Quotering

Quotering is a term used in discourse studies and information management to describe the practice of collecting, organizing, and presenting verbatim quotations from sources in order to support arguments, illustrate themes, or aid analysis. It can function as both a noun (the act of quotering) and a verb (to quot­er quotes in a document or dataset). The concept is closely related to quotation management and quotation mining, though quotering emphasizes the systematic handling of quotes within a larger analytical or communicative workflow.

A typical quotering workflow involves three main steps. First, collection, where relevant quotes are gathered from primary texts, reports, interviews, or other sources with careful attention to attribution. Second, curation, where quotations are annotated with metadata such as author, date, context, and source reliability, and where contextual notes are added to preserve intended meaning. Third, presentation, where quotes are organized for retrieval and display, often linked to topics, themes, or arguments, and embedded with proper citations.

Quotering is used in academic writing, journalism, debate preparation, and digital humanities projects. It supports transparent sourcing, reproducible analysis, and efficient retrieval of evidentiary passages. However, it also presents challenges, including the risk of misquotation, decontextualization, and selective quotation that can distort meaning. Best practices emphasize accuracy, full context, faithful reproduction of wording, clear attribution, and preservation of source context in the metadata.

Related concepts include quotation mining, quotation management systems, and citation standards. Quotering contributes to rigorous sourcing and evidence-based argumentation when applied with discipline and ethical caveats.