1. Quote & Citations

2. Quoting others
Using the words of others can be tricky business. You typically only want to use a direct quotation in the following situations: if you’re using that statement as a piece of evidence for your own argument, if you’re establishing another’s position, or if another person has said something better and more clearly than you can.
The main problem with using quotations happens when writers assume that the meaning of the quotation is obvious. Writers who make this mistake believe that their job is done when they’ve chosen a quotation and inserted it into their text. Quotations need to be taken from their original context and integrated fully into their new textual surroundings. Every quotation needs to have your own words appear in the same sentence. Here are some easy to use templates* for doing this type of introduction:

3. Templates to help you incorporate quotes
X states, “__________.”
As the world-famous scholar X explains it, “________.”
As claimed by X, “______.”
In her article _______, X suggests that “_________.”
In X’s perspective, “___________.”
X concurs when she notes, “_______.”

4. Quote practice Pick up the article you read last week.
Choose three quotes from your article to incorporate into sentences.
Find a partner with the same color article as yourself.
Trade and read one another’s quotations.
Put a star next to the quote you think is incorporated the best.

5. Work Cited Page
A complete list of every source that you make reference to in your essay
Provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any sources cited in your essay.
Should have sources listed alphabetically by the first word in the source.
First line should be flush to left margin with subsequent lines in a hanging indent.

6. A Sample Works Cited Page
Smith 12
Works Cited
Dickens, Charles. Bleak House New York: Penguin,
1985.
---. David Copperfield New York: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1958.
Miller, J. Hillis. Charles Dickens: The World and His Novels.
Bloomington: U of Indiana P, 1958.
Zwerdling, Alex. “Esther Summerson Rehabilitated.” PMLA 88 (May
1973):
Key Concepts: This slide offers students a sample of what a Works Cited page looks like.* For this particular paper, four sources were used. The first and second sources are reprints of earlier published novels, hence the use of the two dates. The second source has three dashed lines in place of the author, Charles Dickens. This is to indicate that the same author wrote both concurrently listed works. The third source is a book published in Note the abbreviations for “University” and “Press.” The fourth source is an article from a continually paginated journal.
The facilitator may choose to explain the form of this page. Note that “Works Cited” is centered at the top. All sources are double spaced and alphabetized according to author. All lines after the first line of an entry should be indented five spaces. The facilitator may also choose to reference students to the final pages on the Writing Lab MLA handout, which also offers a sample Works Cited.
* From “’I am Born:’ The Birth of Identity in David Copperfield and Bleak House” by Jennifer L. Kunka, Purdue University (unpublished manuscript).
Purdue University Writing Lab

7. When Should You Use Parenthetical Citations?
When quoting any words that are not your own
When summarizing facts and ideas from a source
When paraphrasing a source

8. Handling citation Now add the citation to your practice.
Author’s last name and page number(s) of quote must appear in the text. Below are two ways of doing this.
Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263).
Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263).
If the source has no known author, then use an abbreviated version of the title:
Full Title: “California Cigarette Tax Deters Smokers”
Citation: (“California” A14)
If the source is only one page in length or is a web page with no apparent pagination:
Source: Dave Poland’s “Hot Button” web column
Citation: (Poland)
Now add the citation to your practice.

9. Commentary
Now that you’ve successfully used the quotation in your sentence, it’s time to explain what that quotations means—either in a general sense or in the context of your argument. Here are some templates for explaining quotations:
Templates for Explaining Quotations
In other words, X asserts __________.
In arguing this claim, X argues that __________.
X is insisting that _________.
What X really means is that ____________.
The basis of X’s argument is that ___________.

10. Practice
Get out your sentences where you incorporated the quotations from your article.
Find your partner from earlier.
Working together, Try using three different templates to write one piece of commentary for each sentence (3 total).