The reason I always did it in school was because we’d have maximum word limits on essays (either due to an evil teacher or time constraints on exams) and copyin

The reason I always did it in school was because we’d have maximum word limits on essays (either due to an evil teacher or time constraints on exams) and copying an entire quote when you only needed the beginning and end would eat up time you could use to write the analysis bits. Maybe I’ll grow out of it (or maybe I already have, given I rarely shorten quotes when writing for fun on the internet).