Quotations in the thesis

1. When and How to Quote: 10 Rules

Generally speaking, you will quote many texts by other authors in your thesis: the textual object of your work, or the primary source or sources; and the critical literature on your topic, or the secondary sources. Therefore, practically speaking, there are two kinds of quotes: (a) quotes from a text that you will interpret; (b) quotes from a text that you will use to support your interpretation. It is difficult to say abstractly whether you should quote abundantly or spar­ingly. It depends on the type of thesis you are writing. A critical analysis of a writer obviously requires that large pas­sages of his works be quoted and analyzed. In other cases, a quote can be a manifestation of laziness, for example if the candidate is unwilling or unable to summarize a collection of data and prefers to let someone else do it for him. Hence, we provide the following ten rules:

Rule 1: Quote the object of your interpretive analysis with reasonable abundance.

Rule 2: Quote the critical literature only when its author­ity corroborates or confirms your statements.

These two rules imply some obvious corollaries. First, if the passage you wish to analyze exceeds half a page, it means something is wrong. Either your analysis is too general and you will not be able to comment on the text point by point; or you are discussing an entire text rather than a passage, and presenting a global criticism rather than an analysis. In these cases, if the text is important but too long, present it in full in an appendix, and quote only short passages over the course of your chapters. Second, when quoting or citing critical literature, be sure that it says something new, or that it confirms authorita­tively what you have said. The following illustrates a use­less quote and a useless citation:

Mass communication constitutes, as McLuhan says, “one of the central phenomena of our time.” We should not forget that, in our country alone, two out of three individuals spend a third of their day in front of the TV, according to Savoy.

What is wrong or naive in this example? First, that mass communication is a central phenomenon of our time is a banality that anyone could have said. I do not exclude the possibility that McLuhan himself may have said it (I did not check—I invented this quote), but it is not necessary to refer to an authority to prove something so obvious. Second, it is possible that the data on the TV audience is accurate, but Savoy does not constitute an authority. (In fact, it is a name I also invented.) The author of the thesis should have cited the data of the Ital­ian Central Institute of Statistics, a sociological research project signed by renowned scholars who are beyond sus­picion, or the results of his own inquiry backed up by an appendix of tables that present his data, rather than cit­ing just any old Savoy.

Rule 3: If you don’t want readers to presume that you share the opinion of the quoted author, you must include your own critical remarks before or after the passage.

Rule 4: Make sure that the author and the source (print or manuscript) of your quote are clearly identifiable. You can do this by including one of the following: (a) a superscript number and a corresponding note (see section 5.4.2), especially when you mention the author for the first time; (b) the author’s name and the work’s publication date, in parentheses after the quote (see section 5.4.3); (c) the page number in parentheses, but only when the entire chapter (or the entire thesis) centers on the same work by the same author. Table 5.1 illustrates how you could structure a page of a thesis with the title “Epiphany in James Joyce’s Portrait.” In this case, once you have clar­ified to which edition you refer, cite your primary source with the page number in parentheses in the text, and cite the critical literature in the note.⁵

Rule 5: Quote your primary source from the critical edi­tion, or the most canonical edition. In a thesis on Bal­zac, avoid quoting the pages from the paperback Livre de Poche edition, and at least quote from the Pleiade edition of Balzac’s complete works. In general, for ancient and classical authors it is sufficient to cite sections, chapters, and lines according to current usage (see section 3.2.3). Regarding contemporary authors, if various editions are available, it is better to cite either from the first, or from the most recent if it is revised and corrected. The first edition is preferable if the following editions are simply reprints, and the last edition is preferable if it contains revisions, additions, or updates. In any case, your refer­ence should specify both the first edition and the most recent edition, and should clarify from which one you are quoting (see section 3.2.3).

