Is the use of quotations marks necessary on a long quote that requires indentation?

No. Indentation on both sides itself stands for quotation marks, so they would be superfluous. In general, text indented in this way needs to be at least two lines long, though, preferably at least three. And of course the indented text should be identified as a quotation (with appropriate attribution) in the text which introduces it.

My goodness, here I am 64 years old and never heard of indentation standing for quotation marks! Just because something is indented I sure don't automatically consider it a quote. So many things are indented I don't see how this could work. I.e., my Christmas list, laundry list, shopping list...

I'm not being facicious, Maikumyguru, I'd really like to know - where did you get this?

Catty

I agree with both previous answers, even though they are in slight conflict. If you mean an actual quote from another source I would recommend using the method that best clarifies that it is a "quote" but not at each paragraph indentation - just at beginning and end. Though true the indentations may signify the quotation, quotes will stress the nature of the passage.
The exception I believe would come if it is an extension of your own work - a passage you feel needs to be stressed as a quote - then I would be tempted to omit the marks and let the indent stand alone.
In fictional quotes of characters within your own story the rule is well defined, but assume you are addressing a real world quote.

This is standard practice, and can be found in the MLA (Modern Language Association) Handbook. The formatting will have every line (not just the first) indented on both the left and the right margins. It is referred to as a "block quote," because the quotation is separated from the rest of the text into a block.

As methos quite correctly says:

quote:

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This is standard practice, and can be found in the MLA (Modern Language Association) Handbook. The formatting will have every line (not just the first) indented on both the left and the right margins. It is referred to as a "block quote," because the quotation is separated from the rest of the text into a block.

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The above is as an illustration of what methos and I (and presumably Vixen) are talking about. We were not talking about the usual way of representing dialog in narrative fiction.

Now lose the horizontal ruled lines and the introductory tag "quote," and you see a good illustration, even in use here at the pool, of the standard practice of treating block quotes.

Did you never write a research paper, catty, that you seem to be so dubious about this?

[This message was edited by maiku on 12-25-02 at 02:01 PM.]

All in all, Maiku my guru, I have written about 25 research papers. But my degree is not in English, therefore I am not as up on grammar as I could be. For example, I am not clear whether it should be further or farther, tit or tat, and I am also not clear whether it's jot or tittle or swimmed, swammed or swummed. I will leave all that to you academic types.

Catty