direct quotes
Someone's precise language
Direct quotes are someone's exact words, reproduced verbatim rather than paraphrased.
In writing, direct quotes appear inside quotation marks: She said, "I'll be there by noon".
Journalists use direct quotes to capture sources' voices; scholars use them to engage precisely with texts.
The term distinguishes exact wording from indirect quotation, where the same content might become She said she would arrive by noon.
- citationMention of a source
- verbatimIn identical wording
- excerptPortion taken from larger work
- passageSegment of text
- primary sourceUnmediated evidence from events
spoken · attributed · marks · inverted commas · word-for-word · testimony · transcript · interview · source · indented · italics · said · stated · according to · on the record · footnote · reference · literal
- copyingcopying, copy, plagiarism, repeating, duplicating
- citationscitation, citations, cite, cited, citation style
direct quotesparaphrase
Restatement in new words
paraphrasing · indirect speech · reported speech · summary · rewording
direct, directly, direction, directions, directional, director, directors, directory, directories