Blending Quotations ________________________________________________________________

The Basics To make your writing clear and easy to read always integrate (blend) quotations into your text. NEVER just “drop” a quotation in your writing! In other words, don’t let a piece of textual evidence stand alone as its own sentence (unless it’s multiple sentences long). Use multiple-sentence quotations sparingly. Use your own words to introduce a quotation.

How To Improve Blending Quotes Use only the most effective part of the quotation. Maintain a smooth sentence style. Remember to use ellipses if necessary. Ellipses allow you to drop superfluous words and phrases... Remember to use brackets [ ] if you add or change a word. Use signal phrases which precede the quote.

Methods of Blending Colon (:) – when using this method the preceding sentence MUST be a complete sentence Comma (,) As Part of the Sentence (no punctuation)

Example from To Kill a Mockingbird Original example: Mr. Radley is an unattractive man. “He was a thin leathery man with colorless eyes, so colorless they did not reflect light” (Lee 32). Bad example! Why? The quote is just “dropped in.”

Example from TKAM (cont’d) Original — unblended: Mr. Radley is an unattractive man. “He was a thin leathery man with colorless eyes, so colorless they did not reflect light” (Lee 32). Smoother integration — well blended: Mr. Radley is unattractive, a “thin leathery man with colorless eyes” (Lee 32). The part about his eyes is omitted. Even smoother integration: Harper Lee describes Mr. Radley as “a thin leathery man with colorless eyes...[that] did not reflect light” (Lee 32).

Another Example Original: Smoothly blended into sentence: Hemingway hints of a storm on the move. “The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain” (Hemingway 179). Smoothly blended into sentence: A storm approaches the town as “the shadow of a cloud [moves] across the field of grain” and Maggie turns back to the forest (Hemingway 179).

Using Signal Phrases Ineffective: T.S. Eliot, in his “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” uses gender-specific language. “No poet, no artist of any art, has his meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists” (Eliot 29). Why ineffective? The quote is “dropped in.”

Using Signal Phrases Use signal phrases to blend the quote into the sentence, making it read smoothly: T.S. Eliot, in his “Talent and the Individual,” uses gender-specific language. He argues, for instance, that “no poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. [Indeed,] his significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists” (Eliot 29). The signal phrase makes the sentence flow more smoothly

Your Turn… 

More Student Examples Original: The narrator, Brother, disliked his younger brother, Doodle, from the day he was born. “Doodle was born when I was seven and was, from the start, a disappointment” (Hurst 28). A suggested revision: Brother, the narrator, never accepted his younger brother, Doodle, and viewed him as inadequate from the very beginning: “Doodle was born when I was seven and was, from the start, a disappointment” (Hurst 28).

Original: Montrestor desperately sought revenge against Fortunato. “At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled – but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved, precluded the idea of risk.” A suggested revision: Montresor, consumed by his quest for revenge against Fortunato demonstrates his daunting need from the start: “At length I would be avenged...but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved, precluded the idea of risk” (Poe 209).

Original: Mme. Loisel thought negatively about her home. “She suffered from the poverty of her dwelling, from the wretched looks of the walls, from the worn-out chairs, from the ugliness of the curtains” (Maupassant 593). A suggested revision: -- Mme. Loisel was obsessed with desire for material possessions she did not have, and such desire clouded her perspective of her surroundings as “she suffered from the poverty of her dwelling...the wretched looks of the walls...the worn-out chairs, [and]...the ugliness of the curtains” (Maupassant 593).