Hi. I know how to format a long quotation, and how quotation marks are not used for that. However, if that long quotation is dialogue, and would normally be in quotation marks if embedded in the text, would quotation marks be used in that instance? In other words, my long quotation that needs to be indented is dialogue, so do i use quotations or still no? Thank you.

Question

anonymous · Answer

Always use quotations even if you shorten the text. My AP Lit teacher always forces us to use the exact format and still stating where we got the information from.

anonymous · Answer

It does not matter what layout you use to present the quotation, if it's a direct quotation, you always need quotation marks and you always need to cite your sources. Publishers usually get around a problem like yours by using quotation marks that are slightly larger than the quoted text, so they are not confused with the quotation marks in the quotation itself. However, that's only a stylistic choice and can be done in various ways.

There is only one rule for quotations which is, when it's a direct quotation, always use quotation marks; with no exception.