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Using Quotations: Shortening Quotations With Ellipses

Last updated 5/6/2020

 

Visual: Screen opens to a background image with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The title Walden University Writing Center and tagline “Your writing, grammar, and APA experts” appears on the screen. The screen changes to show the series title “Using Quotations” and the video title “Shortening Quotations with Ellipses.”

Audio: Guitar music

 

Visual: Slide changes to the title “Shortening Quotations with Ellipses” and the following:

Quotations over 40 words require block quote formatting

  • “The unmarked hierarchies in US college composition have long assumed basic writing and second language writing were ancillary activities and institutions at the margins, orbiting around the mainstream English” (Trimbur, 2016, para. 19).

Audio: When using quotations to integrate sources into your writing, one shortcut you can use to keep quotations under 40 words, which is considered a block quotation in APA, is ellipses. Ellipses are three periods, one right after another. You can use ellipses to cut out extraneous information and wording from a quotation and to indicate to your reader that you have done so.

 

Visual: The following example is added to the screen:

  • According to Trimbur (2016), “the unmarked hierarchies in US college composition have long assumed basic writing and second language writing were...orbiting around the mainstream English” (para. 19).

Audio: Here's an example of a quotation that's over 40 words, and then here is an example of how I have shortened it by cutting out words and replaced them with ellipses. I cut out the extra phrasing that wasn't important to the point that I was trying to make here, which helps it become more concise so I’m not including extra information that isn’t relevant for my reader.

Keep this trick of using ellipses in mind when you’re using quotations to ensure you’re including only the essential information in the quotation.

 

Visual: The screen changes to an ending slide with slide a background image with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The email address writingsupport@mail.waldenu.edu appears on the screen.