Questions tagged [quotations]

Questions about quotations, a group of words taken from a text or speech and repeated by someone other than the original author or speaker.

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Quotation marks or no? [duplicate]

Should quotation marks be used in the following phrase? Have you ever asked yourself, "What will be left behind when I'm gone? How will people remember me?"
kerry sayers doucet's user avatar
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Origin of "another and a greater X"

Having recently happened across the fact that Greek ἄνωθεν anothen means "from above, higher," I'm now constantly when I see it thinking "another and a greater..." But where does ...
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Should I include a period in a quote when the quote is in middle of a sentence?

I have the following sentence: In a disappointed and irritated tone, my mom suddenly said, “I always thought Sue would marry a Chinese person” right in front of him. Do I need to include a period ...
ajm's user avatar
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3 answers
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When should we capitalize the beginning of a quotation?

Basically, I am somewhat confused when a quotation should be capitalized. My understanding is that if a) one quotes the full original sentence and b) this quotation is set off by a colon, semi-colon ...
IbnZubeira's user avatar
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Placement order of ellipsis, punctuation, and footnote reference mark in block excerpt

Dealing with an extended block quotation that must retain its internal and original footnote reference markers to sources. The block quotation comprises several paragraphs with a number of ellipses ...
Typothalamus's user avatar
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Comma joining a question and a quoted speech

I find this sentence in a paper: If this coming to awareness is true good luck, why would Shi Tiesheng need designer luck, he asks: “perhaps I’m already the darling of fate?” Apparently, the author ...
thatness's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
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Ellipses variously representing omitted sentences and paragraphs in multi-paragraph excerpt

If midway in a multi-paragraph quotation, a paragraph begins with one or more paragraphs prior (in between) omitted and the line starts mid-sentence, does one ellipsis convey both of these? If one ...
Typothalamus's user avatar
2 votes
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APA style: Changing direct quote "drew" to "drawing" -- where to place square brackets? [closed]

If the original quote uses "drew" and I want to integrate it into my text by changing it to "drawing", which of the following would I write? "dr[awing]" Or "[...
Dee's user avatar
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Mixing symbols and numerical reference marks

In the case of a block quotation from a secondary source that is required to feature any original citations appearing in that material, would the convention of employing a numerical citation reference ...
Typothalamus's user avatar
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2 answers
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How to punctuate a question about a long, non-interrogative quote?

The quote is, I am going to the store. I will probably buy some food. It's getting late. I want to ask a question about whether someone would have said that. This post is about putting a question ...
hodop smith's user avatar
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Who is Augustus De Morgan's "New Zealander"?

Augustus De Morgan's A Budget of Paradoxes (1863–1867) contains several references to an apocryphal "New Zealander," without explanation. What's the in-joke here? I grok from context that ...
Quuxplusone's user avatar
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Can you use two sets of brackets side-by-side within a quote?

Specifically, I want to use brackets to indicate a break in the quote (with an ellipse in the brackets) as well as brackets to format the quote to fit my sentence. For example, if I were to quote from ...
Convocation's user avatar
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If I simultaneously change and omit part of a quote, should I include ellipsis next to the brackets?

I feel it would be easiest to explain using my specific situation as an example. I am writing an essay in which I plan to include the following quotation from a secondary source: The more she talks, ...
Samantha's user avatar
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Should a comma appear inside the quotations in these instances?

Here are the sentences: "You have to get up before 8:00 a.m." John said. "We talked about everything--books, cars, girls, movies, etc." John said. The question is whether a comma ...
Aaron S's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
98 views

Is it OK to add my explanation to a quotation?

If an original quotation includes a word that may cause confusion, is it OK that I write "Blabla (my clarification of the meaning of this word) blabla"? My explanation is not a part of the ...
Ypbor's user avatar
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Can square brackets be used in the following way even though it is not a direct quote?

I am proofing an article and the author has written this: She states: [A]n ekphrasis can be of any length, of any subject matter, composed in verse or prose, using any verbal techniques, as long as ...
Phil's user avatar
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How would I quote this article from 1887?

