3. Referencing/ Citation
Proper citation is extremely important
Use in-text citation to list a quote and the page and
source of the quote.
In general, footnotes and endnotes are reserved for
extensions of your argument, not simply to list the page
of where you got a quote.
Be consistent in the style you use
WHEN IN DOUBT, CITE
4. Do you need a citation for:
Direct quotation?
Paraphrase?
Summary?
Facts, information and data?
5. In-text short quotation
author’s surname + page no.
“Americans of all ages, stations, and dispositions are
forever forming associations” (Tocqueville 286).
Tocqueville believes, however, that “private interest
will become the chief if not the only driving force
behind all behavior” (295).
6. Quotation from an indirect
source
“I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read
Democracy in America” (Kurt Vonnegut qtd. in
Tocqueville vii).
Tocqueville described the leader of the French
socialists as a “fanatic who looked like a corpse”
(qtd. in Richardson 454).
7. Works Cited
Bellah, Robert N., et al. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and
Commitment in American Life. Berkeley and London: U of
California P, 1996. Print.
De Tocqueville, Alexis. Democracy in America. Trans. George
Lawrence. Ed. J.P. Mayer. Abridged Scott A. Sandage. New
York: Harper, 2007. Print.
O’Brien, Carl. “Cohesion of EU Project Weakened.” Irish Times 30
June 2012. Web. 26 August 2012.
Putnam, Robert D. “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social
Capital.” Journal of Social Democracy 6:1 (1995): 65-78. Print.
Richardson, Robert D. Jr. Emerson: The Mind on Fire. Berkeley
and London: U of California P, 1995. Print.
8. Block quotations
Longer quotations should be set off from the text
(4 or more lines of prose or 3 or more lines of verse)
Indent one inch from left margin
Retain double spacing
Do not use quotation marks
9. Example of block
quotation
Tocqueville explains that there are fundamental
differences between European and American core
values:
In Europe we habitually regard a restless spirit,
immoderate desire for wealth, and an extreme love of
independence as great social dangers. But precisely
those things assure a long and peaceful future for the
American republics (147).
10. To quote or not to quote:
that is the question
Utility: could the sentiment be adequately
paraphrased in your own words?
Efficacy: is it fit for the purpose of your argument?
Brevity: does it merit quotation in full?
11. Quoting etiquette
use your ‘I’s
Respect your reader: INTRODUCE the quotation
[SET UP]
Respect your source: INTEGRATE the quotation. Tailor
(not doctor) it to fit your argument and sentence structure
[QUOTE]
Respect your thesis: INDICATE the significance of the
quotation
[UNPACK]
Don’t litter your essay with dropped quotes
12. Introducing a quotation 1
Simple tag: subject + verb + comma + capital letter
e.g. Tocqueville notes, “One hardly ever meets an
American who does not want to claim some
connection by birth with the first founders of the
colonies” (328).
Participial phrase + comma + capital letter
e.g. According to Tocqueville, “The American has always
seen order and prosperity marching in step” (149).
13. Introducing a quotation 2
Sentence + colon + capital letter
The sentence should anticipate the quotation
e.g. Tocqueville commends the restraint with which
Americans pursue the love of comfort: “There is no
question of sucking the world dry to satisfy one man’s
greed” (299).
14. Integrating a quotation 1
An integrated quotation requires no additional
punctuation or capitalisation, but it must fit your
sentence structure
Use an ellipsis to indicate omission, square
brackets to indicate an addition or alteration
e.g. Tocqueville considers that “adding a few acres to
one’s fields, enlarging a house, [and] making life
more comfortable …. are petty aims” (299), yet he
fears their capacity to undermine social cohesion.
15. Integrating a quotation 2
Don’t emasculate your quotation by stating it in
advance
e.g. Tocqueville asserts that wealthy Americans do not
profess an aristocratic disregard of physical comfort:
“I never found among wealthy Americans that lofty
disdain for physical comfort” (298).
Don’t misuse or malign your source by quoting
inaccurately or irresponsibly
e.g. Tocqueville, clearly a killjoy, claims that “love of
physical pleasures never leads democratic peoples to
such excesses” (299).
16. Indicating the significance
making the link
Despite his admiration for American democracy,
Tocqueville maintains that it “isolates [the individual]
from [his] contemporaries. [If] each man is forever
thrown back on himself alone … he may be shut up
in the solitude of his own heart” (282).
