How to draw up a quote in an essay, term paper or diploma
A citation is an exact extract from a text. Without a budget, it is not possible to write a scientific or qualifying article. Let us try to find out what a quote is, where it is appropriate, and how to use it correctly.
What is the appointment?
In the context of academic work, the citation includes:
- Loan of an excerpt from the author;
- Loan formulas, statements, illustrations and other items;
- Paraphrased or wordless interpretation of a text fragment;
- Analysis of the content of other publications in the text of the work.
The most important rule of the scientific citation: the citation must be accompanied by a link to the source.
Types of citations
Two common types of citations in academic articles are direct and indirect citations (paraphrasing).
The second possibility is to retell a fragment of the author’s text in his own words. It makes sense when you provide information from multiple sources at the same time and have too much text to summarize. In this case, a link to the source is also required.
General requirements for citations
When adding citations to jobs, some general rules should be observed.
First, the use of a citation must be reasoned and appropriate, and you must be responsible for defining the limits of the citation. It is important to remember that in academic work, it is not acceptable to duplicate the text of the citation in the main text.
Second, when the source text is quoted verbatim, the quotation is always enclosed in quotation marks, and a link is provided. If this does not happen, you will receive plagiarism instead of an offer.
There are several ways to refer to a source when citing:
Via text. The number of the source of the bibliography is given in brackets in the text immediately after the citation and the number of the page on which the quoted text fragment is located, separated by a comma.
Subscript. Information about one or more sources is displayed in a separate area from the main text at the bottom of the page.
Changing the author’s citations in the text
In most cases, this is prohibited, with a few exceptions:
- if you want to expand an abbreviated word into a whole word;
- when it is necessary to reconcile the cases of the citation and the text fragment of the work in which it is cited;
- if you want to point out errors or typographical errors in the source code.
Quotation design
All the cited texts are enclosed in quotation marks, which only appear at the beginning and at the end of the quoted passage.
If the quoted text is divided into paragraphs, these will be saved in the citation. Use herringbone quotation marks (“) to style quotes, and if you need to include a passage of text in a quotation, use quotation marks (“).
Set punctuation marks In quotation marks
- A period in a statement is always placed after the quotation marks;
- Ellipses, question marks, and exclamation marks are enclosed in quotation marks;
- If the quotation is framed in a subordinate clause and ends with an ellipsis, a period is placed at the end of the sentence;
- If the quotation is a separate sentence ending with a question mark or exclamation point, the period is not placed at the end.
The capital letter at the beginning of a quotation
A quotation begins with a capital letter in several cases:
- when a sentence begins with a quotation (although not recommended);
- if the quote comes after the words, it is inserted into the text after the colon, and the sentence begins at the source;
- if a quote comes after the words that enter it in the text, after a colon and begins with a proper name.
Output
Quotations in scientific articles speak of the author’s ability to work with information, analyze it and select the main thing. Correctly formatted citations show where the author refers to the source and where he expresses his thoughts.
Different types of scholarly articles have their requirements for the number of citations allowed per page of text. Incorrectly executed citations spoil the overall impression of the work and can affect the final grade of students’ theses or diplomas.
Read our blog on Types of research student work