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.

For example

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.

For example

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...