The language used in a quote should not be bland; it should be interesting, or should at least make an important distinction, where the actual wording used is significant. If an author you want to cite has delivered his/her information in bland language, just paraphrase him/her. Providing bland quotes devalues your quoting/writing as a whole.
When your quote begins with a minor word, such as “is”, “were”, “that”, etc., do not include that word within the quotation marks; put it before the quotation marks, then begin the quote with a more significant word. Choosing to quote only where the language is particularly interesting or significant suggests that you are being selective, considering how to construct your paper, rather than mindlessly throwing down quotes in a rush, for the sake of including more quotes. Sometimes, part of a quote is bland, while there is also some interesting element. In such cases, quote only the interesting part (i.e., reduce the quote). You can use square brackets (“[…]”) to indicate a section you removed from within the quote, leaving a space before and after the square brackets).
Quotes can also be changed/modified slightly in order to improve the clarity of it or to fit the grammar of the whole sentence, or to indicate that an unimportant part of the quote has been removed. The grammar of a quote should match the grammar of the sentence in which it appears. If it doesn’t match, it will read badly, and you’ll have to either change the grammar before the quote or else modify the quote in a minor way (using square brackets to indicate where you’ve modified it. For example (I won’t use quotation marks here, just to avoid confusion):
Unfortunately, teachers have not “applying these principles in the
classroom” (Smith, 1996).
In this case, you could either add the word “been” after “not” before the quote, or you could modify the word “applying” in the quote, changing it to “appl[ied]”, with the square brackets indicating your minor modification of Smith’s words. In terms of changing a quote to make the meaning clearer, you could add any missing words or change typos in the original text you are quoting. You could also add extra words to explain something that the reader might not necessarily know. Example (for a text aimed at readers who are not necessarily Irish):
“In Mayo [a county in the northwest of Ireland], one case was documented
in which…”
When there is a mistake in a quote (whether a typo or a factual error), you can show that it was not your own mistake by adding “[sic]” after the mistake.
The following are good reasons for choosing to quote someone rather than paraphrasing:
When your quote begins with a minor word, such as “is”, “were”, “that”, etc., do not include that word within the quotation marks; put it before the quotation marks, then begin the quote with a more significant word. Choosing to quote only where the language is particularly interesting or significant suggests that you are being selective, considering how to construct your paper, rather than mindlessly throwing down quotes in a rush, for the sake of including more quotes. Sometimes, part of a quote is bland, while there is also some interesting element. In such cases, quote only the interesting part (i.e., reduce the quote). You can use square brackets (“[…]”) to indicate a section you removed from within the quote, leaving a space before and after the square brackets).
Quotes can also be changed/modified slightly in order to improve the clarity of it or to fit the grammar of the whole sentence, or to indicate that an unimportant part of the quote has been removed. The grammar of a quote should match the grammar of the sentence in which it appears. If it doesn’t match, it will read badly, and you’ll have to either change the grammar before the quote or else modify the quote in a minor way (using square brackets to indicate where you’ve modified it. For example (I won’t use quotation marks here, just to avoid confusion):
Unfortunately, teachers have not “applying these principles in the
classroom” (Smith, 1996).
In this case, you could either add the word “been” after “not” before the quote, or you could modify the word “applying” in the quote, changing it to “appl[ied]”, with the square brackets indicating your minor modification of Smith’s words. In terms of changing a quote to make the meaning clearer, you could add any missing words or change typos in the original text you are quoting. You could also add extra words to explain something that the reader might not necessarily know. Example (for a text aimed at readers who are not necessarily Irish):
“In Mayo [a county in the northwest of Ireland], one case was documented
in which…”
When there is a mistake in a quote (whether a typo or a factual error), you can show that it was not your own mistake by adding “[sic]” after the mistake.
The following are good reasons for choosing to quote someone rather than paraphrasing:
- the language is unusually vivid, bold, or inventive
- the quotation cannot be paraphrased without distortion or loss of meaning
- you are drawing attention to the words themselves (i.e., the author’s choice of words or the use of a certain term)
- the quotation represents and emphasises the view of an important expert