[Tex/LaTex] How to quote correctly with csquotes

citingcsquotespunctuationquoting

I am unsure how to quote correctly using csquotes and \textquote and \blockquote. In the documentation I found this general advise: \blockquote[cite][punct]{text}tpunct but am unsure how to really use it to get consistent quotation. I am using \autocite with biblatex, so at the moment I write it like this:

\textquote{Knuth wrote in his famous book that LaTeX is superb} \autocite[86]{Knu86}.

I bet this is not the way to do it, and I am always mixing up the positions of }, (Citation) and punctuaction.

How to do it correctly?

Best Answer

I'm not quite sure what's ›correct‹ and ›incorrect‹ in your perspective, or what exactly you find problematic with the result you're currently getting. Maybe a minimal example would be helpful.

Here's what I do, and what has always (i.e., for about 5 years now) given me output that's correct by my standards. Over time, I've reduced the number of different ways of entering quotes to two:

For short quotes, or for things that are not quotes but just need quotation marks, single or double, I'm using \MakeAutoQuote in the preamble, so all I have to do is type in quotation marks directly, and let csquotes do the rest (the quotation marks effectively trigger \enquote and \enquote* IIRC). I placed », «, , on [alt gr] + [2...5] on my keyboard, which helped a lot here. If I want it followed by a citation, I add plain old \cite{...} which is handled by biblatex.

For quotes that are longer, and that might have to be turned into a display quote in the output, I use \blockcquote[123]{Knuth82}{blabla}. It is, of course, csquotes that will decide if the quote has to be turned into a display one. That said, for texts whose layout I'm free to design myself, I've disabled display quotes completely: \SetBlockThreshold{99}, plus a re-definition of the display quotes' style. They're marked by quotation marks like text quotes, plus their left margin is reduced by \parindent. (that latter aspect is not part of the example, though)...

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage{lmodern,blindtext}

\usepackage[style=authoryear,autocite=footnote]{biblatex}
\usepackage[german=guillemets]{csquotes}

\MakeAutoQuote{»}{«}
\MakeAutoQuote*{›}{‹}
\SetCiteCommand{\autocite}

\begin{document}
»Knuth wrote in his »famous« book that LaTeX is superb«
\blindtext
\blockcquote[pre][post]{cite}{\blindtext etc}.
\end{document} 

I don't let cquotes play with my punctutation, I feel more comfortable staying in control of it myself. Unless I have to follow someone else's style guide (or write in English), my order is always:

[quotation] - [closing mark] - [period or other punctuation] - [footnote mark]

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