Embedding Quotations in a Sentence

Each piece of quoted material in a paragraph must have a transition that gives the context and background for that quote.

Embedding quotations using transition helps quoted material flow naturally and coherently into your paragraph.

Whilst waiting for her suitors to arrive, Portia feels “…aweary of this great world” (Act 1, Scene 2). Example (transition is in bold): Whilst waiting for her suitors to arrive, Portia feels “…aweary of this great world” (Act 1, Scene 2).

When written properly, the reader should not be able to hear where the quotation marks are when the sentence is read aloud.

A properly embedded quotation creates a seamless transition from the background information to the quoted material.

When done poorly, the transition is choppy, incomplete, and predictable.

Poor example: This is shown by: “In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.” (Act 1, Scene 1.)

The prior example does not make sense when read aloud. Every sentence in a paragraph must make sense, regardless of whether or not it contains quoted material.

You may need to change words within your quote so that the sentence is grammatically correct and is coherent.

When changing words in a sentence indicate the change by placing brackets [ ] around the change in the word or the changed word.

To omit words in the middle of a long quote, use ellipses (…)

Example: Portia goes on to tell us that“[she] may neither choose…nor refuse…” her husband. (Act 1, Scene 2.)

Notice, anytime you change or add something in a quote, you must use a bracket to indicate your change.

How to create a good transition into a quotation:

1) Give background and context for all quoted material - what is happening; who is speaking.

2) Only use the most important part of the quote (ideally less than 10 words for an embedded quotation).

3) Read your sentence aloud - can you “hear” the quotation marks? You shouldn’t. 3) Read your sentence aloud - can you “hear” the quotation marks? You shouldn’t.

4) Change word tense if necessary, and omit unnecessary words and phrases; use ellipses and brackets to indicate your changes.

Write a transition of your own using the following quote from Act 4, Scene 1 of the play:

“I am sorry for thee; thou art come to answer / A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch / Uncapable of pity, void and empty / From any dram of mercy.”

Using Extended Quotations

Sometimes you might want to use a more lengthy quote to illustrate a point. When this is the case it is set out quite differently on the page – without inverted commas and in a paragraph of its own.

For example: It is during Act 3, Scene 1 that Shylock delivers an important speech which is crucial in highlighting one of the play’s central concerns – the subject of religious prejudice: I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? This highly emotive speech, made to Solanio and Salarino, conveys a real sense of Shylock’s intense frustration at his treatment by the Christians…