyal to Britain and retain independent colonial status.

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