In David Brooks’s account, this doomsday scenario
has already come to pass. The twenty-first-century
citizen of Bobos in Paradise is confined both to the
solitude of his heart and to the exclusive domain of
his designer kitchen.
17. Exercise 1
Introduce the following quotation correctly and
indicate its significance. Give the appropriate
reference.
“Individualism is a calm and considered feeling
which disposes each citizen to isolate himself from
the mass of his fellows and withdraw into the circle
of family and friends; with this little society formed to
his taste, he gladly leaves the greater society to look
after itself.”
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 281.
18. Exercise 2
Introduce this quotation, edit it and integrate it into
your own sentence. Give the appropriate reference.
“In the United States there is hardly any talk of the
beauty of virtue. But they maintain that virtue is
useful and prove it every day. American moralists do
not pretend that one must sacrifice himself for his
fellows because it is a fine thing to do so. But they
boldly assert that such sacrifice is as necessary for
the man who makes it as for the beneficiaries.”
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 293.
19. Exercise 3
Which of the sentences below are not supported by the
quotation?
“About fifty years ago Ireland began to pour a Catholic
population into the United States. … Most of the Catholics are
poor, and unless all citizens govern, they will never be able to
attain to the government themselves” (Tocqueville 151).
a) Tocqueville was a French aristocrat and a Catholic.
b) Tocqueville identified with the poor because he suffered from
tuberculosis.
c) Tocqueville underestimated the ability of Irish immigrants.
d) Twenty-two of the forty-four US presidents have claimed Irish
ancestry.
e) Tocqueville visited America during the presidency of Andrew
Jackson, who was of Irish extraction.
f) This shows why Irish Americans have traditionally supported the
Democrats.
g) The nomination of Paul Ryan as Republican vice-presidential
candidate vindicates Tocqueville’s faith in American democracy.
h) Tocqueville’s predictions were seldom fulfilled.
20. Exercise 4
Provide an introduction and a concluding comment for
the following quotation. Reduce as necessary.
“ I think that, generally speaking, the manufacturing
aristocracy which we see rising before our eyes is one of
the hardest that have appeared on earth. But at the same
time, it is one of the most restrained and least dangerous.
In any event, the friends of democracy should keep their
eyes anxiously fixed in that direction. For if ever again
permanent inequality of conditions and aristocracy make
their way into the world, it will have been by that door that
they entered.”
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 319.
21. Exemplary use of
quotation
“In the final paragraphs of this chapter Tocqueville modulates
his criticism at the same time that he emphasizes it:
I think that, generally speaking, the manufacturing
aristocracy which we see rising before our eyes is one of the
hardest that have appeared on earth. But at the same
time, it is one of the most restrained and least dangerous.
In any event, the friends of democracy should keep their
eyes anxiously fixed in that direction. For if ever again
permanent inequality of conditions and aristocracy make their
way into the world, it will have been by that door that they
entered.
It is the tendency to oligarchy, with its threats to republican
liberty, that we believe is today on the rise, especially in the
United States” (Bellah et al. ix).
Editor's Notes
On this course we are using MLA, the preferred form of documentation in the humanities. The sciences and social sciences use alternative systems of documentation.
Be consistent
Author’s name appears either in parenthetical reference or in prefatory remark
In an essay on Tocqueville, for instance, substantial quotations from the author should ideally be taken from the primary source (T’s own writings) or checked for accuracy.
Author/ title/ city/ publishing house/ date / mode. (Name of translator, editor etc., no. of edition, date of access to website, page run as necessary). List alphabetically by author surname. In case of multiple authors, reverse only the name of the first author. Explain use of et al., quotation marks and italics. List only works cited in your essay.
Refer to Purdue Owl for further details.
Refer to Owl
Don’t overload your essay with unnecessary quotations. They serve no purpose other than increasing your word count and annoying your reader.
An endemic problem in students’ essays: the dropped quote, unsupported and unexplained. Dropped quotes are cut and pasted into the text in the vain hope that they will enlighten the reader. Desist!
Vary the introductory verb (write, state, note, claim etc.).
The erasure of the words in green misrepresents the author’s meaning.
Don’t rely on the quotation to speak for itself. Make the link explicit.
Bellah’s use in of quote from exercise 4 in Preface to 2008 edition of Habits of the Heart. Note introduction, block quotation and indication of relevance of quotation to thesis.
