How to Evaluate Quotes
Deciding Which Quotes Are Best for Your Paper
UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center: Choosing Proper Quotes
This site explains how to choose just the right quote, when to use it, and how to use it.
How to Find Just the Right Quote for Your Paper:
Choosing the appropriate quotes for your paper is not always a simple task. It takes a lot of preplanning and revision to achieve this goal.
A few things to keep in mind as you review your chosen text for quotes, whether it be fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose:
- Is the quote interesting / unique?
- Does the quote support my Main Point Topic Sentence / Thesis?
- What part of this sentence should I pull-out to use as my partial quote? (Partial quotes are preferable - too many long quotes make the paper no longer yours.)
- If writing a research paper, is this quote from an academic / reliable / authoritative source?
Be sure to keep these questions in mind as you choose "just the right quotes" for your paper - and always revise, to check that your quotes fit your MPTS and Thesis.
Happy revising!
Mrs. Wolff
WikiHow: How to Quote in a Research Paper
Great explanations, along with helpful graphics, too.
About.com - Block Quotations - Don't Overuse!
Good advice about not overusing block quotes - or avoiding them, altogether.
How to Use Direct Quotes in Your Papers
*See the entire PPT!