Generally, you will want your quotations to be no longer than 10 words. Keeping quotations short often requires breaking a quotation into smaller fragments and combining it with your own indirect quotation or paraphrase of the original material. Suppose, for example, you interviewed Jane Doe about her reaction to John F. Kennedy's assassination. She commented (pay particular attention to red text):

 

"I couldn't believe it. It was just unreal and so sad. It was just unbelievable. I had never experienced such denial. I don't know why I felt so strongly. Perhaps it was because JFK was more to me than a president. He represented the hopes of young people everywhere."


You could quote all of Jane's comments, but her first three sentences are fairly redundant. You might instead want to quote Jane when she arrives at the ultimate reason for her strong emotions:

Jane Doe grappled with grief and disbelief. She had viewed JFK, not just as a national figurehead, but as someone who "represented the hopes of young people everywhere."

Writers frequently intertwine summaries, paraphrases, and quotations. As part of a summary of an article, a chapter, or a book, a writer might include paraphrases of various key points blended with direct quotations of striking or suggestive phrases as in the following example from the writer Jared Diamond.

France also imported far more slaves into its colony than did Spain. As a result, Haiti had a population seven times higher than its neighbour during colonial times – and it still has a somewhat larger population today. But Haiti's area is only slightly more than half of that of the Dominican -Republic so that Haiti, with a larger population and smaller area, has double its neighbour's population density.

The combination of that higher population density and lower rainfall was the main factor behind the more rapid deforestation and loss of soil fertility on the Haitian side. In addition, all of those French ships that brought slaves to Haiti returned to Europe with cargos of Haitian timber, so that Haiti's lowlands and mid-mountain slopes had been largely stripped of timber by the mid-19th century.


Summary of Diamond text--notice how the author has blended paraphrasing with direct quotations:
Haiti's poverty has historical roots. As scholar Jared Diamond notes, because the French plantation owners of Haiti imported "far more slaves" than did their Spanish counterparts across the border, Haiti has a "somewhat larger population" than the Dominican Republic but "only slightly more than half" the territory, leaving it with "double its neighbour's population density." Moreover, observes Diamond, French slave ships to the colony "returned to Europe with cargos of Haitian timber" and so "stripped" the country of its timber by "the mid-19th century."

(continue on to homework exercises)