| 單元內容 |
TAILORING QUOTATIONS TO FIT YOUR WRITING/INTEGRATING
QUOTATIONS, PART II
Dr. Marguerite Connor
USING ELLIPSES
It is permissible to delete words from a quotation, provided that you indicate to the reader that something has been omitted. Your condensed version is as accurate as the original; it is just shorter. But you must remember to insert the conventional symbol for deletion, three spaced dots, called an ellipsis. Once made aware by the ellipsis that your version differs from the original, any reader who wants to see the ornitted portion can consult the original source.
Original:
It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.
W. Somerset Maugham
Quotation with Ellipsis:
Maugham does not believe that "suffering ennobles the character; ... suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive." (or: .... vindictive" (76). if you are citing the page number according to MLA format).
Notice that:
1. The three dots are spaced equally.
2. The dots must be three.
3. The semicolon is retained to provide terminal punctuation for the first part of the quotation.
If you wish to delete the end of a quotation, and the ellipsis coincides with the end of your sentence, you must use the three dots, plus a fourth to signify the sentence's end.
Quotation with Terminal Ellipsis:
Maugham does not believe that "suffering ennobles the character ... suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive." (or: .... vindictive" (76). if you are citing the page number according to MLA format).
You can use the ellipsis to link two separate quotes form the same paragraph in your source, but only if the two sentences. Do not overuse it. It is not supposed to replace summary or paraphrase. Use it when you are working with a long passage that contains serveal separate points that you wish to quote, or when you truly only need part of a long sentence. Be careful not to change the meaning of the original quotation.
Original:
As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable.
Albert Einstein
Inexact Quotation:
Einstein believes that ".... war is inevitable."
---------------------------
1 Information and exercises in this handout were taken from Brenda Spatt, Writing From Sources, 4th ed., New York: St. Martin's Press, 1966.
|
|
