Quotations
Quotations of varying length are treated differently-
(1) Quotations of 3 lines or less. These are called run-in quotations and are placed in the main body of the text. Use double inverted commas around this quotation.
(2) Quotations of more than three lines. These are called block or indented quotations. The quote is started on a separate line, without the use of inverted commas/quotation marks.
Run-in quotation Example
Jared Diamond reminds us that “circumstances change, and past primacy is a salutary lesson for the modern world: circumstances change, and past primacy is no guarantee of future primacy”.
Block quotation Example
According to Jared Diamond,
Because technology begets more technology, the importance of an invention’s diffusion potentially exceeds the importance of the original invention. Technology’s history exemplifies what is termed an autocatalytic process: that is, one that speeds up at a rate that increases with time, because the process catalyzes itself.
Some Tips For When You Are Quoting
Words Added for Clarity: put them in square brackets, [ ].
Words Left Out of Quotation: Use the following- [...]. This can be useful when the complete quotation would be very long and there is a part of the quotation that would be of no illustrative value and could be omitted. It can also add to the clarity of the quotes meaning or illustrative value.
Quotation Within a Quotation: Use single inverted commas, e.g. "As Cooper said in relation to this topic, 'This would be of no use here', and went on to discuss it further.".
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