How to Cite… Sophisticatedly

Part One: Integrating a Quotation into the Essay

What NOT to do… The young boy is clearly immature. When Mangan’s sister speaks to him for the first time, he demonstrates this immaturity. “When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer” (Joyce 183).

Why not? The young boy is clearly immature. When Mangan’s sister speaks to him for the first time, he demonstrates this immaturity. “When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer” (Joyce 183).  There’s no flow to this sentence. The quote is sitting off by itself, asking the reader to understand it out of context.

What TO do…  Integrate! Make it FLOW! The young boy is clearly immature. When Mangan’s sister speaks to him for the first time, he demonstrates this immaturity. He reflects, “When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer” (Joyce 183). Because he does not know how to speak to this girl, the young boy is clearly ill-equipped to deal with the complexities of love.

Part Two: Dealing with a long quote

What NOT to do…  Do not use an excessively long quote if the entire thing is not RELEVANT to your argument  Why?  It’s unnecessary essay “padding;” it interferes with the “conciseness” of your argument

What TO do…  Cut out any unnecessary parts of the quote  Add an ellipsis in square brackets […] where you remove words  Be sure the quote still flows in proper sentences!

For Example  Let’s say I want to use the following quote to demonstrate how the bazaar girl is disinterested in the little boy: “Observing me the young lady came over and asked me did I wish to buy anything. The tone of her voice was not encouraging; she seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty. I looked humbly at the great jar that stood like eastern guards at either side of the dark entrance to the stall and murmured: -No, thank you The young lady changed the position of one of the vases and went back to the two young men. They began to talk of the same subject. Once or twice the young lady glanced at me over her shoulder.”

It’s too Much!  A lot of the quote isn’t relevant; doesn’t help to prove the point  So, I pick and choose what I want…

“Observing me the young lady came over and asked me did I wish to buy anything. The tone of her voice was not encouraging; she seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty. I looked humbly at the great jar that stood like eastern guards at either side of the dark entrance to the stall and murmured: -No, thank you The young lady changed the position of one of the vases and went back to the two young men. They began to talk of the same subject. Once or twice the young lady glanced at me over her shoulder.”

Pick & Choose…then Piece Together  Now I take the relevant parts and string them together. I insert an ellipsis in square brackets […] where I’ve removed words.

The tone of her voice was not encouraging; she seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty. […] The young lady changed the position of one of the vases and went back to the two young men. […] Once or twice the young lady glanced at me over her shoulder” (Joyce 186).

I can even chop to create new sentences… “Observing me the young lady came over and asked me did I wish to buy anything. The tone of her voice was not encouraging; she seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty. “Observing me the young lady came over and [...] seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty.

Part Three: Dealing with Dialogue

What NOT to do…  You CANNOT string dialogue together side-by-side in a sentence E.g. The narrator witnesses the girl and older boys at the bazaar talking and flirting, saying, “O, I never said such a thing!” “Oh, but you did!” “Oh, but I didn’t” (Joyce 186).

What TO do…  Set the text off as you would ANY quote longer than four lines  No quotation marks  Citation appears at end The Narrator witnesses the girl and older boys at the bazaar talking and flirting: -O, I never said such a thing! -Oh, but you did! - Oh, but I didn’t (Joyce 186).