Question

I want to use this long quote in my essay. I need to use MLA format and I want to take some words out of thise quote by using the ellipsis mark. I'm struggling to put my long quote grammatically correct. Here's the quote:

Women constituted more than 25 percent of the total labor force in the United States in the 19305--over ten million women were working out of the home at the beginning of the decade, and over three million of them were married. They lost jobs at a higher rate than did men in the early years of the collapse, were often unable to find other sources of income, and were rout

Answer 1

i dont think you guys can see the rest ofmy question. Here's a word document attached.

Answer 2

I usually use APA. :P So, here's a guide I got off the Internet.

For quotations that extend to more than four lines of verse or prose, place quotations in a free-standing block of text and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented one inch from the left margin; maintain double-spacing. Only indent the first line of the quotation by a half inch if you are citing multiple paragraphs. Your parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.
--
When quoting verse, maintain original line breaks. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your essay.)

For example, when citing more than four lines of prose, use the following examples:

Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her narration:
They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)
--
When citing long sections (more than three lines) of poetry, keep formatting as close to the original as possible.

In his poem "My Papa's Waltz," Theodore Roethke explores his childhood with his father:
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We Romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself. (quoted in Shrodes, Finestone, Shugrue 202)
--
When citing two or more paragraphs, use block quotation format, even if the passage from the paragraphs is less than four lines. Indent the first line of each quoted paragraph an extra quarter inch.

In "American Origins of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Movement," David Russell argues:
Writing has been an issue in American secondary and higher education since papers and examinations came into wide use in the 1870s, eventually driving out formal recitation and oral examination. . . .
From its birth in the late nineteenth century, progressive education has wrestled with the conflict within industrail society between pressure to increase specialization of knowledge and of professional work (upholding disciplinary standards) and pressure to integrate more fully an ever-widerning number of citizes into intellectually meaningful activity within mass society (promoting social equity). . . . (3)

Source: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/

I can't give you any advice on the MLA format because I'm not very familiar with it. I, however, hope this helps, somehow.

Answer 3

I think the last part of my post would help you the most. :)

Answer 4

well, I do have the MLA correct in my paper right now but I'm struggling specifically with my quote. I can't seem to put together grammatically. Do you think you can check it by opening the word document I attached in my post? Please.
Thank you so much!

Answer 5

I'm using my tablet right now. :( I'm sorry, I'm not able to open it up at the moment.

Answer 6

ORIGINAL QUOTE:
Women constituted more than 25 percent of the total labor force in the United States in the 19305--over ten million women were working out of the home at the beginning of the decade, and over three million of them were married. They lost jobs at a higher rate than did men in the early years of the collapse, were often unable to find other sources of income, and were routinely discriminated against in public employment

HOW I THINK IS GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT:
Women constituted more than 25 percent of the total labor force in the United States . . . ten million women were working out of the home at the beginning of the decade, and . . . [t]hey lost jobs at higher rate than did men in the early years of the collapse, were often unable to find other sources of income, and were routinely discriminated against in public employment.

Answer 7

This is on what I need help :)

Thanks.

Answer 8

If you're quoting from a source, it's not right to change the thing completely, and that includes changing the sentence construction. What you did is okay, I think, and it would be best if you maintained this length and only highlight the important keys.

I'm not genius when it comes to essay construction, mainly because I'm more inclined to literature and fiction than I am inclined to... things like this. Haha.To tell you quite frankly, I think you should wait for someone else to come along and help you out. My word cannot be trusted.

Answer 9

I had an experience in learning MLA citation. You can also paraphrase and not write the paranthetical documentation, but if what youu're paraphrasing has the same point as the thing that you just paraphrased, then you need to cite it in the paper. Is that what you're asking?

Answer 10

@aboviedo, you can handle altering the quotation in this way, using the ellipsis dots to indicate that you've omitted material -- use four dots, though, when you've crossed a sentence boundary -- but you might also consider working the bits that you want into your own text, as portions of your sentences. The effect can be smoother, particularly when you have two such ellipsis in such a short passage.

Answer 11

mighty_pen31, I don't want to paraphrase because I'm scared I won't be able to explain it clearly. What I'm asking is that I'm omitting some words and MLA requires to use elipsis mark when you take out words of the original quote, but it has to stay grammatically correct, and as i was omitting these words I don't know if it makes sense, I'm not sure if on what i omitted is gramatically correct.

Answer 12

Redwood Girl, I see what you're saying.

Thank you