Formatting Quotes from Dramas

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English 117E: Shakespeare

[edit] How to Type, Document, and Punctuate Quotations

1) Type all papers double-spaced with one-inch margins on all sides. 2) All quotations should be followed by a line reference in parentheses.

• Ex.:"O spite!" (I.i.138) says Hermia to her lover Lysander.

3) If you are writing about more than one play, you need to include an abbreviation of the title in your parenthetical reference.

• Ex.: When Sir Andrew asks Fabian if he will "make an ass" of him (TN III.ii.12), is it possible to see reverberations of Bottom's assertion that the other mechanicals "make an ass of" him (MND III.i.114)?
• Note the end punctuation in this example. The final question mark comes after the parenthesis, so as to include the parenthetical reference in the sentence to which it belongs.

4) Indicate short quotations by quotation marks; type them normally, as a part of your double-spaced paragraph. Use slashes (with a space before and after the slash) and capital letters to indicate the line divisions in poetry.

• Ex.: Olivia ponders how she can use her powerful position to capture Cesano, "I have sent after him, he says he'll come. / How shall I feast him? What bestow of him?" (TN III.iv.1-2), before she addresses Maria directly.

5) Long quotations should be set off from the main body of your paragraph. If a prose quotation runs more than four typed lines (more than three lines for poetry), set it off from your text by beginning a new line, indenting one inch (or ten spaces if you are using a typewriter) from the left margin, and typing it double-spaced, without adding quotation marks. A colon generally introduces a quotation displayed in this way, though sometimes the context may require a different mark of punctuation or none at all. Be sure to type a long poetry quotation line-for-line, just as it appears in the original text. In other words, do not convert it to paragraph format.

• Ex.: Most people are familiar with Puck's final speech:
  

  If we shadows have offended,
  Think but this, and all is mended:
  That you have but slumbered here
  While these visions did appear. (V.1.413-16)

  
  But why does Shakespeare have him address the audience directly?
• Note: There is no punctuation after the reference in this case.

6) Unless you are dealing with parenthetical material, apply the following rule:

	periods and commas INSIDE
ALWAYS put		the quotation marks.
	colons and semicolons OUTSIDE

7) Place question marks and exclamation marks according to the context:

• If your whole sentence (but not the quotation within it) is a question or exclamation, put the punctuation outside the quotation marks.
  • Ex.: Why does Orsino begin the play by mentioning "food," "music," and "love" (I.i.1)?
• If the quotation itself (but not the sentence surrounding it) is a question or exclamation, put the punctuation inside the quotation marks
  • Ex.: We sympathize with Hermia's reaction to the enchanted Lysander. "Why are you grown so rude?" (III. ii.262).
  • Note the end punctuation (the period), which is necessary in order to include the parenthetical reference in the sentence to which it belongs.

--MarthineSatris 17:49, 27 August 2007 (PDT)