To capitalize or not quoted text after be form

Question

Which one is correct:

According to Speechpad, transcription is "A text document that contains a transcript of everything that is spoken in an audio or video file."

or

According to Speechpad, transcription is "a text document that contains a transcript of everything that is spoken in an audio or video file."

Very closely related, and possibly dupes: http://english.stackexchange.com/q/59052 http://english.stackexchange.com/q/50605 — tchrist, Aug 25 '16 at 12:45

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 25 '16 at 12:40

As @MorganFR mentions in the comments, direct quotes should not be changed (at all), unless you indicate the change.

If you want to use a direct quote, but use proper grammar and/or punctuation, you can use square brackets:

According to Speechpad, transcription is "[a] text document that contains a transcript of everything that is spoken in an audio or video file."

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