Quotations are verbatim repetition of someone’s words.
Writers use quotations when the quoted material
- goes to the heart of your discussion or argument.
- is so well-written that it cannot be condensed further.
- contains a dramatic eyewitness account of an event.
- is written by a prestigious author
- contains relevant statistics.
- cannot be paraphrased or summarized as elegantly or accurately in your own words.
Writers set off quotations with quotation marks.