Quotations
Quote exactly, mark every change, and cite the version you read.
A quotation makes a promise: these are the source’s words, at the pinpoint you give, in the version you name, changed only where you show a change. Every mark around a quotation keeps part of that promise in view. The sentence below quotes the Administrative Procedure Act with one word stressed and two words left out.
A quotation in your sentence, with its citation and change note
Reviewing courts are to “decide all relevant questions of law” and “interpret . . . statutory provisions.” 5 U.S.C. § 706 (2024) (emphasis added).
- 1 your own words lead in
- 2 opening mark: the source’s exact words start
- 3 italics you added
- 4 three spaced periods: words left out
- 5 period inside the closing mark
- 6 section, and the edition you read
- 7 what you changed
The Supreme Court made the same changes to the same sentence in the opinion that overruled Chevron: italics on “all,” three spaced periods for “constitutional and,” and “emphasis added” after the citation.
Loper Bright Enters. v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369, 398 (2024).
3.1What a quotation promises, and the check before you print
In the print and Kindle editions
3.2Run it in or set it off: inline and block quotations
In the print and Kindle editions
3.3Quotation marks, punctuation and capitals
In the print and Kindle editions
3.4Brackets: changing a letter, a word or a name
In the print and Kindle editions
3.5Ellipses: leaving words out without changing the meaning
In the print and Kindle editions
3.6Emphasis: yours, the source’s, or removed
In the print and Kindle editions
3.7Quotations inside quotations: marks, speakers, notes
In the print and Kindle editions
3.8(cleaned up): what it signals, who accepts it, when to use it
In the print and Kindle editions
3.9Quoting statutes, rules, regulations and the record
In the print and Kindle editions
3.10Quoting again: short forms after a quotation
In the print and Kindle editions
3.11Errors to catch
In the print and Kindle editions