Rule 6: When your primary source is foreign, quote it in the original language. This rule is mandatory for literary works. In these cases, adding a translation in parenthe­ses or in a note may be useful, but follow your advisor’s suggestions on this. Even if you are not analyzing the literary style of an author, if the exact expression of his thought, in all of its linguistic shades, has a certain weight (for example a philosopher’s commentary), then you should work with the text in the original language if possible. However, I recommend that you add the trans­lation in parentheses or in a note, because the transla­tion itself also constitutes an interpretive exercise on your part. If you are taking from a foreign author only a piece of information, statistical or historical data, or a general criticism, you can simply use a good translation, or even translate the passage yourself. In this case you do not want to submit the reader to continuous jumps from one language to the other, and it is sufficient to precisely cite the original title and to clarify which translation you are using. Finally, you may find yourself discussing the texts of a foreign author who happens to be a poet or a writer of fiction, but you only wish to examine his philo­sophical ideas and not his literary style. Here, if there are numerous long quotes, you may also decide to refer to a good translation to render the argument more fluid, and simply insert some short passages in the original language when you want to emphasize the revealing use of a partic­ular word. (See also rule 4, point c.)

Rule 7: The reference to the author and the work must be clear. The following (incorrect) example should illustrate our point:

We agree with Vasquez when he claims that “the problem under scrutiny is far from being solved,”¹ and, despite Braun’s well-known opinion^{[1] [2]} that “light has been defin­itively shed on this age-old question,” we believe with our author that “we have a long way to go before we reach a satisfying stage of knowledge.”

The first quote is certainly from Vasquez and the sec­ond from Braun, but is the third really from Vasquez, as the context implies? And since we have indicated in foot­note 1 that Vasquez’s first quote comes from page 160 of his work, should we also assume that the third quote comes from the same page in the same book? And what if Braun was the source of the third quote?

Here is how we should have drafted the same passage:

We agree with Vasquez when he claims that “the problem under scrutiny is far from being solved,”¹ and, despite Braun’s well-known opinion that “light has been defini­tively shed on this age-old question,”² we believe with our author that “we have a long way to go before we reach a satisfying stage of knowledge.”^[3]

Notice that footnote 3 indicates “Vasquez 1976, 161.” If the quote had still been from p. 160, and if it had immediately followed the previous Vasquez quote with­out being interrupted by the Braun quote, we could have written “ibid.” But shame on us if we had written “ibid.”

• Roberto Vasquez, Fuzzy Concepts (London: Faber, 1976), 160.
• Richard Braun, Logik und Erkenntnis (Munich: Fink, 1968), 345.

in this case, since the two Vasquez quotes are separated by the quote from Braun. Had we done this, “ibid.” would have lead the reader to believe that Vasquez’s sentence was from p. 345 of Braun’s previously cited book. “Ibid.” means “in the same place,” and should only be used to repeat verbatim the reference of the previous note.

Rule 8: When a quote does not exceed two or three lines, you can insert it into the body of the text enclosed in quo­tation marks. I will do this now as I quote from Camp­bell and Ballou, who state, “Direct quotations not over three typewritten lines in length are enclosed in quota­tion marks and are run into the text.”¹ When the quote is longer, it is better to set it off as a block quotation. In this case the quotation marks are not necessary, because it is clear that all set-off passages are quotes, and we must commit to a different system for our observations. (Any secondary developments should appear in a note.) Here is an example of two consecutive block quotations:⁶

If a direct quotation is more than three typewritten lines in length, it is set off from the text in a separate para­graph, or paragraphs, and single-spaced. …

The paragraphing of the original source should be retained in direct quotations. Paragraphs that were con­secutive in the original are separated by a single space, as are the lines within each paragraph; paragraphs that are quoted from two different sources and that are not separated by intervening text should be separated by a double space.²

Indenting is used to indicate quotations, especially in factual writing involving numerous quotations of some length. … No quotation marks are used.

This method is quite convenient because it immedi­ately reveals the quoted texts; it allows the reader to skip them if he is skimming, to linger if he is more interested in the quoted texts than in our commentary, and finally, to find them immediately when need be.

Rule 9: Quotes must be accurate. First, transcribe the words exactly as they appear. (To this end, it is always a good idea to check the quotes against the original in your final draft, because errors or omissions may have occurred when you copied them by hand or typed them.) Second, do not omit text from a quote without indicating your omission with an ellipsis, three consecutive periods with or without brackets, in place of the omitted part. Third, do not make interpolations without clearly signal­ing them; each of our comments, clarifications, and spec­ifications must appear enclosed in brackets. Finally, we must also indicate emphases that are ours rather than the author’s by adding, after the quote and enclosed in brack­ets, a formula such as “emphasis mine.”

