Back in the days when words were written -- or even typed -- on paper,
writers learned the art of summarizing. In a response, you learned to
state just enough to establish context. It's a real convenience to be able
to quote what your correspondent said verbatim, but it shouldn't replace
the ability to summarize.
I have mixed feelings about long quotations from the literature -- popular
or otherwise. I know Stephen Jones gets roundly critcized for this
practice, and usually I'm more interested in knowing what Stephen Jones has
to say now than in what Gould or Dawkins or Denton wrote a while ago. But
if I haven't read the book in question the quotatiøns can be quite useful.
Perhaps the best policy is to write what you want to write and put
quotations at the end of your post, as end notes.
Bill Hamilton
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William E. Hamilton, Jr, Ph.D. | Staff Research Engineer
Chassis and Vehicle Systems | General Motors R&D Center | Warren, MI
William_E._Hamilton@notes.gmr.com
810 986 1474 (voice) | 810 986 3003 (FAX) | whamilto@mich.com (home email)