Guidelines for the use of quotations - The art of quoting well

[Dialogues]
Professor : It’s good. Really... It's good. There's just one thing. It's the quotations. One or two is good, but don't overdo it. You know what Voltaire said. “Quoting is for those who cannot think for themselves”.
Jules : Of course. That’s why “I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation”.
Professor : "Demand much of yourself, expect little of others, and avoid disappointment”.
Jules : “Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing whatever to do”.
Professor : But “work keeps us far from our three great ills: boredom, vice and need”.
Jules : Yes, but “all science creates new ignorance”.
Professor : No, because “true science is ignorance that knows itself”.
Jules : Usually “when a philosopher gives an answer, you don’t even know what was asked”.
Professor : “When science runs out of arguments, it invents vocabulary”.
Jules : “At my house, when someone kills a pig, everyone laughs! Except the pig”.  

[Voice-over]
Yes, gentlemen, quoting can indeed be an exhilarating exercise. Some authors put things so well that it would be a shame to say them any other way. That said, if you want to use someone else’s words or ideas, there are certain rules you must follow. 

The most important thing is that someone who reads your paper must be able to distinguish the other author’s ideas from your own.

Specifically, when you want to include someone else’s words or ideas in your academic work, you have two options:

•	Direct quotation. This is a precise reproduction of the author’s exact words. If you choose this option, you must use quotation marks. There are two ways to present a quotation, depending on its length. 
o	Short quotations are inserted directly into your text and set off from your own words by quotation marks (“ ”). 
o	Long quotations (three lines or longer) are set off from the body of the text. They are usually indented and appear in different formatting.

•	Paraphrase. Paraphrasing doesn’t mean just replacing one of the author’s words with one of your own. Rather, you reproduce and internalize the thoughts of an author by reformulating them in your own words and incorporating them into the structure of your own ideas.

Use quotations appropriately. Don’t distort an author’s ideas by taking them out of their context. If you want to make use of an author’s arguments, you must know those arguments well. 

Be careful, however, that you don’t go overboard like Jules. The use of a few well-chosen quotations will enhance and shore up your work, but using too many will detract from it.

Quotations and paraphrases can be used to
•	improve your paper by providing commentary, a reference or a demonstration;
•	lend credibility to your work;
•	identify the documents that you consulted while writing your paper.

In all these cases, you must indicate the source precisely, first in a shortened form directly in the text of your paper AND then in its full form in the bibliography.

[Dialogues]
Professor: “Better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to speak and make it a certainty”. Pierre Desproges. 
Jules [laughing] : Yes.