How to Integrate Quotations in Literary Analysis

A Simple Guide

Basics

• All phrases and longer passages taken from text must be enclosed in quotation marks.

• The page number and author’s last name must be placed after the quotation and before the closing punctuation.

In one of her visions of the future, Niska sees the soldiers of WWI fighting : “They lived in the mud like rats and lived only to think of new ways of kill one another” (Boyden 49).

For long quotations (4 lines or more), indent one inch from the left and omit quotation marks. Placethe parenthetical citation after the period • Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him

throughout her narration:They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

POWER

Introduce a Quotation

Be Strong

Introducing Quotations

• You can use an independent clause and a colon to introduce your quotation.

When Niska returns to Moose Factory and for the first times since her childhood, she notices how different she is from the assimilated Aboriginal population: “ . . . it was obvious that an invisible wall, one impossible to breach, lay between me and the homeguard Indians of this white town” (168).

Introducing Quotations

• Another way to introduce quotations is to weave them into your sentence. Remember, the sentence must be grammatically accurate.

Niska compares her feelings of alienation from the assimilated homeguard Indians to an “invisible wall” that is “impossible to breach”(168).

While walking through Moose Factory for the first times since her escape from residential school, Niska notes “that an invisible wall, one impossible to breach, lay between [her] and the homeguard Indians” (168).

Remember:

Context + Quotation + Analysis = A+

Analysis

When Niska returns to Moose Factory and for the first times since her childhood, she notices how different she is from the assimilated Aboriginal population: “ . . . it was obvious that an invisible wall, one impossible to breach, lay between me and the homeguard Indians of this white town” (168). Niska’s feelings of alienation from the very people who, only decades ago, were living with her in the bush, highlights the . . .

Ellipses

• When omitting words from within a single sentence, use only three ellipsis dots (. . . ). Three point ellipses have single typed spaces before and after each of the three dots:

• Faulty: “water…had”• Correct: “water . . . had.”

Brackets

• Use brackets to specify ambiguous pronouns within a quotation.

• Example: “ As revealed to me [Oedipus] by the Delphi oracle” (15).

You Do the Work

• Do not rely on quotations to do the work for you.

• You must always follow a quotation or paraphrase with commentary.

Never end a paragraph with a quotation.

Make Changes

• Quotations should fit into your argument. If punctuation, pronouns, or verb tenses do not flow with your own words, paraphrase or make minor changes to the quotation, surrounding them with brackets

Integrating Quotes: Pattern # 1

• 1. An introducing clause plus the quotation:Gatsby is not to be regarded as a personal

failure because "Gatsby turned out all right at the end" (176), according to Nick.

This is a complex sentence. Because is a subordinate conjunction.

Pattern # 2

• 2. An assertion of your own and a colon plus the quotation:

• Fitzgerald gives Nick a muted tribute to the hero: "Gatsby turned out all right at the end" (176).

This works best if your quotation is a complete clause

Pattern # 3

• 3. An assertion of your own with quoted material worked in:

• For Nick, who remarks that Gatsby "turned out all right" (176), the hero deserves respect but perhaps does not inspire great admiration.

This works best when you pull only power words from the quotation.

• Note: The words in bold effectively introduce the quote. No quote ever stands alone. Follow your quotes with commentary. Do not begin commentary with words such as “this quote shows” or “this quote reveals.”

• Note how the following commentary flows from the quotation and has substance.

Model Commentary• Taken from A Writer’s Model: “A Locust in the Garden”

• The story alludes again and again to the sheltering comfort of the garden. The man tries to maintain an illusion that nothing serious has happened to him, that in time he will “feel as if he had always been like that” (397). The garden is his refuge against reality.