Quote a person saying something that someone would not expect them to say. Quote someone who is not universally famous. Use a well-known quote but contradict it.
Determine whether the audience will be familiar with the person who you are quoting. If it is someone obscure or you think they will not be familiar, consider providing additional (brief) details. Do not use a quote that could be offensive to the audience unless you plan to contradict the quotation. Strike a balance between assuming your audience knows everything and assuming they know nothing. You should be clear and informative but not insulting to the intelligence of your reader.
Use the quote as a sentence predicate. The subject of the sentence will be the person who said the quote, and the verb will most likely be a synonym of “said. ” For example, “Jane Smith said, ‘blah blah blah. ‘” Preview the content of the quote. Use your own (grammatically correct) sentence to preview or paraphrase what the quote will say, then insert a colon or comma, then the (grammatically correct) sentence-length quotation. For example: “Once Jane Smith said something completely awesome: ’the awesome thing she said. ‘” Begin with the quote. If you begin with the quote, be sure to place a comma after the quote and then provide a verb and attribute the quotation to the source. For example: “‘Blah blah blah,’ said Jane Smith. "
The quote only needs to be capitalized if it begins the sentence or if the first word of the quote is a proper noun, like the name of a person or a place. In American usage, end punctuation should be placed inside the quotation marks. For example, “this is the quote. ” Paraphrased material (someone else’s idea put into your own words) need not have quotation marks around it, but should be attributed to the original speaker. If you introduce the quote with the speaker’s name and a verb, provide a comma before the beginning of the quotation. For example: “Jane Smith said, ‘blah blah blah. ‘”
Be particularly aware of quotations found on social media such as Pinterest, or on quote aggregators such as Brainyquote. These sources are notorious for mis-attributing and even making up famous quotes.
You may also need to substitute a word (like a name rather than a pronoun) for clarity. If you need to substitute a word, place square brackets around the word to indicate that you made a change. For example: “Jane Smith said, ‘blah [blady] blah. ‘” Be sure to keep the original intent of the quotation when making changes. Changes should be made only to preserve clarity or to change length, not to manipulate the content of the quotation.
In your introduction, you need to be clear about what you’re going to talk about and how you’re going to talk about it.
Be sure that the quotation you use supports your thesis. Be sure that using the quotation enhances, rather than distracting from, your argument. [12] X Research source
