Quotes: role in the text, formatting rules

A quote is a transfer of the author’s thought in the form in which it was originally indicated. Copywriters often have to use expressions like this. Therefore, you need to know the features of their use and design. If the text citation rules are used, the target audience will definitely like it and will receive a high rating from search robots.

With quotes you can:

• offer an alternative view of the topic;
• support words with the opinion of an authoritative person;
• to draw the attention of the audience to the question in the text.

The design of quotes in a journalistic style does not differ from others. But having a reference in such articles will help make them more authoritative and meaningful. Journalists use such phrases to influence the emotions of readers. And in scientific papers, such references will help to better understand the facts described in the article.

Quotes are also used in fictional presentations. In this case, the words of the characters will be quoted. Readers will be able to better understand which hero is on the pages in front of them.

Types of quotes

Copywriters can use one of four types of citation:

1. Direct. The author’s words are accurately conveyed in the new article.
2. Mutual. Authors make a reference to the work of their colleague, after which they can see a link to their article in someone else’s publication.
3. Self-citation. The author refers to his works and increases the interest of the target audience in other articles.
4. By secondary sources. Often the author of a phrase or the source from which a passage is taken is lost or forgotten. Therefore, the reference is recorded from a third person.

Some quotes are too long. In this case, it is not necessary to rewrite it in its entirety – you can use a paraphrase. This means that the reference will be retold, but with the full preservation of the main idea. The name of the author is also indicated.

What are quotes for?

There are several aspects due to which quotations appear so often in various texts on information portals. Quoting in the text plays the following role:

1. Indexing. The presence of links affects indexing. In the article, you need to specify the tag, thanks to which the search robots will make sure that there is a quote from the original source. This means that the article is unique, the text is well thought out. If there are a lot of references in the text, then a low mark will be assigned, since the author practically did not contribute to the writing of the work.
2. Authority. A link to the statements of scientists and other people of high authority will show that the author has familiarized himself with their work. Such articles are much more valuable.
3. Readability. The similar tag makes the article formatting much better. The presence of quotes allows you to visually diversify the canvas of the text. Users will be able to quickly find the necessary fragment and get acquainted with the thoughts of the author.
4. Copy protection. Thanks to the quotation, the article becomes much more complicated, therefore, if you want to copy the text, there will be difficulties. Publishing such content is possible if you apply certain styles and floats.

Citation and its role in the text is of great importance. If you are writing about a topic that you do not have in-depth knowledge, try to back it up with interesting quotes. This way, users will be able to make sure that the information is true and will not notice the absence of any thematic facts.

How to format quotes

Quotations in the text can be formatted in several ways. One of the easiest is to use quotes. Another is italicizing (plus quotes), choosing a different font to make the phrase catch your eye.

You can place an epigraph at the beginning of the article. In this case, the quotes will not be needed, and the author’s name is indicated immediately after the statement without brackets and punctuation marks. If you use sayings or proverbs that everyone knows, they don’t need to be quoted either.

How to make a quote from the site? An alternative option is direct speech. In this case, the author’s name (or a link to the site of the original article) is first indicated, after which a colon is put, and the quote is written in quotation marks. If the reference is to be separated by the words of the author, then in the middle it is necessary to put a comma and a dash, indicate the name, then again a comma, a dash – and the end of the speech. Let’s give an example of a quote in the text. According to Lermontov: “Life is eternity, death is only a moment.”

Many are perplexed by the question of design: punctuation marks after a quote. If the reference is a stand-alone sentence that ends with a question mark or an exclamation mark, there is no need for a period after the quotes are closed. But if the quote is succinctly inscribed in the text and after it you want to add personal thoughts, you need to close the quote and put a comma (in some cases, a dash is used).