Common issues

Last week saw a more academic writing assignment–the lit review–and I realize that this was not familiar territory for some of you. I think the biggest issues that seemed to come up across the board were related to quotation and citation. Let’s start with the easy stuff: basic structural rules.

When you use a block quote, you don’t need quotation marks; the indentation stands in for the quotes. There are different rules for when you should use a block quote, depending on which style guide you are using. For APA, the rule is that you go to block quotes for quotations of over 40 words. Especially for the web, you’ll see shorter block quotes than that, but for longer passages, you should certainly go to the block quote.

Single quote marks (that is, inverted commas) are generally used in American English only to denote quotations within quotations. (The standard for quotations within quotations within quotations is: don’t do that!) So, when I write that Mark Twain wrote, “I gasped with surprise; my breath almost got away from me. ‘What!’ I said, ‘you here yet?’ Go along with the rest of the dream! scatter!’” I make use of single quotes inside of my own double quotes, to avoid confusion.

There are some style guides, particularly for technical manuals, that use single quotes for terms of art. This is just ugly, but if you are required by your boss or editor to follow such a rule, then do what you must.

In American English, the standard is for commas and periods to be placed inside the quoted text. So if I were to end this sentence with a quote, “I would include the period inside the quote marks.” This changes when you use parenthetical citations, in which case “I would move the period back to the very end, including the citation” (Halavais, 2009).

On that, some used citations fairly willy-nilly. You have to follow an established standard: that’s why it is a standard. You can go APA, or Chicago, or MLA, but you can’t go the Cartman route and make up your own. And again, on the web, hyperlinks are a great mechanism for citation.

As a rule, you should try to avoid putting URLs in your text–especially ugly URLs–if it is meant to be read online. When you do end up including a URL, be sure to make it linked as well. Nothing is so frustrating as seeing a URL and having to cut and paste it into the address bar. Better: use contextual linking and rely on hyperlinks rather than bare URLs.

I think the issue that really caught a lot of you up was the need to use a quote, when paraphrasing would serve you just as well. (This PDF provides an example of the difference between quoting and paraphrasing, with APA style citations.) When you do use a direct quote, especially one of some length, it shouldn’t be used as a replacement for your own work, but as evidence. Unfortunately, even if you do not intend it to be such a replacement, it often reads as such unless you clearly indicate why you are using it.

The best bet is to paraphrase, only quoting when you want to make the point that an author has phrased something in a particular way, or when the words are of particular import. If you are mainly drawing on the ideas, look for a way to rephrase them so that they serve your own argument. Especially for lit reviews, summary and paraphrasing should make up the majority of your citation. The OWL has two pages on this: here and here. Note that you also need to paraphrase fully.