Quotations

A quotation of three lines or less runs inside your own sentence, wrapped in single quotation marks. If the quoted passage itself contains a quote, that inner quote switches to double quotation marks. Rule 1.5 governs quotations.

A quotation longer than three full lines becomes a block quote. Indent it from the left margin, set it in a smaller size, and drop the quotation marks entirely. The indentation is the signal that the words are quoted.

Pincite’s Quotations tab formats both forms for you and keeps the footnote attached to the passage.

You may adjust a quotation to fit your sentence, but every change must be visible. Square brackets mark anything you added or altered. An ellipsis marks anything you removed from the middle. Never let an edit change the meaning.

• Alterations sit in square brackets, like [the Minister] replacing a pronoun.
• Omissions are shown with an ellipsis of three dots.
• Keep the source’s own errors and mark them with [sic] so the reader knows the slip is not yours.
• If you italicise words for emphasis, say so in the footnote with (emphasis added).