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The general rule to avoid shifts between direct and indirect quotations needs to be weighted against other rules like "use quotations selectively" and "get to the point." Writers often need to frame carefully-selected quotations with indirect summaries or paraphrases to emphasize their own point. In the following passage, the author quotes from a letter that the fifteen-year-old Marie Antoinette received from her mother:
[quote] Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette: The Journey [end quote]Fraser follows the direct quotation with what appears to be an indirect quotation, or a paraphrase, of the mother's analysis. Fraser could have quoted from the entire letter, but a long quotation would have tired her readers. Now, we quickly get the point that Marie Antoinette's mother was cruelly critical, if perceptive, of her daughter's social skills.
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