1. a lesson in using
quotations
and paraphrases

2. Quotations are word-for-word excerpts from a source.
Smith 1
Sally Smith
Dr. Andrea Jones
ENGL
11 December 2009
Cattle and the Creature:
Frankenstein and the Livestock Breeding Experiments of the Eighteenth Century
In the sixty years leading up to the initial publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1818, Britain was caught in a whirlwind of change. And though much critical consideration has been given to the socio-political contexts of the novel’s inception—including the nearby French Revolution and Romantic literature and political philosophies—there is surprisingly little discussion on the effects of Britain’s Agricultural Revolution on the thematic formation of the text. Though Britain was fast approaching industrialization by 1818, recent changes in farming and animal husbandry had radically altered the way Western Europeans ate and thought about eating. New discoveries in crop and livestock propagation and management were quickly filling the bellies of hungry urbanites. In the era of the primary events of Frankenstein—the end of the eighteenth century—the new and unfamiliar ways of cultivating food were not going unquestioned, but a rising cattle culture, visible in everything from popular art to the dinner table, was taking hold and coming to define Britons as “barons of beef” (Ritvo).
Mary Shelley was not immune to the sweeping changes in Britain’s food supplies and desires resulting from this revolution. Learning of Robert Bakewell, the famed agriculturalist whose obsessively perfected breeds “would fatten the most readily, and be the most valuable when fat” (Knight 12), Shelley and her husband Percy lamented the state
“would fatten the most readily and
be the most valuable when fat” (Knight 12).

3. Cattle and the Creature:
Paraphrases are ideas and concepts that you have summarized from another’s work.
Smith 1
Sally Smith
Dr. Andrea Jones
ENGL
11 December 2009
Cattle and the Creature:
Frankenstein and the Livestock Breeding Experiments of the Eighteenth Century
In the sixty years leading up to the initial publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in 1818, Britain was caught in a whirlwind of change. And though much critical consideration has been given to the socio-political contexts of the novel’s inception—including the nearby French Revolution and Romantic literature and political philosophies—there is surprisingly little discussion on the effects of Britain’s Agricultural Revolution on the thematic formation of the text. Though Britain was fast approaching industrialization by 1818, recent changes in farming and animal husbandry had radically altered the way Western Europeans ate and thought about eating. New discoveries in crop and livestock propagation and management were quickly filling the bellies of hungry urbanites. In the era of the primary events of Frankenstein—the end of the eighteenth century—the new and unfamiliar ways of cultivating food were not going unquestioned, but a rising cattle culture, visible in everything from popular art to the dinner table, was taking hold and coming to define Britons as “barons of beef” (Ritvo).
Mary Shelley was not immune to the sweeping changes in Britain’s food supplies and desires resulting from this revolution. Learning of Robert Bakewell, the famed agriculturalist whose obsessively perfected breeds grew quickly and were expensive (Knight 12), Shelley and her husband Percy lamented the state of Britons’ diets, which were primarily meat protein-
whose obsessively perfected breeds grew quickly and were expensive (Knight 12).
Changing one word is not paraphrasing.

4. Quote and paraphrase discussions by people who are
experts in the field that you’re writing about or who offer an interesting insight into the topic at hand.
-writer/critic/publisher
-historian
-agriculture enthusiast

5. Quoting and paraphrasing
sources that agree with you shows your reader that your opinion is supported.
Quoting and paraphrasing
sources that disagree with
you shows your reader that you’re fair-minded.
As Anne Helton makes clear in her work on
the Shelleys and nineteenth-century
vegetarian circles, one way to understand
Frankenstein is by “situating it in the
canon of literature concerned with animal
welfare” (7).
While Edgar Lane finds this move in
Shelley’s work to be “unlike the beliefs she
espouses elsewhere” (93), this moment
appears to fit perfectly with her interest in
the ways that animals were used at that
time in the Western world.
While Edgar Lane finds this move in Shelley’s work to be “unlike the beliefs she espouses elsewhere” (93), this moment appears to fit perfectly with her interest in the ways that animals are used and abused in the Western world.

6. S K I L L S♦C H E C K Paraphrase the following quotation:
“The novel is successful in the way that it consistently allows for multiple interpretations and viewpoints, but it fails to truly work with any single political system.”

7. Quotes and paraphrases
can provide evidence.
I.) Shelley expresses a desire for change.
a.) This can be seen in a series of letters (Kraft).
Elsewhere, Shelley discusses her desire for Britons to understand animals as something more than food. Historian Eleanor Kraft points to a series of letters in which Shelley “explains the intense need for the nation to openly discuss its food politics” (384).

8. Quotes and paraphrases can also move your argument along.
I.) Many critics believe that Shelley was copying her husband.
a.) But we can see that there were many female activists in her era (Alistair).
While many critics believe that Shelley was simply riding the political coattails of her husband Percy, James Alistair writes of “an increasing amount of female activists in the early 1800s” and reads Frankenstein as a feminist text (102).

9. Or you can call this a quote sandwich!
Quotations cannot stand alone. To use them effectively, you must provide a frame. 1.
Introduce the author and/or the context for the quote.
“Quote.” 2. 3.
Or you can call this a quote sandwich!
Explain the quote’s significance.

10. For example: 1.
As Bakewell famously asserted, livestock were seen as
“the best machine for converting herbage into money” (38). 2. 3.
This outlook quickly expanded the notion of “farmer” to include the wealthy patrons of farms.

11. Signal verbs can make your writing more interesting.
refutes
Lane says Meenach’s argument, citing an “impassioned though terse” diary entry from May 1817 (229).
argue
assert
believe
emphasize
insist
observe
remind us
report
suggest
Expressing
Agreement
acknowledge
admire
agree
endorse
praise
corroborate
reaffirm
support
verify
Disagreement
complain
complicate
contradict
deny
qualify
question
refute
reject
renounce
Making A
Claim

12. “[The novel] fails to truly work with any single political system.”
argue
assert
believe
emphasize
insist
observe
report
suggests
acknowledge
admire
agree
endorse
praise
reaffirm
support
verify
complain
complicate
contradict
deny
qualify
question
refute
reject
S K I L L S♦C H E C K
Using the information provided,
frame the following quotation:
Author: Sarah Mullins
Position: Literary critic
Page: 831
“[The novel] fails to truly work with any single political system.”
“the novel is vegetarian, to say the least, an enticing journey through animal politics” (47).

13. You should find a balance between your own writing and your use of paraphrases and quotations.