Reducing Quotations

When providing textual evidence (quotations) in support of a claim, use only that evidence that is necessary to illustrate the point you are making. Although it is not always possible to do so, you should strive to keep direct quotations to ten words or less.

Removing Unnecessary Information

Sometimes, reducing the original text to eight words or less will mean removing unnecessary information. When eliminating words, use ellipsis (". . .") to indicate you are leaving part of the quotation out.

Example of excessive quotation:

Criticizing the Cyclopes for their lack of political organization, Odysseus noted that "these people have no institutions, no meetings for counsels; rather they make their habitations in caverns hollowed among the peaks of the high mountains, and each one is the law for his own wives and children, and cares nothing about the others " (Odyssey, 140)

Revised sample:

Criticizing the Cyclopes for their lack of political organization, Odysseus noted that "these people have no institutions, no meetings for counsels; . . . and each one is the law for his own wives and children" (Odyssey, 140)

Note: You don't need ellipsis before and after a quotation, since it's clear you're omitting material at either end of the quotation.

Accuracy and Fairness in Reducing Quotations:

You should not abbreviate quotations so they misrepresent their author's original meaning. Take a look at this example.

Original text by Historian X:

Rome had several mad emperors. Nero was the maddest of them all. Legend has it that he played his harp while the city went up in flames. (Historian X, p. Y)

Inaccurate reduction by student:

Historian X concluded that Nero – the maddest of Rome’s several mad emperors – played "his harp while the city went up in flames." (Historian X, p. Y)

In this inaccurate reduction, the student has misrepresented Historian X’s comments because whereas Historian X carefully portrayed Nero’s playing a harp as a legend, the student’s quote claims Historian X presented the scene as historical fact.

Inserting your own text:

Use brackets to insert your own words in the middle of a quotation. This is sometimes necessary to make a quotation fit the grammar or syntax of your own sentence.

Example

Original text from a poem by Aeneas (A., IV, 491-92):

It is not
my own free will that leads to Italy

Student sentence quoting Aeneas with inserted material:

Aeneas asserts that "it is not [his] own free will that leads [him] to Italy."

Breaking a quotation

Weaving a quotation into your own sentence often requires rearranging the location of the quoted material within your sentence.

Notice in the examples below that the quotation can appear at the end of a sentence, at the beginning, or be broken into two separate elements.


The ad assured potential buyers, "The revolutionaries are all on Columbia Records."
"The revolutionaries are all on Columbia Records," the ad assured potential buyers.
"The revolutionaries," the ad assured potential buyers, "are all on Columbia Records."