Tutorial 5.1.2

5.1.2 Applying Strategies for Integrating Direct Quotations

Part I


In this lesson, you will learn to apply strategies for integrating direct quotations in your text.


Two major categories of information management influence integration of direct quotations.

1. The first is distinguishing between conventions for integrating prose, poetry, or drama in your text.

2. The second is how to distinguish between the original text and any changes you need to make for precision and clarity.


This presentation will include guidelines for integrating direct quotations from prose, poetry, and drama in your text.

The following presentation will include guidelines for making alterations to a direct quote.


Conventions for including direct quotations in the body of your text or for setting them off from your text vary depending on the type of quotation you are including.


In order to determine how to integrate a direct quotation, you must consider the length of your quotation and the genre of the original source:

Prose

Poetry

Drama


When you are quoting text from a prose source and using MLA format:

Embed the quotation in your text when the quotation is four lines or less in length.

Set the quotation off from your text (this is called a block quotation) when it is more than four lines in length.

(For other documentation styles, the length may be different. APA counts words rather than line length.)


Example:

Henry James’ odd juxtaposition of detail as he

describes the respectability of “a cook, a

housemaid, a dairywoman, an old pony, and

an old gardener” provides a humorous clue as to

the Victorian obsession with respectability that may

have influenced the puzzling behavior of one of the

key characters in The Turn of the Screw (13).

3 – linequotation


Notice the placement of end punctuation when the quotation is included in your own text.


Example:

Henry James’ odd juxtaposition of detail as he

describes the respectability of “a cook, a

housemaid, a dairywoman, an old pony, and

an old gardener” provides a humorous clue as to

the Victorian obsession with respectability that may

have influenced the puzzling behavior of one of the

key characters in The Turn of the Screw (13).


For a quotation longer than four lines, use a block quotation.

Note the placement of punctuation for the block quotation.


The governess’ reference to a popular gothic novel from the period supplies further evidence of her tendency to romanticize her experiences:

IT WAS NOT THAT I DIDN’T WAIT, on this occasion, for more, for I was rooted as deeply as I was shaken. Was there a “secret” at Bly – a mystery of Udolpho or an insane, an unmentionable relative kept in unsuspected confinement? (James 29)

Perceptive readers will notice that the governess’ citing of ghosts sometimes occur after she has been reading another novel.

Note: Follow your style-guide conventions for double-spacing text. Single-spacing is used here due to space limitations.


Remember to introduce your direct quotations. One of the smoothest ways to do this is to make a statement about the quote that functions as a complete sentence and to end that statement with a colon.

Again, notice the placement of punctuation for the block quotation.


Henry James’ description of the governess provides interesting information for the critic who views the novel through a feminist lens:

The fact to be in possession of was therefore that his old friend, the youngest of several daughters of a poor country parson, has, at the age of twenty, on taking service for the first time in the schoolroom, come up to London, in trepidation, to answer in person an advertisement that had already place her in brief correspondence with the advertiser. (11)


Additional conventions for block quotations:

Begin the quotation on a new line. Do not add an extra space before it.

Indent the entire quotation one inch from the left margin.



If your quotation comes from only one paragraph in your source, then do not indent the beginning of the quote more than the rest of the quote – even if it is the beginning of a paragraph in the original source.



If your quotation comes from more than one paragraph in your source, then indicate the original paragraph divisions by indenting an additional quarter of an inch.

Do not indent the first line of your quote an extra quarter of an inch unless it is the beginning of a paragraph in the original source.



Double-space your quote just as you have double-spaced the rest of the paper.

End the quotation with the appropriate punctuation, and place the parenthetical citation AFTER that punctuation.



Do NOT use quotation marks around block quotations.

If the quotation includes a quotation, preserve the quotation marks just as they appear in the original.


