Quoting Sources

Within the world of essays, quotations rarely "prove" anything. What good quotations usually do is support a particular interpretation. Yet one of the most frequent mistakes writers make is to say that a particular quotation "proves" some claim. Here are some verbs that persuade better than prove:

Suppose for instance you're writing an essay on gender stereotypes in advertisements, and you find a great quotation from an author: "Ads tend to present women in limited roles. Girls and women in ads show concern about their bodies, their clothes, their homes, and the need to attract a boy or man. Seldom are women shown in work settings, business roles, or positions of responsibility and authority. Our society recognizes many valid roles for women, but this isn't always reflected in ads.

Short quote:
Ads never treat women as equal to men. Walsh and Cohen (2002) argue the “ads tend to present women in limited roles” (p. 2)

In all citation styles, when you wish to include long quotations (more than four lines), you should do so in set-off block format. Left-indent the set-off quotation an appropriate amount (often a half-inch) and prepare for it with a signal statement ending in a colon:

In their study of advertising, Cohen and Walsh (2002) found that ads tend to present women in limited societal roles:

Girls and women in ads show concern about their bodies, their clothes, their homes, and the need to attract a boy or man. Seldom are women shown in work settings, business roles, or positions of responsibility and authority. Our society recognizes many valid roles for women, but this isn't always reflected in ads. (p. 2)

Here is the wrong and right way to comment on this choice bit after quoting it:

The original tries to get too much from the quotation. It's just one comment, after all, not data on the stereotypes at large. Stylistically, notice the change in attribution, from This quotation to Cohen and Walsh’s comment.