To be effective, the quoted material must be both colorful and relevant . Don't quote pedestrian passages, paraphrase instead. Always identify who is being quoted in the text of your paper, as well as in a footnote. Vary the position of the identifier. Replace said and wrote with action verbs like exclaimed, declared, marveled, excoriated, demanded , and rhapsodized .
Ellipses are necessary when something has been removed from the middle of a quotation.
Some writers try to evade learning these rules by using block quotes. Avoid block quotes, readers tend to skip over them and they disrupt the natural flow of your writing. Try to use just a few lines or phrases from the text you want to quote. Quotes within quotes call for special treatment. Article titles appear in quotation marks, book titles in italics or underlined.