Sample Citation

Richard gives a blunt reply: "Chop off his head" (3.1.193).
                           ^ ^                 ^ ^   ^    ^
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1-2: The grammar of your sentence must fit the grammar of the quotation in tense, number, and so on. If it does not, either alter your own words, or cite a different portion of the source text.

2-3: Do not use ellipses ( . . . ) at the beginnings or ends of quotations; use elipses to indicate words omitted from within a quotation.

3a: Place close-quotes before the line or page reference.

3b: Omit any final punctuation marks from the citation except for question marks or exclamation marks. If an exclamation mark appeared in the source text, then the proper punctuation would be:

Richard gives a blunt reply: "Chop off his head!" (3.1.193).

4: Enclose reference information in parentheses.

5a: Cite reference numbers up to 101 like this: 34-37; above 100, repeat only the last two figures: 211-12 (but of course, 398-405 and 96-109).

5b: Use arabic numerals rather than roman numerals for citations of all numbered sections and subsections—books, stanzas, lines and so on: The Faerie Queene 1.6.334-42 or Paradise Lost 4.634-58.

6: Place final punctuation after close-parentheses to end the sentence.