Using Citations

In analysis, it is very important to correctly FORMAT each citation or passage that you use directly

from the text.  Here are some steps to help you along.

Punctuating a Citation without Dialogue
STEP ONE: Copy the citation EXACTLY from the book, but leave off the end punctuation mark.  For example (from the novel Crossing Jordan by Adrain Fogelin):

He held out his right hand.  Mr Lewis hesitated before taking it. After a quick handshake, they stood facing each other, not knowing what to do next

STEP TWO: Next, add quotation marks to the beginning and end of the citation.

“He held out his right hand.  Mr Lewis hesitated before taking it. After a quick handshake, they stood facing each other, not knowing what to do next”

STEP THREE: After the end quotation marks, add parentheses with the page number(s) to indicate where you found the citation

“He held out his right hand.  Mr Lewis hesitated before taking it. After a quick handshake, they stood facing each other, not knowing what to do next” (104)

STEP FOUR: Finally, add a period after the parentheses.


“He held out his right hand.  Mr Lewis hesitated before taking it. After a quick handshake, they stood facing each other, not knowing what to do next” (104).


Punctuating a Citation with Dialogue
The only difference in punctuating a citation with dialogue is that you use single quotations (‘ ‘) instead of double quotations (“ “) for the dialogue portion.  You still need to use double quotations to indicate that it is a citation.  

For example:

“I owe you my baby’s life.’ He held out his right hand” (104).

OR

“And even though I thought she did, I said, ‘She’s fine, Lou Anne.  Perfect,’ because I didn’t want Lou to feel bad anymore” (105).

• When introducing quotations, be sure to use a comma to separate your introductory context and the citation.

Example: Nana Grace explains, “She went to school every day afraid.  Afraid to use the little girls’ room. Afraid of fights on the playground” (111).

• When citing poetry, use slash marks (/) to indicate line breaks.

Example: “His bald head the brightest/spot in the room./He’s thick as a broomstick, gangling tall,/his eyes cloudy” (99).  

~Hesse, Karen. Witness

• If there is a question mark or exclamation point at the end of your citation, keep the orginal punctuation INSIDE your quotation marks and use a period OUTSIDE your last parentheses.

Example: As she listens to Nana Grace sing a soothing tune, Lou Anne askes, “What’s that song about Crossing Jordan mean?” (103).

OR

Dorothea in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein responds to her sister, “What a wonderful little almanac you are, Celia!” (7).

• If you want to use the beginning and ending of a larg passage (but don’t necessarily need the entire thing), you may use an ellipsis (…) to indicate that you are skipping a section

Example: In reflection on her talent show fiasco, the narrator realizes, “In the years that followed, I failed her so many times, each time asserting my own willl, my right to fall short of expectations…for unlike my mother, I did not believe I could be anything I wanted to be” (100).

~Tan, Amy. “Two Kinds” from The Joy Luck Club

• If your citation goes onto a second page, include both page numbers separated by a hyphen.

Example: After the narrator finishes her doomed recital, she stands to a quiet, shocked room.  “And now I realized how many people were in the audience, the whole world it seemed” (98-9).

• Set off longer quotations as a block.  For quotations of four lines or more, start a new line, indent the entire quotation ten spaces from the left margin, continue to double space, and do not use quotation marks.

Example
There is no question that Franklin found the Iroquois impressive.  On March 20, 1750, he wrote to James Parker, his friend and fellow printer:

It would be a strange thing if Six Nations..should be capable of forming a scheme for such a union, and be able to execute it in such a manner as that it has subsisted ages and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like union would be impracticable for ten or a dozen English colonies, to whom is more necessary and must be more advantageous, and who cannot be supposed to want an equal understanding of their interests. (444)

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using someone else’s ideas or words as though they are your own.

1.  Any time you use sources in your writing, whether a quotation, paraphrase, or summary, you must credit your sources. There are many online MLA format sites that can assist you in documentation. Google: “MLA format” and you will be linked to a variety of sites.

2.  All parties in plagiarism are considered equally guilty. If you share your course work with another student, you are considered as guilty as the person who plagiarizes it, since you enable the plagiarism to take place.