Using Quoted Material
Short Quotations (fewer than four lines)
Example: I have noticed that people who succeed frequently don’t seem to value success as much as people who don’t often succeed. Emily Dickinson describes the type of person who understands success the most in one of her poems. She writes, “Success is counted sweetest / by those who ne’er succeed.” Dickinson shows that people who know failure the best also know the real value of success, simply because they have desired it, but not achieved it.
Long Quotations (four lines or more) Got a paragraph from Huck Finn you’d like to use in your paper? Or, you absolutely need 4+ lines of poetry to make your point?
Follow these rules for long quotations:
Example: Emily Dickinson describes the type of person who understands success the most in her poem “Success is Counted Sweetest." In this poem, she uses a story of a defeated soldier to get across the idea that those who never taste success understand it better than those who achieve it:
Not one of all the purple host
Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory!
As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!
The soldier who is “defeated, dying” feels all the disappointment of losing not just the war, but more importantly, his life. And, he can hear the triumphant sounds of those who won in the distance. This pain of failure gives him a greater understanding of success.
- Introduce these properly with your own words.
- Work short quotes into the body of your paper and use quotation marks.
- Remember to show line breaks in poetry/songs with a diagonal (/).
- Put parenthetical citations, if needed, at the end of the quote. Follow the parenthetical citation with a period. No period should precede the citation.
Example: I have noticed that people who succeed frequently don’t seem to value success as much as people who don’t often succeed. Emily Dickinson describes the type of person who understands success the most in one of her poems. She writes, “Success is counted sweetest / by those who ne’er succeed.” Dickinson shows that people who know failure the best also know the real value of success, simply because they have desired it, but not achieved it.
Long Quotations (four lines or more) Got a paragraph from Huck Finn you’d like to use in your paper? Or, you absolutely need 4+ lines of poetry to make your point?
Follow these rules for long quotations:
- Indent 10 spaces (2 tabs)
- Double-space the material!
- Do not use quotation marks.
- Often, it is useful to introduce the long quote with a colon or comma.
- You do not need to use a “/” to indicate line breaks in long quotes from poems – just preserve the poem’s original form.
- Put parenthetical citations two spaces after the end of the last line after the end punctuation.
Example: Emily Dickinson describes the type of person who understands success the most in her poem “Success is Counted Sweetest." In this poem, she uses a story of a defeated soldier to get across the idea that those who never taste success understand it better than those who achieve it:
Not one of all the purple host
Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory!
As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear!
The soldier who is “defeated, dying” feels all the disappointment of losing not just the war, but more importantly, his life. And, he can hear the triumphant sounds of those who won in the distance. This pain of failure gives him a greater understanding of success.