To view more examples of integrating short and long prose quotations in your text, consult the MLA Handbook or the Purdue Owl website.

http://www.amazon.com/MLA-Handbook-Writers-Research-Papers/dp/1603290249

http://www.amazon.com/MLA-Handbook-Writers-Research-Papers/dp/1603290249

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/


When you are quoting text from a poetry source and using MLA format:

Include quotations from a single line of a poem in your text.

Include quotations from two or three lines of a poem in your text, showing separations between lines by using a slash (/) with a space before and after it to indicate the end of each line in the poem.


Example:

In Leaves of Grass, the speaker creates a sense of intimacy by directly addressing the reader: “I might not tell everybody but I will tell you” (43).


Example:

In Leaves of Grass, the speaker creates a sense of intimacy by claiming to be confessing private thoughts and directly addressing the reader: “This hour I tell things in confidence, / I might not tell everybody but I will tell you” (43).


If you are quoting from more than two or three lines of a poem, set the quotation off from your text.

Guidelines for spacing and indentation are the same as for a prose quotation.

Several other conventions are specific to poetry.


For a block quotation using poetry:

If your quotation includes a break between stanzas, add a space in your text to indicate where the white space appears in the original poem.

Double-space the quotation.

Do NOT use quotation marks around the quotation.



If a line of poetry is too long to fit on your page as in the original source, continue the text on the next line, but indent it another quarter of an inch.

If it is impossible to reproduce the visual effect of the original poem, get it as close as you can.



If you are beginning your quotation with the middle of a line of poetry, line up the text as it appears in the original. Do not have the first line of your quotation flush with the rest of the quotation.

End the quotation with the appropriate punctuation and place the parenthetical citation AFTER that punctuation


When you are quoting dialogue from a drama including the words of only one character, follow the guidelines for quoting prose or poetry, as appropriate.


When you are quoting dialogue from a drama including the words of more than one character, set your quotation off from the rest of your text by:

Indenting the characters’ names one inch from the left margin (as it would appear in a script).

Using capital letters for the character’s name and place a period after that name.


When you are quoting dialogue from a drama including the words of more than one character in a play:

Begin the quotation on the same line as the character’s name, following the period.

When the dialogue shifts to a new character, indicate that character’s name on a new line, indented one inch from the left margin, and continue as you did for the text for the first character.


When using a block quotation from a drama:

Include stage directions exactly as they appear in the original text OR use ellipsis to show that you have omitted them.


Let’s practice:

Select one poem, one prose passage, and one drama passage to practice using direct quotations. (You may use any source, but you might start with a literary anthology to help save time.)


Let’s practice:

For the prose passage: correctly embed one quotation of less than

four lines in a sentence that you write. Correctly set off a quotation of more than four

lines in a sentence that you write. Refer back to the guidelines in this

presentation to check your work.


Let’s practice:

For the poetry passage:

Correctly embed a quotation of one line or less in a sentence you compose.

Correctly embed a brief quotation that includes a line break in a sentence you compose.

Correctly set off a quotation of three lines in a sentence you compose.

Refer back to the guidelines in this presentation to check your work.


Let’s practice:

For the drama passage:

Correctly embed a brief quotation spoken by only one character in a sentence you compose.

Correctly embed a quotation including dialogue between two speakers in your text.

Refer back to the guidelines in this presentation to check your work.


The next presentation will provide information for how to manage sources when you need to alter the original text.


Sources:

Anson, Chris M., Robert A. Schwegler, and Marcia F. Muth. The Longman Concise Companion. New York: Pearson, 2007. Print.

Fowler, H. Ramsey, Jane E. Aaron, and Cynthia K. Marshall. The Little, Brown Handbook. New York, Longman, 2010.

James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw and Daisy Miller. New York: Dell, n.p. Print.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2009. Print.

Purdue Online Writing Lab. 1995-2011. Web. 21 June 2011. Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Ed. Malcolm Cowley. New York:

Penguin, 1976. Print.

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Tutorial 5.1.2