Omitting and Changing Portions of Quotes
Ellipses
To omit a
portion of a quote (doesn’t fit; extra), use an ellipsis enclosed in brackets: […]
When you remove
a portion of a quote and replace it with an ellipsis, what is left must
a) be grammatically correct.
b) make sense with the removed portion missing.
Beginning: No […] if
removed portion is at the beginning of the quote
*McKibben suggests that we purchase things we don’t need,
mentioning “a digital barbecue fork,” even “[t]hough for eons [our] ancestors have grilled meat over
flames […]” (305).
End: Indicate that the sentence continues even though
you have not used the rest.
*McKibben suggests that we purchase things we don’t need,
mentioning “a digital barbecue fork,” even “[t]hough for eons [our] ancestors have grilled meat over
flames […]” (305).
Middle: Use […] to
show the omission.
*For those who
own the “peaceful progression alarm clock,” “[t]hirty
minutes before wake-up […], faint aromatherapy scents [are] release[d] into the
air” (qtd. in McKibben
304).
An entire sentence or more:
A. If you take out material at the end of a
sentence and then a sentence or more: […].
*306, ¶15: Says McKibben, “When
you buy the Designated Driver […]1, then
you grow the economy. […]2
Only a real jerk […]3 would point out that there might
possibly be items in this world that it would make more sense to spend our money
on” (306).
1 , a
faux golf club that you store in your bag to dispense forty-eight ounces of
cold beverages
2 Also, the Vintage Express Aging Accelerator that
ages your bottle of wine ten years in ten seconds by surrounding it with “extremely
powerful Neodymium magnets to replicate the Earth’s magnetic field.”
3 or a Christian or something
B. If you take out a sentence and/or sentences
and then the beginning of a sentence: . […]
*213, ¶10: “Educationese
continues to favor words that cloak failure; so as not to impair self-esteem, ‘negative
gain’ sometimes appears as a description of falling test scores. […]1 [M]embers of the Professional Association of
Teachers suggested that schools drop the word ‘fail’” (Leo 213).
1 A number of schools have eliminated
“F” as a mark, and “suboptimal outcome” means failure. In Britain,
Brackets
If you want to
add or change something in a quotation, either to fit your sentence (verb tense;
capitalization) or for further clarification (a definition or an explanation)
place any changes you make in brackets.
Capitalization:
*For those who
own the “peaceful progression alarm clock,” “[t]hirty
minutes before wake-up […], faint aromatherapy scents [are] release[d] into the
air” (qtd. in McKibben
304).
“Educationese continues to favor words that cloak failure;
so as not to impair self-esteem, ‘negative gain’ sometimes appears as a
description of falling test scores. […] [M]embers of the Professional
Association of Teachers suggested that schools drop the word ‘fail’” (Leo 213).
Clarification:
“Good [I.Q.]
tests work: They measure a variety of mental
abilities, and the best [I.Q.] tests do it well” (vos
Savant 168).
To denote an
error: If there is an error in the quote you are
using, put [sic] after it.
“Well, after
all, this is the age of the disposable tissue.
Blow your nose on a person, wad them [sic], flush them [sic] away […]” (Bradbury
17).