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In writing an academic paper you may want to incorporate a long section of another's text into your own. In such a case, you may use a block quotation, where you indent to show that the source is a quotation. Once you have done so, you need not surround the quotation with quotation marks, although you should reproduce any punctuation the original passage had.
Be wary of using block quotations too often: if your paper consists of large dollops of someone else's writing interspersed with only smidgens of your own, your professor may rightly accuse you of poor writing. Remember that, generally speaking, the goal of writing a college paper is not to show that you can copy down another author's words but to demonstrate that you can digest and explain the material in your own words.
When you use a block quotation, your own writing should introduce the quotation to your reader and lead your reader out of the quotation. You should assure that the reader understands not merely the point the author of the quotation was making, but also your point. Merely plunking a block quotation into your paper without integrating it carefully constitutes poor writing.
The source passage occurs on page 108 of James L. Adams' book Flying Buttresses, Entropy, and O-Rings: The World of an Engineer (Harvard UP, 1991). The passage, part of his chapter "Mathematics: The Numerical Mystique," uses an example to explain why math is so useful.
Source passage:
Could we collect solar power and store it in batteries? The only reasonably cheap high-capacity batteries presently available are the familiar ones already in cars-lead acid batteries. By looking in the Sears catalogue, I find that one of these typically holds about 90 ampere hours of energy, weighs a little under 50 pounds, and costs $80. By looking up the energy content of gasoline in one of the many dull-looking books in my office, I find that a cubic foot of gasoline (8 gallons) contains about 25 times as much available energy as a cubic foot of battery and weighs about one third as much. A tank full of gasoline (16 gallons) therefore contains as much energy as 150 batteries, which would eight approximately 7,500 lbs, make a pile 2 ft by 5 ft by 10 ft, and have an initial cost of $12,000. That makes gasoline look pretty good, doesn't it? But does it rule out solar power for cars? No, if we could live with less performance and range in our automobiles, or if solar electric cars are a component of an
overall system utilizing solar energy. John Reuyl, President of Energy Self-Reliance, Inc., designed an interesting system (U.S. Patent No. 4, 182,290) which combines a house with photovoltaic panels and batteries with a battery-powered electric car containing a small gasoline engine/generator. One configuration studied incorporated a residence with 110 square meters of panel, 61 kilowatt hours (kwh) of battery, a 10 kw DC/AC converter, and an automobile equipped with 31 kwh (680 kg or 1,500 lbs) of batteries, a 40 hp/16w electric drive motor, and a 25 hp/10dw engine/generator. Such a vehicle would have a 60-mile range, acceleration superior to many conventional automobiles, and a top speed considerably in excess of the legal limit.
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Paragraph using block quotes:
Writing about mathematics need not be difficult and obscure. Many writers bring the concepts of mathematics into language that most readers can understand. James L. Adams is one example; note the way he caters to readers unsophisticated in math when he discusses the possibility of using solar energy for everyday energy needs:
Could we collect solar power and store it in batteries? The only reasonably cheap high-capacity batteries presently available are the familiar ones already in cares-lead acid batteries. By looking in the Sears catalogue, I find that one of these typically holds about 90 ampere hours of energy, weighs a little under 50 pounds, and costs $80. By looking up the energy content of gasoline in one of the many dull-looking books in my office, I find that a cubic foot of gasoline (8 gallons) contains about 25 times as much available energy as a cubic foot of battery and weighs about one third as much. A tank full of gasoline (16 gallons) therefore contains as much energy as 150 batteries, which would weigh approximately 7,500 lbs, make a pile 2 ft by 5 ft by 10 ft, and have an initial cost of $12,000. That makes gasoline look pretty good, doesn't it? (108)
Adams takes care to make his paragraph reader-friendly: he uses informal questions to open and close the paragraph; he refers to specific recognizable sources like the Sears catalogue; he even admits that his reference books may be "dull-looking." But he lays out clearly the logic of his calculation, while always reminding the reader of the aim of the calculation.
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This paragraph uses the block quotation as an object of analysis, as one example of writing that clarifies the use of mathematics. Because the focus of the paragraph is the logic and clarity of the whole explanation, it seems particularly apt to quote the whole passage without breaks. Note that the sentences that take the reader out of the quotation reemphasize the point: that Adams explains clearly how math is useful.
In the List of Works Cited (MLA format) at the end of the paper, the entry would look like this:
Works Cited
Adams, James L. Flying Buttresses, Entropy, and O-Rings: The World of an Engineer. Cambridge:
Harvard UP, 1991.
Block Quotation Exercise
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