1. “
Using Sources “ “ “ “ “ “
By Deborah Long;
Modified by D. Owen

2. General Guidelines for Quotations
Use quotations to support a point you have made.
Avoid using too many quotations or unnecessarily long ones.
Make sure that your quotes have substance and give credibility to your points.

3. Do Not Use Quotations that. . .
come from an unacceptable source.
Ex. According to my mother, “Frankenstein is a wonderful horror story.”
Ex. Cliff’s Notes say, “Frankenstein has stirred the imagination of generations of readers (16).”

4. All quotes must be introduced or integrated. Integrate if possible.
Introduced Quote:
Critic Richard Horne asserts, “The monster created by Frankenstein is also an illustration of the embodied consequences of our actions” (261).
Integrated Quote: More than anything else the novel functions as “an illustration of the embodied consequences of our actions” (Horne 261).

5. Quote That Is Not Introduced or Integrated (error)
Frankenstein shows what happens when man forgets his responsibility to his fellow man. “The monster created by Frankenstein is also an illustration of the embodied consequences of our actions” (Horne 261).
Incorrect use of the quote—not introduced or integrated.
Floating Quote

6. Introducing Quotes with Colon
You may introduce a quote with a sentence and a colon. The quote must explain the sentence.
Example:
The character Robert Walton reveals his unbridled ambition when he discusses the prospect of abandoning his journey: “I had rather die than return shamefully,--my purpose unfulfilled” (Shelley 160).
Caution: Do not use a colon unless the words before it constitute a complete sentence.

7. Capitalization Rules for Introducing Quotes
Capitalization rules require that all introduced quotes begin with a capital letter. If your quote already begins with a capital letter, you do not have to change anything.
If your quote does not begin with a capital letter and you are introducing it, you must change lower case to upper case. (Anytime you make any changes to a direct quotation, you must use brackets [ ] to show that you have made a change).

8. EXAMPLES
Elizabeth Nitchie observes, “The monster himself is the earliest creation of Mary’s and is probably her best, most subtle, most perceptive characterization” (275). (Quote began with a capital letter.)
Elizabeth Nitchie observes, “[T]he earliest creation of Mary’s is probably her best, most subtle, most perceptive characterization” (275).
Note: We will discuss the ellipses later in the presentation.

9. Integrating Quotes
Integrating the quote means making the quoted material part of your own writing. The integration must not compromise the grammatical structure of the sentence. Integrated quotes are preferred over introduced quotes for 11th and 12th grade.
Example: The novel illustrates “the embodied consequences of our actions” (Horne 261), which readers see in the form of the monster himself.

10. Mechanics for Integrating Quotes
When you integrate a quote, you are making it part of your sentence; as a result, you may have to make some changes in the quote itself. The next two slides show changes that are sometimes necessary when the quote is integrated.

11. Brackets
Use brackets to make changes within a quote to maintain grammatical accuracy, to change verb tense or pronoun use, or to add necessary information for clarity. If you find that your bracketed text is one third or more of the quote, you need to look for a different way to use the quote or look for a different quote.

12. 1. Capitalization
Integrated quotes may require that a capital letter be put in lower case.
Example: He evokes our sympathy because
“[t]he monster has the perception and desire
of goodness, but is delivered over to evil” (Birkhead 266).
Note: The position of “the” in the sentence does not require a capital letter, but it was capitalized in the original quote.

13. Change in Verb Tense or in Person
Because the integrated quote is part of your own sentence, you may have to change verb tenses and/or person in order to maintain consistency.
Quote: “The forms of the beloved dead flit before me, and I hasten to their arms” (Shelley 162).
Integrated: Victor confides to Walton that “[t]he forms of the beloved dead flit before [him], and [he] hasten[s] to their arms” (Shelley 162).

14. Using Ellipses
Sometimes it is desirable to leave out part of a quote. When you do so, you must use an ellipses to show where you have left out the words. What remains must be grammatically correct. Also, do not use ellipses (or brackets) to change a quote into a statement that the writer didn’t intend.
“The monster is also an illustration of the embodied consequences of our actions” (Horne 271). (See next slide for complete sentence used here.)
More on Ellipses

15. “The monster created by Frankenstein is also an
illustration of the embodied
consequences of our actions”
(Horne 261).
In the previous slide the ellipses take
the place of “created by Frankenstein,”
the words left out. 
More on Ellipses

16. More about Ellipses
Ellipses are typed with a space between each period space before and after each period.
Ellipses are not used at the beginning of the quotes.
Ellipses are necessary if you take words out of the middle of the quote and if you end the introduced quote before the end of a sentence.
If what you are leaving out includes more than one sentence, you will use four periods in the ellipses in addition to the final period after the citation.
Ellipses are not necessary when your quote is a word or a phrase; however, be sure to cite these.
Note: MLA no longer requires brackets around your inserted ellipses, but they may be used if your teacher requires them.

