Writing & Incorporating Quotes Effectively

Punctuation Is Important To avoid confusing your readers, punctuate quotations correctly, and work them smoothly into your writing. Punctuation shows your readers: which words are yours which words you have quoted

Punctuating Brief Quotations Quoting a Sentence or Sentences: Gene begins to reveal his internal war with Finny when he says, “What was I doing up here anyway? Why did I let Finny talk me into stupid things like this?” (5). Notice how my words (Gene begins to reveal his internal war with Finny when he says) lead into the quote I have chosen to use. You MUST ALWAYS USE A LEAD IN!

Punctuating Brief Quotations Quoting a Fragment: Jack is not able to kill the piglet during their first attempt at hunting for food “because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into the living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (31). Again, notice how my words LEAD INTO the quote.

Quoting A Quotation Ron said, “Dad yelled, ‘No way!’” Golding writes, “Jack seized the conch. ‘Ralph’s right of course. There isn’t a snake-thing. But if there was a snake we’d hunt it and kill it.’” (36). Just like Leper in A Separate Peace, my brother Shaun said, “‘You always were a savage underneath.’”

Quotations with Omissions (Using ellipses) According to Gene, the faculty at Devon treated the boys differently during the summer session because “we reminded them of what peace was like… of lives which were not bound up with destruction” (10).

Quotations with Brief Insertions (Using brackets) It is evident that Finny believes in the war before his fall from the tree because he tells Gene, “I’m wearing this [his pink shirt] as an emblem. We haven’t got a flag, we can’t float Old Glory proudly out the window. So I’m going to wear this, as an emblem” (11). Use brackets when you are inserting your own words into a quote in order to make the meaning of the quote more clear.

Quoting Poetry: A Single Line Caesar is obviously crushed by Brutus’ disloyalty when he states: “Et tu, Brutè? Then fall Caesar” (III.i.78). Set off the quoted verse from your written prose by using a colon. For a single line of poetry, use quotation marks. Include the line number of the verse followed by a period. If from a play, include the Act, scene, and line number.

Quoting Poetry: Two or Three Lines We know the conspirators feel that they have acted in the best interest of Rome when Cinna cries, “Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead! / Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets” (III.i.78-79). Use quotation marks. Separate the lines of the quoted verse with a slash / and a space on each side. Include the line numbers of the verses followed by a period. If from a play, include Act, scene, and line number.

Quoting Poetry: More Than Three Lines Antony uses the rhetorical devices of repetition and irony in his speech to the plebeians: Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me; But Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honorable man. He hath brought many captives home to Rome, Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill; Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? (86-92) Block indent 10 spaces (tab twice) and do not use quotation marks or slashes. Include the line numbers of the verses preceded by a period.

How To Integrate Quotations When you are using brief quotations, you must integrate them-- work them smoothly into your sentences and show their relevance to your ideas.

Not Integrated THIS IS BAD!! Brinker becomes disillusioned with the war, and Ralph becomes disillusioned with the glory of being chief. “He found himself understanding the wearisomness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one’s walking life was spent watching one’s feet” (76).

Integrated WOOHOO!!  In the same way that Brinker becomes disillusioned with the war, Ralph begins to feel a sense of disillusionment toward the glory of being chief. Golding’s narrator begins to allude to Ralph’s waning enjoyment of being the leader on the island when he states, “He found himself understanding the wearisomness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one’s walking life was spent watching one’s feet” (76).

Methods For Inserting Brief Quotations Final Position For several reasons, “all of them, all except Phineas, constructed at infinite cost to themselves these Maginot Lines against an enemy they thought they saw across the frontier…” (123). Beginning Position “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (202), declares Golding’s narrator at the end of his novel.

Methods For Inserting Brief Quotations Middle Position In the same way William Golding’s novel has been considered a “body of work that speaks to the tragedy of the human condition,” John Knowles’ A Separate Peace can be considered a work of literature that shines a light into the dark recesses of the human heart.

Interrupted “As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods,” proclaims King Lear, “– They kill us for their sport" (King Lear IV.i.40-44). This proclamation by an old king who has just realized that everything he once held dear-- territory and power– has been stripped from him by his own flesh and blood– daughters Regan and Goneril– is said to have inspired the title of William Golding’s Nobel Prize winning novel, Lord of the Flies.

Things to Remember About Incorporating Quotes… Always have a lead in. Always put your citation at the end of you sentence. The period goes outside of the quotation marks and after the parenthesis. Make sure you have a good reason for using the quote. Does it support your thesis/argument/point? Is it something that can’t be paraphrased or summed up in your own words effectively?