English I
Ms. Vernon
Citations in Romeo and Juliet
What do you mean, “citation”?
To cite something is to refer to a published work. Therefore a citation is the actual reference. It is the
quotation from the play that you use as your example. Clear as mud? In a SEA paragraph, the citation
would be the “E”.
LONG QUOTATIONS:
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If you are going to use multiple lines for your example/citation, make sure you follow the line breaks.
Your regular paragraph should be double spaced, but the example/citation should be single spaced and
double indented. For example:
Romeo has a more in-depth love for Juliet than he did for Rosaline. When he sees Juliet for the first time,
he refers to her, and what she seems to be:
But soft! What light from yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she. (I,ii, 2 – 6)
Compare this to how Romeo discusses Rosaline, and we can see a big shift in how he…
SHORT QUOTATIONS:
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BUT, if you want to use just a snippet or a single line, don’t set the example/citation apart, and use
quotation marks to tell us this is your quotation.
When Juliet asks “Wherefore art thou Romeo?”(II ii 33), she is asking why he is a Montague, not where
he…
WARNING! This is a theatre way of listing the act, scene, and line numbers –
(I i 56 – 60)
- and this is the English way of doing it (1.1. 56 – 60)
EITHER way is correct!