Direct Quote Card
- Enclose all borrowed language in quotation marks, even a single unusual word. Not your words? Use quotation marks!
- Incorporate quotations smoothly.
- Use "[sic]" immediately after an apparent error in a direct quotation.
- Quote only the portion of the sentence that relates to your point.
- Place commas and periods inside closing quotation marks, except when using internal citation format.
- Place colons and semi-colons outside closing quotation marks.
- Place exclamation and question marks inside closing quotation marks when part of the original quotation, outside when part of paper's sentence.
- Do not quote a capital letter in the first word of a quotation when it becomes part of a sentence in your paper.
- Use an ellipsis (3 spaced periods) to indicate the omission of a word, phrase, or sentence from a quotation; be careful not to alter the grammar or meaning of the quotation.
- When blocking off more than three lines of prose in long quotation form:
omit quotation marks
make single-spaced
indent ten spaces from each margin.