17. Parenthetical Documentation
If the author of the quote is not identified in the text, place author and page number of the quote in parenthesis after the sentence but before the period.
He evokes our sympathy because “[t]he monster has the perception and desire of goodness, but is delivered over to evil” (Birkhead 266).
If the author is identified in the text, put only the number of the page on which you found the quote.
He evokes our sympathy because, according to
Birkhead, [t]he monster has the perception and desire
of goodness, but is delivered over to evil” (266).
Introduced quote

18. No Author? No Page Number?
You MUST always give parenthetical documentation for every source even if no author is given.
When no author is given, abbreviate the next piece of information. For example, if the works cited citation begins with a title, use an abbreviated title:
Title: “Romeo’s Quest for Love in
Romeo and Juliet.” = (“Romeo’s Quest” 13).
Note: Unless they are PDF files of printed pages, Internet Sources DO NOT have page numbers; therefore, you must use an author’s name or, if the author isn’t given, an abbreviated title in the parenthetical citation. Therefore, you cannot give the name of the author in an introduction. In this situation, you must integrate quotes to avoid awkwardness in syntax.

19. Long Quotations (more than four lines of your text)
In general you should avoid long quotations, but if you must use a quotation longer than four lines of text (on your page), you must indent one tab.
When you indent a quotation, you do not use quotation marks unless the content you are quoting is already inside quotation marks.
With indented quotes, the end mark goes before the in-text citation.

20. Example of Long Quote
Notice that quotation marks are not used.
Educator Bryan Goodwin explains how data should be used: While data systems have grown more robust, a recent report by the Data Quality Campaign (2012) suggests the focus now needs to shift to helping schools and districts develop a culture of effective data use, one that relies upon data to guide critical decision making within an environment of trust, where data is used not to shame or blame, but rather to identify opportunities for growth and continuous improvement. (3)
Notice that the end mark is placed before the citation.

21. Avoiding Long Quotations
Paraphrase the material: You might decide that you want to use the ideas of the critic but want to put the ideas in your own words. The paraphrase is the same length or longer than the original.
Summarize the material: You might summarize the material when you need to say in a sentence or two what the author has said in a paragraph or two. The summary is shorter than the original.
With a paraphrase or a summary you do not use quotation marks; however, the information must be introduced and must have parenthetical documentation afterwards.

22. Separating your sentence with a quotation
Caution
Separating your sentence with a quotation
longer than three or four words confuses
your reader.
Example of Awkward Separation to Avoid
When Robert Walton says, “Great God! what
a scene has just taken place! I am yet dizzy
With the remembrance of it,” he is referring
to his first sight of Frankenstein’s creature
(Shelley 162).

23. Quoting Poetry
Quoting poetry is somewhat different from quoting prose.
If you quote more than two or three lines of poetry, you need to use a slash mark (/) to show where the line breaks are. Use two slashes to indicate a stanza division (//).
Example: Lady Capulet says, “By my count, / I was your mother much upon these years / That thou art a maid” ( ).
With poetry, the citation is generally line number(s); however, with a Shakespearean drama, cite act, scene, and line numbers.
Punctuation is space / space.

24. Quoting Poetry
When you are quoting more than three lines of poetry, you indent one tab. When you set the lines in, you type the poetry exactly as it appears on the original page; therefore, you will not use the slash marks because you are showing the line breaks.

25. Long Poetry Quote Frost ends his poem with these lines:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. (16-20)
Note: Use line numbers. With indented quotes, the period
goes before the parenthesis.

26. Long Quote from Shakespearean Play
The Nurse’s crudeness is evidenced in her first conversation
with Romeo. When he asks her about Juliet’s mother, she
replies:
Marry, bachelor,
Her mother is the lady of the house.
And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous.
I nursed the daughter that you talked withal.
I tell you, he that can lay hold of her
Shall have the chinks. ( )
(Note: The extra space at the beginning is exactly like the original text. In indented quotes, the spacing must be exactly line the original.)

27. Final Words
Sources are used for support of points you are making. Make sure that they do support the points and that they are smoothly woven into your writing. You need to follow the source with some elaboration to connect it to your thesis: however, explanation, but do not repeat what your source has just said.
Also, every situation that you might encounter has not been explained in this PowerPoint. Use the MLA handbook (8th edition). Ask your teacher for help only after you have looked but are unable to find the answer for yourself.