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This sample paper will present some guidelines for using three different styles of quotations commonly used in academic papers. Although the quotation rules are described as though they are absolute, they are not -- there are exceptions to almost every rule used here. They are, however, fairly safe to use.

The standard rules for handling an indented quotation are that 1) it ought to be at least four lines long in your handwriting or typing, 2) it is indented on the left margin an extra 10 spaces or an inch, and 3) it is generally introduced with a complete sentence ending with a colon. Ananda Todman is helpful in explaining how such a quotation ought to look:

Notice in this quotation that there are no quotations marks around it -- it is assumed that the indentation of the words is enough indication that the words are quoted. Notice, too, that in this example, the word "Notice" that begins the passage is not indented any further than the rest of the quotation. This indicates that the passage is found in the middle of a paragraph in its original text. (112-13)

Another style of quotation is the run-in. It simply uses words or phrases from someone else's text run in to the writer's own sentence. For instance, you may need Todman's "wonderfully evocative phrase" (120) or "necessarily" (118) precise word in order to support your point. The most efficient way to do this is not to drag in the whole sentence that contains the words you need, but just to run-in the exact words into your sentence.

The third style of quoting may be the most common, although it has no commonly accepted name. We can call it a full-sentence quotation. It simply imports a sentence or two, shorter than four lines, into the writer's text, introduces it with a full sentence ending in a colon, and encloses it in quotation marks. This quotation has much in common with another style: "In fact, it is useful to think of this kind of quoting as just a smaller version of the indented quote" (Perez 3). The rule of "Prepare, quote, explore" is handy here as well. Often it may seem that there is nothing to explore in such a quotation, but sometimes this is a clue that the idea in the quotation is not complicated enough to deserve being quoted in whole sentences. Use a run-in instead.

One other problem may come up in handling quotations: poetry. All the rules discussed above remain in force, but the writer also has to indicate, in quotations that are not indented, where each line of poetry ends. When Hamlet berates his mother for the "act / That blurs the grace and blush of modesty" (3.4.49-50), a slash (also called a virgule) is used to indicate where one line ends and the next begins. It looks best when it has a space on both sides.

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