Writing & Integrating Quotes Effectively

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 Punctuation is Important!

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.

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 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). (using ellipses) Use ellipses when you are leaving words out of a quote.

Quotations with Brief Insertions 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). (using brackets) Use brackets when you are inserting your own words into a quote to make the meaning of the quote more clear.

How To Integrate Quotations When you are using brief quotations, you must integrate them! 1.Work the quotes smoothly into your sentences. 2.Show how the quotes are relevant to your ideas.

Methods For Inserting Brief Quotations 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). End of sentence: Beginning of sentence: “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,” declares Golding’s narrator at the end of his novel (202).

Methods For Inserting Brief Quotations 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 (202). Middle of sentence:

Practice! The bell rings and I have to shout, “sit back down where you belong!” (LG). I realize it’s Tuesday, but “this time I’m not leaving without” making sure you understand the essay (LG). When you do not integrate quotes correctly, it feels like you “drove a truck right through my heart” (LG).

Your Turn! Instructions: 1.Listen to “Somebody That I Used To Know” and follow along with the lyrics. 2.In partners, choose 2 lines (minimum) from the song and smoothly integrate them into a sentence or paragraph.

"Somebody That I Used To Know" Now and then I think of when we were together Like when you said you felt so happy you could die Told myself that you were right for me But felt so lonely in your company But that was love and it's an ache I still remember You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness Like resignation to the end, always the end So when we found that we could not make sense Well you said that we would still be friends But I'll admit that I was glad it was over But you didn't have to cut me off Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing And I don't even need your love But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough No you didn't have to stoop so low Have your friends collect your records and then change your number I guess that I don't need that though Now you're just somebody that I used to knowNow you're just somebody that I used to know Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over But had me believing it was always something that I'd done But I don't wanna live that way Reading into every word you say You said that you could let it go And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know But you didn't have to cut me off Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing And I don't even need your love But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough No you didn't have to stoop so low Have your friends collect your records and then change your number I guess that I don't need that though Now you're just somebody that I used to know [x2] Somebody (I used to know) Somebody (Now you're just somebody that I used to know)(I used to know)(That I used to know)(I used to know) Somebody