When using a quote, I keep finding this rule about four lines of prose. Is this four lines as appears in the quoted source, or four lines as it appears in my manuscript? It will differ: for example, my source runs 42 characters per line, whereas my manuscript is formatted for 60.

Question

When using a quote, I keep finding this rule about four lines of prose. Is this four lines as appears in the quoted source, or four lines as it appears in my manuscript?  It will differ: for example, my source runs 42 characters per line, whereas my manuscript is formatted for 60.

anonymous · Answer

It is four lines as it appears in your manuscript. The reason you need to give the quote its own indented paragraph if it is more than 4 lines is because it looks much nicer than having a paragraph that is three-quarters of a page long or so.