QUOTE: Originally posted by Jamesaritchie

You also need to make sure any quotation you find is accurate. Consider the source carefully. Just because you find a "quotation" does not always mean it's the real deal.

In a sense, you didn't use the word "quotes" incorrectly, becuase someone did quote all those things you found in your research, but the things themselves are not quotes, they are quotations. And to make points with your teacher, and serious points with any editor you later submit the piece to, "quote" is a verb, "quotation" is a noun. What you found wasn't a quote, though someone did quote it, it was a quotation.

In an interview, you say, "May I quote you on that?" If the person says yes, then what he gives you is a quotation.

And when you find something in, say, an article, what you find is a quotation. The way you would refer to it is often something like, "In a New York Times article by John Smith, President Bush was quoted as saying "I like my steaks cooked rare."

In a query, you would say, :I will include quotations by so and so.

Sorry for the grammar lesson, but you really can score points with teachers, and huge points with editors, when you use "quote" as a verb, and "quotation" as a noun.


I rather think that in the case of 'quotes --- quotation' we have a word in the process of slipping into a new usage mode. Having just read Kate Burridge's 'Blooming English' I am still wondering at the number of words that are commonly used by us that have completly changed meaning and spelling and been shortened -- and so on.

My all time faviourite (favorite) word is like. A lyche (sp) used to mean a body, a corpse. In English churches there was a 'Lyche Gate', an entrance to the graveyard where the body of the departed was displayed for the mourners to view. Then people began to do something like ( [:)] ) telling others that they looked similar to the dead person. i.e. 'You are their lyche'. From there it perhaps morphed into, "You and I are lyches' and then onto 'I am like you', (We are similar) and onward until the word has today's usage. Most of you are probably not old enough to remember the fuss over the word when it was used in a tobacco ad. "Winstons taste good, like a cigarette should.' I don't believe that usage would attract much of a comment these days.

Still, it's best to try to stick to accepted usage to avoid confusing people. After all, language is meant for communication and if we aren't communicating then we really aren't using language, we're just making (writing) noises.