Replicating the Quotation Environment in XeTeX

Question

Our department's template for letters requires that they be compiled using XeTeX. I am writing a letter in which I would like to include an inset quotation. In LaTeX I would write

\begin{quotation}
The quoted text
\end{quotation}

My thought was to try replacing this with the plain TeX code that sets a quotation, but I'm not sure how to find this.

How can I replicate the quotation environment in XeTeX?

Edit Minimal working example:

\newif\ifuserfont \userfontfalse
\def\SetLetterFont#1{\userfonttrue\font\userfont=#1} % so the user can set it.

\newdimen\indentation \indentation=2em\relax
\newdimen\betweenpar \betweenpar=\medskipamount\relax
\raggedbottom
\interlinepenalty=100
\hsize=6.25 true in
\voffset=24pt
\advance\vsize by -\voffset
\parindent=0pt
\parskip=0pt
\nopagenumbers

\def\beginlinemode{\endmode
    \begingroup\parindent=0pt%
    \obeylines
    \frenchspacing
    \def\endmode{\par\endgroup}}
\def\beginparmode{\endmode
    \begingroup
    \parskip=\betweenpar
    \def\endmode{\par\endgroup}}
\let\endmode=\par
\def\endletter{\endmode\vfill\supereject\end}

\def\body{%
    \ifuserfont\global\userfont\fi
        \global\parindent=\indentation
        \smallskip
        \beginparmode
}%

\def\narrower{%
  \advance\leftskip 1cm
  \advance\rightskip 1cm }

\indentation=0pt

\body


Body text 1,  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

{ \narrower
    Quote paragraph 1, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah 

    Quote paragraph 2 blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
}

Body text 2, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah


\endletter

Answer 1

In plain TeX you can use

zzzz

{\narrower
hmmmm zzzzz

}

---

The definition of \narrower is

\def\narrower{%
  \advance\leftskip\parindent
  \advance\rightskip\parindent}

you have since clarified that you have \parindent set to 0pt so this isn't quite what you want but you can redefine it for example by

\def\narrower{%
  \advance\leftskip 2cm
  \advance\rightskip 2cm }

To bring the margins in by 2cm or whatever amount you want.

Note that it is very weird to set both \parindent and \parskip to zero as it makes paragraphs hard (or in some cases impossible) to spot if there is no horizontal or vertical space to mark the start.

zzzz

Answer 2

You can search any of the default document classes and retrieve the definition of the quotation environment. See

• book.cls:

  \newenvironment{quotation}
                 {\list{}{\listparindent 1.5em%
                          \itemindent    \listparindent
                          \rightmargin   \leftmargin
                          \parsep        \z@ \@plus\p@}%
                  \item\relax}
                 {\endlist}
  

• report.cls:

  \newenvironment{quotation}
                 {\list{}{\listparindent 1.5em%
                          \itemindent    \listparindent
                          \rightmargin   \leftmargin
                          \parsep        \z@ \@plus\p@}%
                  \item\relax}
                 {\endlist}
  

• article.cls:

  \newenvironment{quotation}
                 {\list{}{\listparindent 1.5em%
                          \itemindent    \listparindent
                          \rightmargin   \leftmargin
                          \parsep        \z@ \@plus\p@}%
                  \item\relax}
                 {\endlist}
  

• letter.cls:

  \newenvironment{quotation}
                 {\list{}{\setlength\listparindent{1.5em}%
                          \setlength\itemindent{\listparindent}%
                          \setlength\rightmargin{\leftmargin}}%
                  \item[]}
                 {\endlist}
  

They're very similar across the classes.

You could also consider using the csquotes package which provides a comprehensive set of quotation functionality.