RHETORIC & WRITING

Writing about Literature

Quotation, Citation, and Documentation

The bulk of any essay you write should consist of your own ideas expressed in your own words. Yet you can develop your ideas and persuade readers to accept them only if you present and analyze evidence. In essays about literature, quotations are an especially privileged kind of evidence. If your essay also makes use of secondary sources, you will need to quote (selectively) from some of these as well. In either case, your clarity and credibility will depend on how responsibly, effectively, and gracefully you move between others’ words and your own. Clarity and credibility will also depend on letting your readers know—through precise citation and documentation—exactly where they can find each quotation and each fact or idea that you paraphrase. This chapter addresses the issue of how to quote, cite, and document texts and sources. (For a discussion of when to do so, see EVIDENCE and INTEGRATING SOURCE MATERIAL INTO THE ESSAY.)

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