If the author that you quote, despite his worthiness of mention, makes an evident mistake, you must respect his mistake, but you must indicate it to the reader.⁷ At the very least, indicate the mistake with the following expression enclosed in square brackets: [sic], literally meaning “so.” Thus you should write that Savoy states that, “in 1820 [sic], after Napoleon Bonaparte’s death, Europe was in a grim situation with many shadows and few lights.” But, if I were you, I would stay away from this mysterious Savoy.

Rule 10: Quotes are like testimony in a trial, and you must always be able to track down the witnesses and demon­strate their reliability. For this reason, the reference must be exact and accurate (do not quote from an author with­out indicating the book and page number), and it must be verifiable. If this is the case, how should you proceed if important information or criticism comes from a per­sonal communication, a letter, or a manuscript? In a note, you can use one of these expressions:

1. Personal communication with the author, June 6, 1975.
2. Personal letter to author, June 6, 1975.
3. Recorded statements, June 6, 1975.
4. Smith, “The Sources of Snorri Sturluson’s Edda” (manu­script).
5. Smith, Paper presented at the XII Physiotherapy Confer­ence (manuscript, forthcoming from Mouton, The Hague).

You will notice that for sources 2, 4, and 5 there are related documents that you can exhibit. Source 3 is vague because the term “recording” does not specify whether you are talking about a magnetic audio recording or stenographic notes. As for source 1, only the source of the information could disprove you (but he may have died in the meantime). In these extreme cases, it is always good practice, after you have given a final form to the quote, to send a letter to the author with a copy of the text, and to ask for a letter of authorization in which he acknowledges the ideas you have attributed to him. If you are dealing with enormously important unpublished information (e.g., a new formula resulting from secret research), you should put a copy of the letter of authorization in the the­sis’s appendix. Naturally, do so only if the author of the information is a well-known scholarly authority, and not any old Joe.

Minor rules: If you want to be precise about text you have omitted, consider punctuation marks as you insert the ellipsis (the three ellipsis periods with or without the square brackets):

If we omit a section of little importance, … the ellip­sis must follow the punctuation mark of the complete section. If we omit a central part .    , the ellipsis precedes the commas.

When you quote poetry, follow the usage of the criti­cal literature on your topic. In any case, you can quote a single line by inserting it in the text: “la donzelletta vien dalla campagna.”⁸ You can quote two lines by inserting them into the text and separating them with a slash: “I cipressi che a Bolgheri alti e schietti / van da San Guido in duplice filar.”⁹ If instead you are dealing with a longer poetic passage, it is better to use the indentation system:

And when we are married,

How happy we’ll be.

I love sweet Rosie O’Grady

And Rosie O’Grady loves me.¹⁰

Also use the indentation system if you are dealing with a single line that will be the object of a long analysis, for example if you want to draw out the fundamental ele­ments of Verlaine’s poetics from the line

De la musique avant toute chose¹¹

In cases like this, I would say that it is not necessary to italicize the line even if it is in a foreign language. This especially would be the case with a thesis on Verlaine; otherwise you would have hundreds of pages all in italics. Rather, write,

De la musique avant toute chose

Et pour cela prefere I’Impair

Plus vague et plus soluble dans l’air,

Sans rien en lui qui pese ou qui pose. …¹²

And indicate “emphasis mine” if the center of your analy­sis is the notion of I’impair.

2. Quotes, Paraphrases, and Plagiarism

When you created your readings index cards, you summa­rized the various points of the author in question. That is to say that you paraphrased the author, rewording the author’s thought. In other instances you quoted entire passages enclosed in quotation marks. When you then begin writing your thesis, you no longer have the text in front of you, and perhaps you will copy entire passages from your index cards into your thesis. In this case, you must be sure that the pas­sages that you copy are really paraphrases and not quotes without quotation marks. Otherwise, you will have committed plagiarism.

