Blending Quotations

 Blending (or integrating) quotations means “to weave the author’s words into your own sentences.” Quotations should not just be thrown into your essay.

The Basics  If writing about a text that you have access to, then ALWAYS utilize direct quotation (to some degree; don’t go overboard).  Use your own words in conjunction with a quotation, so that a sentence contains both your thoughts and the original writer’s.  DO NOT put quotes alone in a sentence. In other words, don’t let a piece of textual evidence stand alone as its own sentence (unless it’s multiple sentences long). Instead, introduce them seamlessly in a way that they are part of your own sentence.

How to Pick Quotations  Look for quotations that say EXACTLY what you already needed/wanted to say.  Pick quotations that are worded in such a way that if you were to put them in your own words, they would lose some of their effect.  Look for quotations that are brilliantly, beautifully, shockingly, cleverly, amusingly, profoundly worded.

Stand Alone (or Floating) Quotations  NEVER DO THIS!  On Thursday, Yahoo announced its service had been hit by a coordinated cyberattack resulting in the usernames and passwords of an undisclosed number of Yahoo Mail accounts to be compromised. “The company said the information was stolen from a third party database. The accounts were then accessed to gather information about recently ed addresses.” It’s the second problem in the last two months for Yahoo and the company said it took immediate action to minimize the damage to users whose accounts were involved.

Integrating a Quotation into Your Own Sentence  The basic form is to introduce the quotation with “He said, …” or “She wrote, …”  Use this when you need to quote an entire sentence, but use it sparingly. You should quote entire sentences pretty rarely.

 Mukherjee wrote, “I needed to put roots down, to vote and make the difference that I could.”  Comma goes after wrote, said, claimed, explained, etc., but before the quotation mark.  Capitalize the first word of the quotation like a new sentence.  Period goes inside the quotation mark.  “I needed to put roots down, to vote and make the difference that I could,” Mukherjee wrote.  “I needed to put roots down,” wrote Murkherjee, “to vote and make the difference that I could.”

Instead of always using writes or says, try to use stronger verbs, such as addsclaimsillustratesreasons admitscomments implies states agreescomparesinsistssuggest arguesdemonstrates notes thinks assertsdeniesobserves believesemphasizespoints out

Integrating a Quotation into Your Own Sentence  Most of the time, it’s most effective to incorporate phrases and clauses from the original text blending them into your own sentences.  Result must be grammatically correct and syntactically fluent. Make sure you do not create a comma splice or run-on sentence.  Don’t add commas unless the sentence would naturally require them.

 Mukherjee explains a sense of belonging, “to put roots down, to vote and make the difference that I can.”  Imagine the sentence without the quotation marks to check for grammatical correctness.  Mukherjee explains a sense of belonging, to put roots down, to vote and make the difference that I can.  Not grammatical, so rephrase/rearrange to make the sentence grammatical.  Mukherjee explains that to feel a sense of belonging, a person needs “to put roots down, to vote and make the difference that [she] can.”

Integrating a Quotation into Your Own Sentence  You can change verb tenses, singular/plural nouns, pronouns, etc. to make the sentence grammatical.  You can also add functional words like prepositions and conjunctions. You just can’t add words that change the content/message of the quotation.  Any additions/changes are indicated by square brackets.

 Mukherjee explains a sense of belonging, “to put roots down, to vote and make the difference that I can.”  You are the writer of this sentence, so the “I” in the quotation doesn’t make sense.  Mukherjee explains that to feel a sense of belonging, a person needs “to put roots down, to vote and make the difference that [she] can.”  Mukherjee told how in the past she had “vote[d] and [made] the difference that she [could].”  Original: “It arrived on Christmas morning.”  Blended quotation: The author wrote a story about how “[the package] arrived on Christmas morning.”

Pulling in quotations to blend: A German shepherd is back on solid ground after being rescued from a sinkhole that opened up in a Buffalo park. The 3-year-old dog named Mack dropped more than 10 feet to the bottom of the watery hole during a Sunday morning walk with his owner, Mattie Moore, who nearly fell in herself. Moore's 911 call brought the fire department's technical rescue team to Martin Luther King Jr. Park, where a broken underground water pipe had eroded the soil and created an opening about 2 feet across on the surface but wider below. After “dropp[ing] more than 10 feet to the bottom of [a] watery hole,” Mack the German Shepherd is safe following a rescue by the Buffalo Fire Department.

Pulling in quotations to blend: It's already seemed like a brutally long, cold winter. But handlers for groundhog Punxsutawney Phil say he's forecasting six more weeks of the same. Pennsylvania's famed groundhog emerged from his lair in front of thousands of fans around daybreak Sunday. Legend has it that if the furry rodent sees his shadow on Feb. 2, winter will last another month-and-a-half. If he doesn't see it, spring will come early. Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog responsible for whether we see an early spring or not, has “forecast[ed] six more weeks of the same” weather that has already made this a miserable winter.

Pulling in quotations to blend: Exercise could make you a better student. A study of Kansas elementary and middle school students found a link between physical fitness and better performance on math and reading exams. The study followed the fitness of 13,000 students two years ago. Researchers have discovered “a link between physical fitness and better performance on math and reading exams,” so do some pushups before you take your EOCs this spring.

Omitting Unnecessary Info  You can eliminate unneeded parts of your quotation by using an ellipsis (…)  You only need to use this when you omit something in the middle of a quotation.  Original Quote: “The day began as normal but ended up being a disaster.”  With ellipsis: “The day… ended up being a disaster.”  Blended with my own writing: I was hoping everything would go according to plan, but “the day… ended up being a disaster.”  You never need to use ellipses at the beginning or end of a quotation. Don’t do this:  I was hoping everything would go according to plan, but it “…ended up being a disaster.”  I had a plan and “the day began as normal…”

 DON’T DO THIS:  Mukherjee explains her desire for a place to belong. This can be seen in the quotation, “I need to put roots down, to vote and make the difference that I can.”

Citing Your Quotations  When appropriate, include the author and page number in parentheses at the end of the quotation.  The citation goes OUTSIDE the quotation marks, but before the period.  “This is an amazing quotation” (Mullins 1977).  If you include the author’s name prior to the quotation (earlier in the paragraph), then you can omit their name from the citation.  As Mullins once said, “This is an amazing quotation” (1977).  If you cite the same source multiple times in a row, you don’t need to continue to include the last name in the citation.

Write a summary paragraph.  Include at least three quotations that are correctly and grammatically blended.