Integrating Quotations: Great Expectations style English 12 Ms. Bilskemper

A quotation is like… A helium balloon – We all know what happens when you let go of a helium balloon: it flies away. In a way, the same thing happens when you present a quotation that is standing all by itself in your writing, a quotation that is not "held down" by one of your own sentences. The quotation will seem disconnected from your own thoughts and from the flow of your sentences.

The Wrong Way… Estella is very adamant that she has not and cannot possibly love someone else. “’I have not bestowed my tenderness anywhere. I have never had any such thing’” (Dickens 254). - your quotation is not attached to anything and no connection is made for the reader.

Many Right Ways… At the beginning of your own sentence “[T]he dark flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with scattered cattle feeding on it” is where the novel starts out, setting the overall tone of ominous mystery within the first few paragraphs of the novel (Dickens 1-2).

In the middle of your own sentence Estella’s cold side was further revealed when she, after scoffing at Pip, looked at him “as insolently as if [he] were a dog in disgrace” as she placed his meal on the ground (Dickens 48).

At the end of your own sentence Dickens hints at Mr. Jaggers’ true uncaring nature when he interacts with a client, eventually throwing “his supplicant off with supreme indifference, and [leaving] him dancing on the pavement as if it were red- hot” (Dickens 130).

Divided by your own words “There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did,” asserts Pip as he reminisces about the prestigious and elite Grove of the Finches, continuing, “To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one” (Dickens 333).

Introducing a quotation with a colon Estella is very adamant that she has not and cannot possibly love someone else: “’I have not bestowed my tenderness anywhere. I have never had any such thing’” (Dickens 254).

Introducing a quotation with a comma Finally realizing his intended great expectations do not match up with his aspirations of being with Estella, Pip states, “Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a sting for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practice on when no other practice was at hand; those were the first smarts I had” (Dickens 361).

Introducing a quotation using “that” With the re-introduction to the convict, now known as Magwitch, Pip fully realizes that “Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a sting for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practice on when no other practice was at hand” (Dickens 361).

Simple Punctuation Rules There are only two punctuation marks to introduce a quotations – A comma (,) following verbs (states, says, yells, commands, etc) – A colon (:) following complete sentences NO PUNCTUATION FOLLOWS ‘THAT’!

The big quotations… If your quotation takes up more than four full lines, you need to use block quotations. – Introduce it with a complete sentence and a colon (:) – tab indent, single spaced. – Punctuation should be exact. The parenthetical citation (Dickens #) stands alone next to it.

Block Quotation example After one simple interaction with someone of a different social class, Pip begins a downward spiral into self- deprecating thoughts: So, leaving word with the shopman on what day I was wanted at Miss Havisham’s again, I set off on the four- mile walk to our forge; pondering, as I went along, on all I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was a common laboring-boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick; that I had fallen into a despicable habit of calling knaves Jacks; that I was much more ignorant than I had considered myself last night, and generally that I was in a low-lived bad way. (Dickens 429)