Integrating Quotes into Integrating Quotes into your writingyour writing

Using QuotesUsing Quotes

Don’t use more evidence than your Don’t use more evidence than your own writingown writing

Your evidence should just Your evidence should just supportsupport your own writingyour own writing

Use ellipsis marks to omit words and Use ellipsis marks to omit words and phrases …phrases …

Use brackets to add words or phrases Use brackets to add words or phrases to make the meaning of a quote to make the meaning of a quote clearer to the reader [ ]clearer to the reader [ ]

Introducing your Introducing your quotesquotes

Provide the reader with a transition Provide the reader with a transition between your writing and the quotebetween your writing and the quote

EX: One writer agrees that grammar is a EX: One writer agrees that grammar is a problem, arguing that “without it there is no problem, arguing that “without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning” reliable way of communicating meaning” (Truss 20).(Truss 20).

Introducing your Introducing your quotesquotes

Make sure that transition is smoothMake sure that transition is smooth

AWK: “Many people think that grammar and AWK: “Many people think that grammar and punctuation are on the way out because punctuation are on the way out because “without it there is no reliable way of “without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning” (Truss 20).communicating meaning” (Truss 20).

Changing a quoteChanging a quote

Sometimes changing a quote is Sometimes changing a quote is necessary to make the quote fit into necessary to make the quote fit into your own writingyour own writing

EX: Truss informs readers that “Bill Gates EX: Truss informs readers that “Bill Gates has personally assured the Spanish has personally assured the Spanish Academy that he will never allow [the Academy that he will never allow [the upside-down question mark] to upside-down question mark] to disappear from Microsoft word-disappear from Microsoft word-processing programs” (143).processing programs” (143).

--the information in brackets replaces “it”--the information in brackets replaces “it”

--makes information clearer--makes information clearer

When using textual evidence

Us the author’s last name in the parenthetical citation IF you are only discussing a single work by that author.

Example: Narrator Nick Carraway came to see Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy as contaminated with “foul dust [that]floated in the wake of his dreams” (Fitzgerald 21).

If discussing more than one title by the same author, use the title instead.

Narrator Nick Carraway came to see Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy as contaminated with “foul dust [that]floated in the wake of his dreams” (The Great Gatsby 21).

Remember!

Introduce EACH author on first mention.

Nationality? Time period? Context?

EXAMPLE: Acclaimed 1920s American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald…

Introduce EACH critic as well.

EXAMPLE: Literary critic Junie B. Jones

Introduce characters, too!

Cordelia, the banished daughter who seeks solace in her new husband’s country…

Regan, the malicious sister who doesn’t even pretend to mourn her husband’s death….

You get the idea.

Signal phrasesSignal phrases These phrases tell the reader that a quote These phrases tell the reader that a quote

followsfollows

If the author is neutral…If the author is neutral…

““The author…”The author…”

CommentsCommentsDescribesDescribesExplainsExplainsIllustratesIllustratesNotesNotesObservesObserves

Points outRecordsRelatesReportsSaysSeesThinkswrites

Signal phrasesSignal phrases

The author infers or suggests…The author infers or suggests…

Analyzes

Asks

Addresses

Concludes

Finds

Predicts

Proposes

Reveals

Shows

Speculates

Suggests

Signal phrasesSignal phrases

The author argues…The author argues…

Claims

Contends

Defends

Disagrees

Holds

Insists

maintains

Signal phrasesSignal phrases

The author agrees…The author agrees…

AdmitsAdmits

AgreesAgrees

ConcedesConcedes

ConcursConcurs

grantsgrants

Signal phrases

The author is uneasy or disparaging…

Belittles

Bemoans

Complains

Condemns

Deplores

Deprecates

Derides

Laments

warns

Other tips

Vary the way you introduce quotes in order not to bore your reader

Signal phrases can go before or after the quote

Practice both to vary the position

Other tips

Use present-tense when writing about other works

Can introduce a quote with the author’s name and credentials

Then you don’t need to include author’s name in parentheses at the end of the sentence (because you’ve already cited that person)

Example

• Good: Grammar expert Lynne Truss notes that “italics should be used sparingly for the purposes of emphasis” (147).

• NOT: Lynne Truss notes that “italics should be used sparingly for the purposes of emphasis” (Truss 147).

Examples

Some good points about the Internet, Truss points out, are “that it is not controlled by anyone, cannot be used as an instrument of oppression and is endlessly inclusive” (190).

ExamplesExamples

In Lynne Truss’s opinion, typing messages “doesn’t even qualify as typing either: it’s just sending” (192).

The English language is “a language full of ambiguities” (Truss 201).

Always introduce quotations before they appear in your paper.

No quotation should stand by itself as a separate sentence.

Here are two bad examples without any introductory material.

Bad Example #1: There are many examples of self-analysis in Plato's philosophy. "The unexamined life is not worth living" (Plato 45).

Bad Example #2: Plato thinks people should analyze their own lives. "The unexamined life is not worth living" (Plato 45).

BETTER Example: Plato thinks people should analyze their own lives: "The unexamined life is not worth living" (Plato 45).