This form of plagiarism is very common. The student has a clean conscience because, in a footnote, he says he is referring to that given author. But the reader becomes sus­picious of your thesis when he notices by chance that the page is not paraphrasing the original text, but in fact copying it without using quotation marks. And here we are not only talking about the advisor, but anyone else who will see your thesis in the future, either to publish it or to evaluate your competencies.

How can you make sure that you are paraphrasing and not plagiarizing? First of all, a paraphrase is generally much shorter than the original. But there are cases in which the author of a sentence or fairly short paragraph says very juicy things. In this case, your paraphrase should be very long, probably longer than the original passage. Here you do not have to worry neurotically about each of your words being different from the author’s, and in fact sometimes it is inev­itable or even useful that some of the author’s terms remain unchanged. The most reassuring test of your paraphrases will come when you are able to paraphrase the text without looking at it. This will mean not only that you have avoided plagiarism, but also that you have understood the text you are paraphrasing.

To better illustrate this point, I will reproduce a passage from Norman Cohn’s The Pursuit of the Millennium in the first paragraph below. Then I will provide an example of a reasonable paraphrase in the second paragraph, and an example of a faulty paraphrase that constitutes plagiarism in the third paragraph. In the fourth paragraph, I will give an example of a paraphrase almost identical to the third, but in which I have avoided plagiarism through an honest use of quotation marks.

[The original text:] “The coming of Antichrist was even more tensely awaited. Generation after generation lived in con­stant expectation of the all-destroying demon whose reign was indeed to be lawless chaos, an age given over to robbery and rapine, torture and massacre, but was also to be the prelude to the longed-for consummation, the Second Com­ing and the Kingdom of the Saints. People were always on the watch for the ‘signs’ which, according to the prophetic tradition, were to herald and accompany the final ‘time of troubles’; and since the ‘signs’ included bad rulers, civil dis­cord, war, drought, famine, plague, comets, sudden deaths of prominent persons and an increase in general sinfulness, there was never any difficulty about finding them.”^[7]

[An honest paraphrase:] Cohn is very explicit on this topic. He outlines the state of tension typical of this period, in which the wait for Antichrist is at the same time a wait for the demon’s reign, characterized by pain and disorder; and a pre­lude to the so-called Second Coming, the Parousia, Christ’s triumphant return. And in an age dominated by sorrowful events including plunders, lootings, famines, and plagues, there was no lack of “signs” that the prophetic texts had always announced as typical of the coming of Antichrist.¹

[PZagiarism:] On the other hand, we should not forget that the coming of Antichrist was even more tensely awaited. The generations lived in the constant expectation of the all-de­stroying demon whose reign was indeed to be lawless chaos, an age given over to robbery and rapine, torture and massa­cre, but was at the same time to be the prelude to the Second Coming or the Kingdom of the Saints. People were always on the watch for the “signs” which, as stated by the prophets, were to accompany and herald the final “time of troubles”; and since these “signs” included the bad rulers, the civil dis­cord, the war, the drought, the famine, the plagues and the comets, and also the sudden deaths of important persons (in addition to an increase in general sinfulness), there was never any difficulty about finding them.¹

[A paraphrase with quotes:] On the other hand, Cohn reminds us that “the coming of Antichrist was even more tensely awaited.” People greatly anticipated the “demon whose reign was indeed to be lawless chaos, an age given over to robbery and rapine, torture and massacre, but was also to be the prelude to the longed-for consummation, the Second Com­ing and the Kingdom of the Saints.” Now, Cohn concludes, given the dreadful variety of events identified by the pro­phetic texts as presages of the “time of troubles,” in an age marked by plunders, lootings, famines, and plagues “there was never any difficulty about finding them.”¹

Now, if you make the effort to compose a paraphrase as detailed as the fourth one, you may as well quote the entire passage. But to do so, your readings index card should have reproduced the passage verbatim, or paraphrased it beyond suspicion. Since, when you write your thesis, you will not be able to remember what you did during the research phase, it is necessary that you proceed correctly from the very begin­ning. If there are no quotation marks on the index card, you must be able to trust that the card contains an honest para­phrase that avoids plagiarism.

Source: Eco Umberto, Farina Caterina Mongiat, Farina Geoff (2015), How to write a thesis, The MIT Press.