"Historically, writing and writing do not go back to text production, but to bookkeeping" (Becker-Mrotzek/Böttcher 2006, p. 12).

Longer quoted passages (about three targets or more in length) are set as so-called block quotations, i.e. set off from the main text by indentations and blank lines, so that marking with inverted commas is not necessary in these cases. If the quoted passage already contains a quotation (which should be avoided as a rule), i.e. if it is a quotation within a quotation, the original double inverted commas of the quotation within the quotation are reset to single inverted commas.

If an author's work is cited twice in direct succession, the surname and year of publication are replaced by (ibid.).

Example:

"In this way, speech acts can be transported across space and time" (ibid., p. 14).

If the page number does not change either, (ibid.) stands alone.

Example:

"However, it took half a millennium after the invention of writing before texts were also preserved with it" (ibid.).

"[S]prachliche Äußerungen [are] to be conceived in such a way that they are understandable on their own [...]" (Becker-Mrotzek/Böttcher 2006, p. 57).

Special cases:

Errors and old spelling are taken over and possibly marked with [sic!] after the corresponding word. Emphases in the original must be adopted.

Secondary citations are citations that are already quoted in the text I am reading.

They should only be used if the original literature is not accessible and are marked with "cited in" or "cited from".

Example:

"The students do not write reflectively about a topic (as in an essay), but present their case directly. In doing so, they behave like a writer." (Wessels 1999, p. 2007, quoted from Steinig/Huneke, p. 209)

Indirect quotations are passages that are not taken verbatim but in spirit from another text. They are used without inverted commas and marked with "cf.".

Example:

Writing tasks and school writing curricula largely run in parallel. For example, narrative text types are written in primary school, descriptive, informative and reproducing texts in lower secondary school and finally argumentative texts in upper secondary school (cf. Becker-Mrotzek/Böttcher 2006, p.64).

The subjunctive is also useful here for special labelling.

As a general rule, references should not be given as footnotes, but should be integrated into the text according to the American system. The short form is used (author year:page). A complete bibliographical reference is not useful here (not even the first time the source is cited). Footnotes are used for annotations.