Quotations: The Protein of Academic Writing

Quotes are words taken from another source that the author places into his or her paper; and they are very important while writing papers in the academic world and for writing in many career fields. The affective use of quotes within a paper can be the difference between and A and a B. Quotations are important because they help you back up your main point, can add length and depth to the paper, and allow the audience to trust you. Quotes can also affect all three parts of writing, the purpose, context and audience. Quotes can help convey the purpose, make up the context of the writing and affect the relationship between the author and audience, which shows that the good or bad use of quotes can influence a papers grade. Quotations are similar to a protein shake after working out; they help make your writing stronger after all the hard work you put in.

 

While writing papers (especially in the academic world) if you are ever making an argument you must remember to back up that argument. The way to do that is using quotations. By taking words from professionals you can make your point much more credible. They help you back up what you are trying to say and make it easier to convey your purpose in a paper.

 

Quotes help beef up your writing too. Many academic papers will have a word or page limit, and if you ever find yourself trying to reach a certain amount or words or pages, quotes can help. They add more words and can also help string into other ideas about the topic or argument. Many academic papers will also require quotations as criteria toward the grade, which in such cases they directly affect the context and content of the paper.

 

Another huge aspect of writing papers is the relationship between the author and audience. All audiences want to trust the author and know what they are saying is factual. If the audience does not trust the author they would most likely not even want to evaluate the paper. Trust greatly influences a positive or negative view of the writer and the paper. A good way to earn trust is the use of quotations. Using quotations means that the author did some sort of research on the topic they are writing about. Researching means that the author has knowledge on the topic and knows what he or she is saying. So by using quotes you let the audience know that they can trust you because what you’re saying is backed up by facts.

 

So as you can see, as you enter the academic world it is ideal to learn how to affectively use quotes. Quotes are a very important aspect to writing they can “beef up” a paper. Properly used quotes help back up an argument by providing substantial evidence, they give the author credit by proving that he or she knows what they’re writing about and they add depth to any paper.