Using quotations
time to complete: 5-10 minutes
Quotes are often used to highlight a particular expression by the author of the source text which seems to capture an idea in an original way. It is less common to have many quotes in your writing, and even less common to have a quote that is more than two lines (this is called a block quote).
It is more common to use phrases or parts of a sentence and integrate them in your writing in the form of a quote.
Task: Look at the example from Education below where the writer has integrated a quote into his writing and then answer the question that follows.
Interpretivists accept the influence of their values, rather than falsely assuming that they are able to depersonalise their research. They are, therefore, more likely to use approaches such as unstructured interviews and participant observation because these make no attempt to separate the researcher from the researched in order to maintain objectivity. There is, nevertheless, a risk that in abandoning objectivity, researchers slip into, ‘a bottomless pit of [subjective] solipsism’ (Eisner 1992, p. 10). This will be considered in more detail below.
Adapted from Greenbank (2003)