Embedding Quotations

At GCSE, your teacher may have taught you to introduce quotations in your work with a phrase like “as can be seen in the following quotation:…” but, at A level, you will be expected to embed the quotation into your writing seamlessly and set it out correctly. If you’re not sure how to do this, read on.

1. If you are quoting less than a line from your text, you should embed it within your own sentence and use inverted commas.

e.g. The narrator’s assertion that “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” (A Tale of Two Cities, p1) sets the ambivalent tone for the rest of the novel.

2. If it is more than a line, you should write it on the next line and centre it. It should be single-spaced, properly formatted and preceded by a colon. In this case, you will only need inverted commas if the quotation is speech (so most poems will not need inverted commas if you are quoting this amount of text).

If you are quoting multiple lines of verse, make sure you set them out as they appear in the poem/play as the layout is a key element of the text.

e.g. The opening of Hamlet’s soliloquy demonstrates how he battles with existential questions:

“To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

        The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

  Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

          And by opposing end them.” (Hamlet, 3.1.56)

3. If you only need key parts of a long quotation, you can cut bits of it out and replace them with ellipsis. However, you must make sure it still makes sense and is grammatically correct in your sentence.

e.g. If the line you wish to quote from The Great Gatsby is “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had,” you may not need to include the “he told me” part (including pronouns can over complicate your sentence if you start explaining who he is) So, instead of including this part, replace it with ellipsis like this:

When Nick’s father tells him in Chapter 1 that “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone…just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had,” (The Great Gatsby, p3) it shows the reader that…

4. Sometimes, you may just want to use key words from a quotation (especially if you have a strict word count to stick to). When doing this, take the most important parts and embed these in your sentence. Your sentence should still make sense if you remove the quotations marks. If your quotation goes over a line break, indicate this with a forward slash.

e.g. Hamlet describes death as “a consummation/ Devoutly to be wished for” which he believes will “end the heartache” he currently suffers. (Hamlet 3.1.70-72)

5. If the quotation you need to use contains a pronoun or verb form which doesn’t grammatically work in your sentence, you can adjust the quotation to fit in your sentence by putting the bit you have changed in square brackets.

e.g. Frankenstein ends his introduction to Elizabeth by declaring her to be “a possession of [his] own.” (Frankenstein, p35)

The original quotation is “of my own” but “my” would not make sense in the sentence.

e.g. When Offred says that she “tr[ied]not to think too much” it reveals the extent of the control she may be facing. (The Handmaid’s Tale, p17)

The original quotation was “I try not to think too much” but the present tense “try” would not work in this sentence.

6. All quotations should be followed by the title of the text and page reference. These are usually excluded from word counts. If you are quoting from a Shakespeare play, do not write out Act 2, scene 4, Lines 36-37, abbreviate it to 2.4.36-7.

Remember, that if you do need to use the word quote or quotation, quote is a verb and quotation is a noun. Therefore, you cannot quote a quote but you can quote a quotation.