Writers use excerpts for several reasons. These can be grouped into three categories.

Argue against another writer's position on a topic and clarify the strengths of their own position.

In the third example, the writer inserts their own words in the middle of the excerpt. In each of these examples, the quotation marks tell the reader which words are an excerpt from Jefferson's speech and which are the writer's words.

Writers can incorporate an excerpt in a sentence in several ways. Let's consider three options for writing sentences that incorporate excerpts from Thomas Jefferson's first inaugural address in 1801

Include a distinctive phrase from someone else's writing that will stick in the reader's memory.

Regardless of the writer's reason for using an excerpt, an excerpt in a sentence is always surrounded by quotation marks.

In this example, the writer Washington Irving incorporates an excerpt from a letter written by Christopher Gist to support the writer's main point that George Washington's fame grew quickly during the French and Indian War.

Let's consider examples of the three main uses of excerpts. In each of these cases, the excerpt that the writer includes is signaled by quotation marks.