Don’t
make the mistake of overusing quotations because you are unsure about how to
use them. Remember that the purpose of
quotations is to call attention to specific
words. You lose the reader’s attention
when your quotations are too long or too frequent, so quote only when the exact
words themselves are important.
Statutes are a good example
of when the exact words matter: a case
often turns on the interpretation of particular statutory language. But even when
quoting a statute, be selective about how much you quote, and quote only the
portions of the statute that are relevant to your issue.
Use quotations from case law
more selectively. You should usually
paraphrase the court’s holding and reasoning, saving quotations for key words
and phrases or sentences that are so well-written that you could not improve on
them. You will rarely need to quote the facts of a case.
·
Finding that
there was no “special relationship” between the parties, the court held that
the University had no duty to protect the plaintiff from the “well-known
dangers of using a trampoline.” University of Denver
v. Whitlock, 744 P.2d 54, 62 (Colo.
When you do use quotations,
quote the material accurately. Use
brackets to show any changes or additions you have made to the original and
ellipses to show any deletions necessary to make the quotation fit within your
sentence.
- The purpose of the Good Samaritan statute is “to encourage . . . assistance by persons on a voluntary basis to enhance the public safety.” Colo. Rev. Stat. §13-21-116(1) (2005).
Robin Wellford Slocum, Legal Reasoning, Writing, and
Persuasive Argument, 257-59 (2d ed. 2006); Anne Enquist & Laurel Currie
Oates, Just Writing 111-13 (3d ed. 2009); Laurel Currie Oates & Anne
Enquist, The Legal Writing Handbook 555-56 (5th ed. 2010).
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