Quoting conventions
When using quotes, you need to follow certain conventions so that your reader can tell where the quote begins and ends. Quotes are usually referenced like this;
To quote a word, phrase or short passage:
- use single quotation marks ['...'] at the beginning and end of the quote
- use double quotations marks ["..."] around a second quote if you're using a quote referenced in another quote.
This example is from a piece written about Erosion, in the Explore history section of this site.
'[...] When John Murray first entered Port Phillip Bay in 1803, he wrote in his log book: "the ground was hard and pleasant to walk on ... the soil is good as far as we may be judges".'
To quote a long passage or speech:
- begin on a new line
- indent the quote
- don't use quote marks
- start the sentence following the quote on a new line.
All the quotes in the Explore history section of this site are quoted in this way, like in the piece below about Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer;
[...] The strain caused by that ill-fated expedition was clear in Shackleton's descriptions of the event:
Death is a very little thing - the smallest thing in the world. I can tell you that, for I have come face to face with death...
