English Term Papers: Gathering Quotes & Quotations

Many English classes students take will require that research papers and essays be written on a consistent basis. This can be a source of stress for many students as they lack the basic knowledge about writing a term paper. One of the major problems with an English term paper may be in gathering quotes and quotations to add a depth to the content they are creating. There are a number of places to go to gather a multitude of quotes and quotations to use in a term paper.

Go to the Library

One of the most obvious places to look is in your local library. There are many books and online resources here that you can take your quotes from. The advantages of the library are that a writer can directly find a source and cite that in their paper. Also, each quote can be attributed to the person who made it. Some other sources can be questionable and the exact origin of a quote can come into question. If the writer has a solid thesis statement for their English term paper than finding relevant quotes can be pretty easy. Remember that there is only so much room in an English term paper for the quotes of others, make sure that they are relevant to what you are doing.

The Purpose of Quotes

Just like gathering fact, gathering quotes and quotations for an English term paper should be done for a reason. Quotes should not be added haphazardly to fill up space or because they are particularly popular. All quotations being used should be in support of the thesis statement. If the paper is about racial injustice in American Literature, then a quote from Shakespeare is probably inappropriate and not contributing to the thesis. Keep your quotes and quotations on the mark and relevant to the thesis of the paper.

Online Sources

As the internet has developed, more and more sites are being dedicated to famous quotes. There is a logic and timelessness of a great quote. This is great because finding a multitude of quotes that are applicable to almost any paper is not difficult to do. However there are a few problems. The first one is that many websites are not reliable sources. A writer has no idea of the validity of the quote, where it really came from or if it was just made up by the site designer. It is important to double check all quotes and quotations to make sure that they are written correctly and so that you can cite the quote from its original source.