# How do I quote correctly?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [December 14, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694 "2004-12-14T00:52:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@klintypooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/klintypooh)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2004, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694/1 "2004-12-14T00:52:06Z")
Title says it all really, anybody fancy a quick spar with some ignorance?
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2004, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694/2 "2004-12-14T01:00:09Z")
> [@username here](#):
>
> quoted text here
or
> [@](#):
>
> quoted text here
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### Author:  [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694/3 "2004-12-14T01:01:44Z")
> [@klintypooh](#):
>
> Title says it all really, anybody fancy a quick spar with some ignorance?
Easier yet, hit the “reply” button at the bottom right of the post you wish to quote. Easy as pie.
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2004, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694/4 "2004-12-14T01:12:54Z")
> [@klintypooh](#):
>
> Title says it all really, anybody fancy a quick spar with some ignorance?
To quote correctly, you reprint the words the person you’re quoting used, not something else! 😃
Seriously, you’re asking the mechanism for producing a quote, right?
Bunch of ways to do that.
**Use the Software Method** : The simplest is to hit the “quote” button at the lower right corner of the person’s post – which quotes his/her full reply, less anything he or she may have quoted. If you only want to quote a part of it, you edit out the extraneous parts from the quoted message. See below if you use this and want to answer separate parts of the post.
**Manual Method:** If you want to embed several people’s quotes, or interlaced quotes and responses, you use coding. This is an open bracket → [
and this is a close bracket–\> ] What follows uses braces {} to explain what to do without actually coding it; wherever I typed a brace, use the matching bracket instead.
To start a quote, you type {quote} (with brackets instead of braces, remember?). To attribute that quote to somebody, you type {quote= , his/her username, and the close bracket. For example (and still showing you with braces instead of brackets), quoting you I would type {quote=klintypooh} to start the quote – and the software automatically makes a quote box and starts it with _“Originally posted by klintypooh”_. Cut and paste what you want to quote, and type in {/quote} (with brackets instead of braces, of course). [Forgive me for reiterating the brackets/braces thing – it’s tough to represent the coding unless you effect the substitution or put in spaces that don’t belong there – and people tend to get confused however you explain it.]
You can quote somebody from elsewhere using this system:
> [@Charles Dickens](#):
>
> It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
And you can break up a post to comment on it:
> [@Charles Dickens](#):
>
> It was the best of times…
In a pig’s eye!
> [@](#):
>
> …it was the worst of times.
Pessimist! 🙂
If you use the “quote” button, you can embed a {/quote} code to break up the post, make your comment on that portion, then embed a {quote} code to open the next section of the quote, repeating the process as needed.
Do be cautious, if you use the manual method, to always embed a close-quote code, as the software won’t parse the open-quote coding unless it sees a close-quote coding, leaving you with a mess. It’s best to preview such posts unless you’re particularly confident of your coding.
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### Author:  [@klintypooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/klintypooh)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694/5 "2004-12-14T01:13:47Z")
Thank you both, I decided I liked the easy as pie option best, I think that one is easiest to remember.
Oh in case you’re wondering that’s this option. 😃
> [@zut](#):
>
> Easier yet, hit the “reply” button at the bottom right of the post you wish to quote. Easy as pie.
And preview tells me…it’s good!
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### Author:  [@klintypooh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/klintypooh)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2004, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694/6 "2004-12-14T01:15:27Z")
But not that a 3rd person had joined to help too. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694/7 "2004-12-14T01:27:40Z")
If you use {quote=, the text of the quote ends up italicized:
> [@klintypooh](#):
>
> Title says it all really, anybody fancy a quick spar with some ignorance?
If you don’t want that, you can fake it up by using:
{quote}Originally posted by {b}klintypooh{/b}
the text {/quote}
Like this:
> [@](#):
>
> Originally posted by **klintypooh**
> Title says it all really, anybody fancy a quick spar with some ignorance?
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2004, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694/8 "2004-12-14T01:38:38Z")
We of the SDMB are help-mad.
If you want the quoted text to be surrounded by pretty kittens and flowers then…
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [December 14, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694/9 "2004-12-14T01:55:59Z")
ZZZZZZZZZ
> [@Lobsang](#):
>
> If you want the quoted text to be surrounded by pretty kittens and flowers then…
ZZZZZZZZZ
That was capital Z in Webdings.
Which font are the kittys in? 😉
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### Author:  [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-quote-correctly/279694/10 "2004-12-15T22:10:21Z")
The kitties are in there somewhere too. 🙂 Just be aware that for those of us using Opera, all we see are big purple Z’s. 😉
For quoting multiple posters, I find it helpful to reply to one post, parse the quote, type my response, copy it, go back, click the reply button in another post, paste my earlier response in, parse, type a second response, etc… hmm, now having typed that all out it sounds much more complicated than it really is. :smack:
Anyway, that tends to be useful in places like Great Debates where you frequently have posts consisting of quotes broken up into sections, sometimes of more than one poster. Of course, when doing this it is critical to trim the quote down to just what you’re replying to, a step which too often gets overlooked. 😉