I was wondering if it’s ok when you use the word I if it’s from a directly quote in a 3rd person essay? Also my teacher doesn’t want us to use contraction but do you guys think it’s ok if it’s the person I’m quoting is using a contraction? I know you guys don’t know my teacher but still any feedback will help. Thank you.
It is always OK to use a word that is quoted from another source, as long as you correctly attribute it to the original source. If there is a contraction in that quote, that would seem to me to be fine; you cannot edit a quote from another source. If your teacher is a super-sticker on contractions, you could make the edit in parentheses: “Our President [was not] misquoted when he referred to African countries as shitholes”. But, that would be weird.