: Academic writing: direct quote I have a simple question regarding scientific quotes. Which of the following alternatives is correct? Alt. 1: The literature has made substantial strides towards

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Doreen, in response to your comment that you simply want to emphasize the year in your prose because it's important to whatever point you're making, then this is a matter of style.

Using your example sentence, you can strengthen the saliency of the year the conclusion was made by giving it it's own sentence if you're going to follow with other years in which strides were made (2011, 2012, etc)

The literature has made substantial strides towards identifying causal effects of X on Y. In 2010, J. Miller concluded...

Or if not you can replace the 'and' with a semicolon, making the year/quote less of an afterthought:

The literature has made substantial strides towards identifying causal effects of X on Y; in 2010, J. Miller concluded...

You can make the date 'more salient (to what I do not know as we have only this sentence to work with) with

As early as 2010 | Most notably in 2010 | etc

If that helps achieve your goals.

I'm not sure what's gained by putting the year in parenthesis when it's not parenthetical and not a citation.

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If the author's name is already used in the sentence (as in your example), the correct styling following APA (American Psychological Association) for in-text citations would be:

The literature has made substantial strides towards identifying causal effects of X on Y and J. Miller (2010) has concluded "..." (p. 23).

I'm assuming from the way you've composed your sentence ('has concluded') that APA style is most appropriate. APA requires a page number from the source containing the direct quote.

See this link from Purdue University's Online Writing Lab for source of my information on APA style and more information: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/2/
The site is a good reference for research and citation covering APA, MLA, and Chicago Manual of Style. Your publication/university will dictate which particular style it expects writers to follow. Always check the most up-to-date authority.

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I don't like the literature making strides. How about

Researchers have made substantial strides toward identifying causal effects of X on y. J Miller (2010) has concluded . . .

It's always better to have human beings occupying the subject slot -- much more powerful construction --

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