Here is the quote I am wondering about: The part that I am unsure about is how to quote the part, basically in the middle of the sentence that says "BY EVERY DEVICE OF BRUTAL INSULT". ...
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Seeking source of phrase: "Money is the winding-sheet of the human race" [closed]

I'm looking for the original source of something similar to this phrase: "Money is the winding-sheet of the human race." I found references to "winding sheet" in a few places: ...
jdscomms's user avatar
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1 answer
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Use of Single Quotation Marks Before Period/Comma/Question Mark/Exclamation Point [closed]

this is request for clarification on the rules for single quotation marks (apostrophe symbol on keyboard) in novels. My understanding is that single quotation marks, when used to indicate a quote ...
Danny D.'s user avatar
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Would You Capitalize a Part of Sentence That is After a Dialogue? [duplicate]

This something that I'm very confused about... You see, here is one example of the sentence: I ran ahead and said, "I don't want that," and crashed against a wall. In this sentence, you ...
ZZZ's user avatar
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Punctuating nested quotations

I am editing a novel and I have some questions on how to punctuate nested quotations (or quotations within quotations). Here is the first example: "I kept saying ‘it’s fake’ and ‘he did this’ ...
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What to enclose in square brackets and not?

I use square brackets when I paraphrase, i.e. when I change or add some words to a text I quote. I have noticed an inconsistency in what I enclose in the square brackets and not. Here are two examples....
sunny's user avatar
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2 answers
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Strange usage of quotations in Wikpedia article [closed]

My girlfriend and I were reading a Wikipedia page and were confused as to the usage of quotations in the following Wikipedia article: King Kong Bundy. Specifically, towards the end, the article ...
J N's user avatar
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Punctuation in dialogue that addressed more than one person

So I got a question regarding comma in speech. Here is an example of the sentence: “Wait a minute.” I hurriedly shouted to stop him and said to her, “Who invited that blockhead to this party?" In ...
Gerry Giovan's user avatar
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1 answer
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Should you capitalize run-in sentence? [duplicate]

So I come up with a question in narration, and here's a few example: I know from her smile that she was saying "you look like an idiot" to me. She was more likely than not dishing me out ...
Gerry Giovan's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
45 views

Can you introduce a direct quotation with "that" and not accommodate conjugation and pronouns?

I've heard this many times recently in public, copy-edited discourse, where I don't expect to find grammatical errors, but it doesn't sound right to me. Let's say my mom says to me, "I want you ...
kjohnsen's user avatar
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Proper way to delineate paraphrase in casual (text-based) conversation

First question would be: is it ok to use quotation marks for a paraphrase in casual (text-based) conversation? Here's my current example: A: You were insulting people. B: I'm going to get angry. Deal ...
Dave Cousineau's user avatar
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0 answers
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How to quote a list (for a scientific thesis)?

I would like to quote a list verbatim. Let's say this is the list, and it's originally from a book: Mathematics is essential in many fields, including natural science, engineering, medicine, finance, ...
Anna_B's user avatar
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281 views

Use of [brackets] in quotation: altering a single letter in a direct quote

We know that brackets, [these], are used for altering or adding extra information to a direct quote. For example, from this answer: These are used to indicate that a direct quote has been edited [or ...
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1 answer
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How would you punctuate someone referring to themselves by a nickname? [duplicate]

Being the "family freeloader," as Tom liked to call himself, he felt as though he had no right to complain. Should the comma come after the quotation marks, or is the current placement ...
Louisa's user avatar
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1 answer
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How to use quotation marks when quoting more than one paragraphs?

When quoting on a website like Stack Exchange, we have block quotes: like these but if they aren't available, and I want to use "double quotation marks": "then the quote is enclosed ...
user avatar
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1 answer
106 views

"If it were not for" and "if it had not been for": Which is more traditional?

Some use "if it were not for" to mean both the present and the past events, while others use "if it had not been for" for the past. For the former, see Oxford and be (verb) in OALD....
teika kazura's user avatar
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3 answers
628 views

How to quote material that ends sections with semicolons

I haven't found an answer to this specific scenario: "This is an example of the quoted text from the report where this section ends with a semicolon;" That is also the end of my sentence so ...
Pen_Guin's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
261 views

Grammatically wrong quote

As a researcher, I often need to quote from the previous authors. Sometimes, it happens that there are spelling mistakes in the part I want to quote. I treat this as a human error and write the ...
hola's user avatar
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1 answer
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How to punctuate dialogue/ direct quotations?

