Quotations

Formatting quotations

Unless formatted as a block quotation, always enclose quotations of direct speech or extracts from other documents with double quotation marks. Do not apply italic or otherwise ornament the quoted text and be careful to preserve any ornamentation used in the original.

Attribute to the source

Always attribute direct speech in text to the source (“...Jo Morgan², MGE Managing Director, stated...”). If necessary, add further details of the source as a footnote (see Footnotes) with the footnote identifier placed immediately after the source’s name. For extracts from other documents, cite the source document with a documentary note or a bibliographic reference (see Bibliographies and citations).

Punctuating quotations

Never alter the punctuation in a quotation.

If the quotation ends with a full stop and is at the end of the sentence, place the ending full stop inside the quotation mark; otherwise, place the ending full stop after the closing quotation mark.

Errors

Never alter the quoted text, even if it contains spelling mistakes or other errors. Insert [sic] within the quotation to indicate that the error has been copied directly from the original.

Omitted words and letters

If any part of the quotation is omitted (either at the start, middle, or end of a sentence), then indicate where the words have been omitted with ellipsis points. If words need to be inserted to gain the exact context—the object of a pronoun, for example—then insert the implied words in brackets. If the letters of a word are omitted (for reasons of confidentiality or profanity), show with a double em dash.

Omitted words and letters

“...[the company] advised W—— that his services were no longer required.”

Carrier expressions

When a carrier expression is inserted into the quotation, such as “he said” or “she replied”, separate with a comma and close the quotation before and open the quotation again after the carrier expression.

Carrier expressions

“Yes, that’s all that happened,” she replied.

The opposition leader asked, “But where’s the money going to come from?”

Long quotations

When the quotation runs into more than one paragraph without carrier expressions, only use quotation marks at the start and end of the quotation. Alternatively, format as a block quotation without quotation marks.

Block quotations

If a block of text is quoted without carrier expressions, which might run for one or more paragraphs, indent from the surrounding text and reduce the font size (from 11 pt to 9.5 pt, say). Do not use quotation marks. Preserve the ornamentation in the original text (italic, boldface, underlining, and such) and do not otherwise ornament with italic. For example, the following is shown as a block quotation:

Do not hyphenate foreign phrases unless they are hyphenated in their original language, for example, vis-à-vis. This is true even when they are adopted into the language and are used as an adverbial or adjectival phrase, for example “the in situ resource” and “an ad hoc approach.” Doxical Style Guide⁸

Editor’s notes and implied words

Enclose all editor’s notes and implied words with brackets—for example, [sic]. Pronouns can be replaced with their object for clarity when a portion of the text is quoted.

Implied words inserted by the editor

“This is true even when [foreign phrases] are adopted into the language.”