2. How to use quotations and references effectively

Quotations

Quotations should not be used uncritically in an essay. Here is a list of 'Do's and Don'ts' to help you discover the potential of quotations.

Do:

  • Choose your quotations with care, whether from literary texts or from critics' arguments – finding the quotation that exactly illustrates your point can be an art.
  • Set up and introduce your quotations so that the reader does not get lost.
  • Critically evaluate and question quotations from critics' arguments as well as literary texts.
  • Set quotations from differing critics against each other to highlight controversy and make clear which you agree with most.
  • Quote accurately, maintaining the original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation etc.
  • Quote exactly from whatever source has been selected as the most appropriate: unless you state otherwise, it must be the precise edition listed in your bibliography. 

Don't

  • Quote out of context – make sure you know how the quoted text fit into the critic’s argument.

To integrate or not to integrate your quotations

It is good practice to integrate quotations into your sentences, as long as this is in a way that the grammar of your sentence and the internal grammar of the quotation work together to form a coherent sentence.

You are permitted to make very small changes to the grammar of the quotation in square brackets in order to make it fit the sentence – as in the first version of the example below. However, it is probably better practice to change the grammar of your sentence to fit the quotation – as in the second version below.

Jane's work 'condense[s] itself as he [Rivers] proceed[s] and assume[s] a definite form under his shaping hand'.

When talking with Rivers, Jane reflects that her work 'condensed itself as he proceeded and assumed a definite form under his shaping hand'. 

If you cannot make this work, it might be better to include more of the quotation and to 'block quote' it as for a longer quotation (see next section, how to present quotations). 

Long 'block' quotations can be very useful when close reading as, in the text following this, you can pull out words or phrases from the already referenced quotation more easily, as in the example below:

She was standing, waving her arms, above the battlements, and shouting out till they could hear her a mile off: I saw her and heard her with my own eyes. She was a big woman, and had long black hair: we could see it streaming against the flames as she stood. I witnessed, and several more witnessed Mr Rochester ascend through the skylight on to the roof: we heard him call ‘Bertha!’ we saw him approach her; and then, ma’am, she yelled, and gave a spring, and the next moment she lay smashed on the pavement (451).

In this passage Bertha is presented as a wild thing, larger than life, and barely human. Her irrationality is signalled by her 'shouting' and 'yelling' – unlike Rochester, her utterances are not given shape as recognisable speech – and she is seen to be excessive, in that she is a 'big' woman, with uncontrollable hair that 'streams', and she is so loud that she can be heard 'a mile off'. The violence of the passage is encapsulated in the image of Bertha 'smashed on the pavement'. 

References

Where you do not wish to quote a source, but do want to refer the reader to more scholarship or information, use a footnote to reference this. These references might:

  • indicate to the reader the source of a quotation or a more extended account of the subject mentioned in the text.
  • cite authority in support of a statement, opinion or hypothesis.
  • direct the reader to opinions on controversial issues contrary to those expressed in the text.

However, try to avoid these footnotes becoming too discursive and expository. Always ask yourself if the material is relevant and, if so, whether it ought to be contained in the main body of the essay. Footnotes are included within your word count.