Citing Quotations Quoted in Another Article

A common question: “I’d like to cite this quotation. It’s from an old article, but cited in a newer article. How do I cite it?”

Have you seen the recent firing and attempted rehiring of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Shirley Sherrod, quoted on Breitbart.tv? The website states she made racist comments, saying, “She then talks about saving a family farm from a forced sale by two relatives who end up with 62 out of 515 acres of the property. She then disdainfully says ‘and guess what? They’ve already got a white man lined up to buy it.'”

However, the context of her talk is how 24 years ago, this was her thinking. But that particular situation transformed her view of the world, making her realize that the issue isn’t race, but rather economics. Poor people are poor people. The quote in context is:

What does this mean for your citations? APA recommends that you ALWAYS try to find the original document for the quotation. This should also hold true if the article you’re reading paraphrases the original work. Why?

1. The quotation might be taken out of context, as in this situation.
2. Especially with paraphrases, you might interpret the theory, research, or comment differently than the author of the second paper did.
3. You’re interested in the comment or idea. Chances are you’d be interested in other things the author has to say.

 

Main Library, Stockholm University

 

APA’s recommendation is that you find the original unless it is no longer available, in a language other than English (or that you speak/understand) or (and I’m making up my own words) tracking it down would cause undue hardship or expense to you. You need to weigh the benefit and cost. (We don’t exactly expect you to fly to Sweden to find the only copy of a manuscript in the archives of Stockholm University.

But you might want to contact them to see if they’ll scan the appropriate pages for you or request them through InterLibrary Loan.)

Otherwise, don’t include the original in your References, just the secondary source. In the text itself, it should look something like this:

Kraeplin’s Verbrechen als soziale Krankheit. Monatschrift K/S  (as cited in Shepherd, 1995)