77 PRS Proofreading and Editing Service PhD Experts • All Academic Areas • Fast Turnaround • High Quality All quotations should be introduced and discussed clearly and accurately. Beyond the formatting techniques above which will let your readers know that a quotation is a quotation, identifying the author (or speaker) is often helpful and the quoted material should definitely be logically connected to the argument of your paper. With the exception of quotations that contain pithy, proverbial sayings that neatly sum up concepts, or passages addressing the very issues with which you are dealing in the same or similar language, quotations aren’t really able to move an argument on their own: they can do a lot, but they need to be used thoughtfully and their function in your paper should always be clear. Your readers may not be making the same connections you are, so those connections need to be explained. Always use a quotation in a way that makes it absolutely clear exactly how it relates to your present argument, perhaps analyse it in some detail in relation to your own thoughts or evidence, and definitely explain any terminology or concepts used in it if you do not use (and explain) the same language and terminology in your own text. An author quotes to make his or her evidence and arguments more interesting, more striking and more persuasive, but a quotation cannot achieve this if you do not explain for your readers your thoughts about a quoted passage and how both it and those thoughts fit into your argument. 5.2.2 Footnotes and Endnotes: Do You Need Them? Footnotes or endnotes – sometimes both in combination – were once staples of a scholarly paper, but they play a much smaller part in academic and scientific papers today, and many journals will ask that they be kept to a minimum or avoided altogether. Those journals that do allow notes will usually specify which they prefer – footnotes at the bottom of the pages or endnotes at the end of the document – and many will ask that either kind of notes be restricted to additional PARt II: PRePARIng, PResentIng And PolIsHIng YoUR woRk