 Death of a Salesman Big Q Integrating Quotes

Why integrate quotes?  Integrating (smoothly including) quotes in your essay allows the reader to easily see and understand the connection to your thesis / topic sentences.  It demonstrates your knowledge and understanding of the material, without forcing the reader to guess at what point you are trying to make.

Tips and Tricks  When using a quote in your essay, make sure that you do not just “drag and drop”  Provide context for the reader: QUOTE SANDWICH  One sentence that explains what is happening in the play when the quote is spoken  The quote itself with smooth integration  A sentence that examines or analyzes the quote—relates it back to your thesis  Make sure that the quote is clearly relevant to the topic sentence  Quotes do not have to come from the big question packets nor do they needed to be added to the packet if not already present

Quote Sandwich  General Rule of Thumb: Quote Sandwich  Introduce quote  Insert Quote  Explain how quote relates to your topic sentence / thesis  Instead of saying, “This explains my big question being well-liked by…” try saying, “At this point in the story, Willy demonstrates that his likeability…”

Smoothly Integrating  Make sure that you introduce the quotes. For example, before using a quote, give an explanation such as the following:  Willy focuses so much on being well-liked throughout the novel, which is readily apparent when he says, “Quote…”  Try to fit your quotations into the grammar of your sentences. Follow this example:  Willy stresses the importance of material goods after the refrigerator broke again, “Quote…”

Integrating Quotes  “Biff Loman is lost. In the greatest country in the world a young man with such—personal attractiveness, gets lost. And such a hard worker. There’s one thing about Biff—he’s not lazy” (Miller 6).  Notice the placement of the quotation marks. Notice that there is nothing but a space between the author’s name and the page umber. Notice that the period is placed after the parenthesis.

Fragmented Quotes  “I don’t know what the hell I’m workin’ for. Sometimes I sit in my apartment—all alone [ …] My own apartment, a car, and plenty of women. And still, goddamit, I’m lonely” (Miller 12).  Notice the ellipses (three periods use to represent words from the text that are not included in the quote). Since this example omits words from the end of the sentence, the fourth period represents the period that would normally going at the end of that sentence.

Dialogue—Quotes Within a Quote  “And don’t say ‘Gee.’ ‘Gee’ is a boy’s word” (Miller 47).  Notice that the book’s quotation marks are converted into single quotation marks when there is dialogue from the novel included in the quoted passage.

Specific Punctuation  “And you wouldn’t get fed up with it, Biff. It’d be the family again. There’d be honor, and comradeship, and if you want to go off for a swim or somethin’—well you’d do it!” (Miller 47).  Notice that exclamation points and question marks are not moved to the end of the parenthesis. They are kept where they are, and a period is added to the end.