HOW TO SAVE YOUR INSTRUCTOR SOME INK & GRIEF:

A GUIDE TO  AVOIDING SOME VERY COMMON ERRORS OF PUNCTUATION AND CITATION

Please print this out and take time read it before writing your paper. Keep it handy for reference as needed. I expect that your papers will reflect these guidelines. If they don't, I will note "See Attached" and staple a copy of this sheet to your paper when I return it. And it will not leave me in the happiest frame of mind when I assign the grade to your paper...

I. Punctuation with Quotation Marks

Use a comma to introduce a quotation after a standard dialogue tag, a brief introductory phrase, or a dependent clause, for example,

"He asked," "She stated," "According to Bronson," or "As Shakespeare wrote."

Use a colon to introduce a quotation after an independent clause:

As D. H. Nachas explains, "The gestures used for greeting others differ greatly from one culture to another."

D. H. Nachas explains cultural differences in greeting customs: "Touching is not a universal sign of greeting. While members of European cultures meet and shake hands as a gesture of greeting, members of Asian cultures bow to indicate respect."

Put commas and periods within closing quotation marks, except when a parenthetical reference follows the quotation:

He said, "I may forget your name, but I never remember a face."

History is stained with blood spilled in the name of "civilization."

Mullen, criticizing the apparent inaction, writes, "Donahue's policy was to do nothing" (27).

Put colons and semicolons outside closing quotation marks:

Williams described the experiment as "a definitive step forward"; other scientists disagreed.

Benedetto emphasizes three elements of what she calls her "Olympic journey": family support, personal commitment, and great coaching.

Put a dash, question mark, or exclamation point within closing quotation marks when the punctuation applies to the quotation itself and outside when it applies to the whole sentence:

Philip asked, "Do you need this book?"

Does Dr. Lim always say to her students, "You must work harder"?

Sharon shouted enthusiastically, "We won! We won!"

I can't believe you actually like that song, "If You Wanna Be My Lover"!

II. Omitted words in a quotation

If you leave words out of a quotation, use an ellipsis mark to indicate the omitted words. If you need to insert something within a quotation, use a pair of brackets to enclose the addition.

full quotation:

The welfare agency representative said, "We are unable to help every family that we'd like to help because we don't have the funds to do so."

omitted material with ellipsis:

The welfare agency representative said, "We are unable to help every family . . . because we don't have the funds to do so."

added material with brackets:

The welfare agency representative explained that they are "unable to help every family that [they would] like to help."

III. Block quotations

A quotation that extends more than four typed lines on a page should be indented one inch from the left margin (the equivalent of two half-inch paragraph indentations). Maintain double spacing as in the main text, and do not use quotation marks for the block quotation.

FROM: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_quote.html

IV. Reference notes, i. e. footnotes, endnotes

FIRST REFERENCE: full citation: authors' names go in the "normal" order: first name, middle initial, last name:

Donald N. McCloskey, Enterprise and Trade in Victorian Britain: Essays in Historical Economics London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981), 54.

Louise M. Rosenblatt, "The Transactional Theory: Against Dualisms," College English 54 (1993): 380.

SUBSEQUENT REFERENCE NOTES: when you cite a work that you have previously cited in the paper:

Shortened format:

Same work and author; only source by that author:

12. Ernest Kaiser, "The Literature of Harlem," in Harlem: A Community in

Transition, ed. J. H. Clarke (New York: Citadel Press, 1964), 64.

21. Kaiser, 65.

Two or more works by same author:

4. Donald N. McCloskey, Enterprise and Trade in Victorian Britain: Essays in Historical Economics. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981), 54.

5.  Donald N. McCloskey, The Applied Theory of Price, 2nd ed. (New York Macmillan, 1985), 24.

22. McCloskey, Enterprise and Trade, 61.

Latin abbreviation format:

When referring to the same work as in the citation immediately preceding, use the abbreviation "Ibid." for the second reference. This is acceptable even if several pages of text separate the first and second references. The abbreviation "Ibid." is followed by a page number if the page from which the second reference is taken is different from the first. If the pages are the same, no number is necessary.

First reference, give full citation:

1. Eliza G. Wilkins, The Delphic Maxims in Literature Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1929), 12.