Q U O T E S

PARAPHRASING AND CITING TEXTS

In early drafts, long quotations are preferable to short misquotations.

See paraphrasing examples at UW Madison’s Writing Center.

Effective quote follows a short, sharp intro:

The magazine’s art critic, Mr Joe Wau, praised the artist’s grasp of cultural nuance. "Those who have attended these exhibits will recognize the symbols and the controversy that surrounds them," he told the audience at the XYZ Gallery last week.

QUOTES OF CONFUSING ORIGIN

Picasso has been credited with the well-known observation that good artists copy, but great artists steal.

It has been widely observed that good artists copy, though great artists steal.

T. S. Eliot was probably not the first to remark that immature poets imitate but mature poets steal.

Beware of misattributions, such as Steve Jobs’ often cited, “Picasso had a saying – ‘Good artists copy; great artists steal.’” Despite Jobs’ assertion, there is no evidence that Picasso actually said this.

TROUBLESOME QUOTES

McQuilten has written extensively about Zittel, noting that, “Zittel creates idealistic products, such as complete housing and clothing structures that promise to solve, and therefore absolve her of all consumer needs. This work has been received by art and design discourse as an ironic appropriation of modernist design principles turned toward the idealistic redesign of consumer life. As Robert Cook writes in the catalogue for [Zittel’s] 2006-2007 touring retrospective, ‘Ruminating across and expanded and interiorised frontier, she is engaged in the redesign of so much we take for granted … with a neat balance of ironic suspicion and optimism about the whole enterprise.’” 1

1. Grace McQuilten, Art in Consumer Culture: Mis-Design, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2011.  Robert Cook, in Andrea Zittel: Critical Space. New York, The New Museum, 2006. Page 203 of McQuilten.

It’s OK to put long or complicated quotes in a draft as is, then rework once you are certain about how to paraphrase for relevance. You could also just put the quote in the footnote until ready to summarize. To gain context or check accuracy, scholars should locate the actual document in which the person quoted by the reference (Cook) is quoted.

Grace McQuilten argues that Zittel makes use of ironic appropriation of modernist design principles turned toward the idealistic redesign of consumer life. She quotes Robert Cook as remarking, “Ruminating across and expanded and interiorised frontier, she is engaged in the redesign of so much we take for granted … with a neat balance of ironic suspicion and optimism about the whole enterprise.” 1

or

Grace McQuilten takes note of the 2006 catalog, Andrea Zittel: Critical Space, which holds that Zittel is, “engaged in the redesign of so much we take for granted … with a neat balance of ironic suspicion and optimism about the whole enterprise.” 1 

or even

Critics have remarked that Zittel has examined consumer culture and the ironic use of design principles. Robert Cook suggests that Zittel is, “engaged in the redesign of so much we take for granted … with a neat balance of ironic suspicion and optimism about the whole enterprise.” 1

1. Grace McQuilten, Art in Consumer Culture: Mis-Design, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2011. Robert Cook, in Andrea Zittel: Critical Space. New York, The New Museum, 2006. I am grateful to McQuilten for pointing out Cook’s descriptive passage.

Attributing to non-published sources

~ A classmate of the author’s says “Life is brief but art can be retouched forever.”

~ In a 2011 lecture, the artist recounted that living in a storefront took pressure off of her to find a gallery. 1

1. “Andrea Zittel, “Davis Lecture” at University of Oregon. Eugene, January 20, 2011.

If you saw the lecture on Youtube rather than in person, you'd cite this per Turabian on broadcast videos, I think.

WRITING ABOUT ONES SELF: References to ones self in most research papers are distracting and unnecessary. Instead of writing,

I created the following table to show the increase in prices over the past decade.

just write,

The following table shows increasing prices over the past decade.

The latter keeps the focus on the paper’s subject rather than on the act of authoring the paper.

BUT many MFA theses are about one’s own work and one’s motivations in creating it – so it can be very awkward to leave out all references to ones self. You may follow the formal style of referring to yourself in the third person:

The author stretched the canvasses onto pie pans.

The writer discovered her photographs for sale on a foreign website.

Referring to ones self by name can be confusing:

The color palette reminds Throop of her first visit to Florida.

Using first person is usually the briefest and clearest:

I stretched the canvasses onto pie pans.

I discovered my photographs for sale on a foreign website.

The color palette reminds me of my first visit to Florida.

When describing what is well established you are, presumably, in agreement with the reader. In such cases, “we” is acceptable.

It is the first thing we see in the gallery.

We see the canvasses are stretched onto pie tins.

This is called the “author’s we.”

Always write in the manner most comfortable for yourself, and edit such references later.