Rules for Punctuating Quotes in Your Essay

When you are writing an essay, its very important to support arguments with good evidence. Quotations can be an effective thing, and if you use them in your work properly, its possible to create a successful and bright paper. Needless to say that your essay must be written in accordance with certain rules. If you are going to include some quotations into your work, you have to know all rules about punctuation. In this article, we are going to tell you how to punctuate quotations in an essay. Keep reading and find the main rules of punctuation weve gathered for you here. What are marks for quotes? While you are making an essay, you may need to put some persons words in it. Special marks are used to put such phrases correctly in the paper. They help to mark other persons words you use from sources. You should remember that marks have to be used in pairs always. There are some differences in using such marks. For example, in the USA, they use single marks if include some quoted words within another quote. People in Great Britain have different rules about single-quote marks and double-quote marks. But in general, all quotes should be marked in your essay according to the requirements. Thats why its an important moment to clarify with your professor or teacher when you are going to create a paper with some quotations included. Rules how to use quotes in an essay correctly There are some certain rules when you need to put quotation marks in your paper. Follow the next rules when youre making an essay: In general, we need quotation marks to mark direct quotes, words, or titles. Marks shouldnt be put when youre using block quotations. When you quote an entire sentence, the text should be capitalized, but you shouldnt do it when you need to put just a fragment. Punctuating quotations in essays can be varied for different cases. Single marks must be used for quotes within quotes. Direct quotations should be introduced and interrupted with commas. If your quotation goes before words â€Å"she said†, â€Å"he reported†, â€Å"they asked†, you should put the comma after the quote. f a quotation is used as an object or subject, it doesnt need a comma. You must mark technical terms, words put in any unusual way, or other non-standard expressions. If a quoted material is more than one paragraph, you need to open a new paragraph with a mark, and to use closing quotation mark only when the passage is ended. How to correctly write a quote in an essay: direct and indirect quotes If you need to use someones word in your essay, it is possible to do with quotation marks. There are two ways how to do it. For example, lets say you need to put into your paper a phrase that your friend said: Arthur said, â€Å"Its better to fulfill my homework on math for tomorrow before I go to the party†. But, from the other side, it is possible to make the same sentence without quotation marks: Arthur said that hed like to fulfill his homework on math for tomorrow before he goes to the party. The first sentence is an example of the direct quote, where you just put Arthurs words into your essay. The second example is an indirect quote where you just paraphrase Arthurs saying. Remember that you must mark only direct quotes. Rules how to punctuate quotes in an essay You have to remember these simple rules to punctuate quotations in the paper properly: The beginning quotation mark should be inserted right before the quoted phrase (without spaces), and the end of mark must be inserted after the last word of the quote, without spaces. You have to place the period right after the citation. Never use a semicolon to introduce a quotation; keep in your mind you must use only comma and colon for this. How to introduce quotations in an essay Its quite understandable that you cannot just integrate a quote standing alone into your essay. There are four ways how to correctly put a quote in an essay: Write a complete sentence related to the quote and put a colon. Example: Colin R. Davis said about the success: â€Å"The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same.† Write an explanatory phrase and put a comma to separate it from the quotation. Example: According to Jim Rohns words, â€Å"Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.† Integrate a quotation into your own sentence without any punctuation between your sentence and quote. Example: Michael John Bobak insists that â€Å"All progress takes place outside the comfort zone†. Use just a few words of quotation as an integrated part of your own sentence. Example: Thomas J. Watson detects his formula of success by his famous words â€Å"go ahead and make mistakes†. Verbs and phrases used to introduce quotations All words that introduce quotes, can be divided into three categories: Neutral verbs that usually mean â€Å"says†. Example: the author comments, reports, states, shows, notes – these are neutral verbs that go before the quote. Strong verbs that usually shows an argument, and the quote after this word can disagree or support the one side of the argument. These are words: the author argues, compares, rejects, claims, denies, etc. Inference verbs that indicate an argument and a quote shows support or disagreement. Example: The author thinks, suggests, implies. So, now you know everything about how to put a quote in an essay correctly. We hope this article was helpful, and you will create a successful paper with proper quotation marks. Remember that its important to make an interesting and bright work, but its also important to follow all rules about punctuation.