I am a little confused on how to punctuate dialogue. Does the speaker always need to be set off by punctuation? For example, which of the following is correct. Albert said "I like to eat cake.&...
TheeGrammarStallion's user avatar
19 votes
7 answers
4k views

What's a positive phrase to say that I quoted something not word by word

Sometimes I quote in my writing sombody else, but I do not know the exact words the other person had used. What is a concise and positive(*) phrase to describe this? I found different options on the ...
halloleo's user avatar
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-2 votes
1 answer
71 views

Where the heck do I put a period in these sentences?

Hullo all, I've been given a doozy of a job that is thick with sentences like this: Student will demonstrate emphasizing with the feelings of another by remembering a similar past experience and ...
Anie Knipping's user avatar
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0 answers
51 views

Can you use square brackets to correct punctuation in quotes? [duplicate]

I know why we use square brackets in quotations. But can we also use it for changing punctuation, in order to make it fit better with the sentence? For instance: Original Quote: "We went to the ...
Samantha's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
38 views

Pluralizing Quotations [duplicate]

Is there a way to properly pluralize a quotation, if I must and can't just rearrange the sentence to avoid it (or do not wish to rearrange it for artistic purposes)? Example: We exchanged many "...
Otherworld Soul Poetry's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
320 views

Can you add a comma at the end of a line to continue the quotation to the next line?

He leaned down whispering, "Will you stay?"
Saba . P's user avatar
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2 answers
462 views

Using single quotation marks for shorter quotes, and double quotation marks for longer ones?

Background This website has had a fair share of questions on the use of single versus double quotation marks. The most popular question on this topic is a good resource on their use in American and ...
hb20007's user avatar
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Should I capitalize a word from the middle of a quote if the quote and word occur at the start of the sentence?

I was writing an essay for a school assignment, when I encountered a quote similar the following: Nobody has encountered a black hole, because they're simply too far away to reach. I then needed to ...
shreyasm-dev's user avatar
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0 answers
101 views

Should Quotation-Ending Period Be Comma Unless Sentence Ending?

Now I'm checking Quotation Marks article by Grammarly. The article, for example, introduces “There was a storm last night,” Paul said. which uses a comma at the end of the quoted sentence, and John ...
Junyong Kim's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
46 views

What's the reason for using quotations with titles of works?

I have seen that in some styles for documenting sources quotations marks are used for the titles of short works. What's the reason for setting this as the convention? This seems like a use-mention ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
57 views

Should you include the word "the" inside a quoted/emphasized words? [closed]

I'm having a bit of trouble regarding whether to include the word "the" inside a quoted words. For example: None was known when the Great Cataclysm had happened on the other hand. Should I ...
Gerry Giovan's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
41 views

“cloud” or "cloud" - is the quotation mark same? [duplicate]

I found two different quotation marks, "cloud" and “cloud”. What's the difference between these? Should I always use "" or “”.
Vxider's user avatar
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-2 votes
1 answer
69 views

How can I attribute an entire paragraph to a source?

I need to summarize an interview for a news article across a few sentences in a single paragraph that uses a series of paraphrased remarks. Specifically, I'm looking for examples of clean ways to make ...
Jeff Axelrod's user avatar
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0 answers
964 views

Should you use quotation marks when transcribing an interview in which the speakers are identified before each quote?

I apologize if the title is unclear, as I couldn't find a great way to phrase this. What I'm asking is, which of the following would be correct? Interviewer: Good morning, thank you for joining me. ...
will1howell's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
55 views

Giving both page number and number of definition / proposition / theorem / lemma etc [closed]

I imagine this may be an overkill, but when making references to large e.g. mathematical books, I find it helpful to have both the page number and the definition / proposition / theorem / lemma (etc.) ...
Clément's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
77 views

"sic" with "explicitly" (and other adverbs)

I was reading a Wikipedia article on Fermat's principle that quoted some older English text, and one bit confused me: The principle of Fermat, although it was assumed by that mathematician on ...
LogStar100's user avatar

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