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Using Quotations

Why write something original when you can rip off what obviously took someone

else weeks to come up with?

Why use quotations?

• But you just said, “Whack him upside the head!” In other words, you gave me permission to break school rules, and thus you should be held accountable, not me!

A. Choosing quotations

• Ask yourself…1. How does this quote illustrate or explain my

point? Is it just added filler?


• Ask yourself…Does the quote really 2. Support my point – or does it weaken it?3. Come from a credible source?4. Zero in on the key words that prove my

point?

Choose evidence from the text that, if it stood alone, would still clearly prove your point.


NOTE: Watch your quote choice. Choose the quotes that specifically reference your topic. If you spend too much time trying to connect quote to topic/establish the significance of your quote, you may have chosen a weak quote.

Hey! It’s a food metaphor!

Think of inserting a quotation into an essay as if you were making a sandwich…

The top piece of bread is the CONTEXT/INTRODUCTORY PHRASE

The filling is THE QUOTATIONThe bottom piece of bread is the EXPLANATORY

SENTENCE.

A poorly sandwiched quote is like a speed bump…

• Or this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBDQPYcyjqs

B. The introductory phrase

ESTABLISHES CONTEXT FOR YOUR QUOTATION.

Context: May include, depending on what you want your reader to know:

Who said it (Authority? Character? Part of narration?) The subject of the comment? When/where in the text/plot/time it was said? To whom were they speaking? How did they say it? (emotion or tone) What were they thinking about? (context)

Introductory phrase examples

1. Early in his career, Hemingway observed, “I like beer.”

2. The narrator plaintively notes that “even the dogs don’t like [her].”

3. Once trapped, Stephen worries, “My dinner will get cold.”

4. At the party, Lizzie notices “the cool disdain” in the eyes of the others.

5. On the subject of war, Eliot is clear: “War sux.”

B. Introductory Phrase

6. Or you can incorporate the quotation into a sentence --- must be grammatically correct.a. Edgar “[worries] constantly about Minerva’s health.”b. Antonia challenges the status quo by “wearing a man’s clothes and doing a man’s job.”c. Margaret then hides her guilt, “smiling in public and crying in private.”

B. Introductory Phrase

6. Or you can incorporate the quotation into a sentence --- must be grammatically correct.d. Scholars agree, however, that “there is no intrinsically coherent entity that corresponds to our idea of what a ‘language’ is.”

e. That Henry VIII “ripped the Church of England from its foundations and erected a shoddily-built house prone to fire and flood” is evident through the many religious wars following his 1534 declaration.

C. Format your IP correctly…

• When quoting a source, never leave that quote “standing alone.” In other words, not this format:

• The final proof of Hanna’s change comes at the party. “She now no longer felt the need for Edward’s approval, knowing now that so much of his life was a lie.”


• Make sure that your introductory phrase and your quoted evidence make one seamless, grammatically-correct sentence—

• By using who said it + verb of address (attributive tag) and a comma

• Example: The final proof of Hanna’s change comes at the party, as she reflects, “She now no longer felt the need for Edward’s approval, knowing now that so much of his life was a lie.”


• By embedding the quotation within the sentence

• Example: The final proof of Hanna’s change comes at the party with the realization that “She now no longer felt the need for Edward’s approval, knowing now that so much of his life was a lie.”


• By using a verb of address and a colon, when a formal statement is involved

• Example: Winston Churchill ends his speech to Parliament with this ringing exhortation: “We shall never give up, we shall never surrender!”


NOT:The speaker declares his independence, “I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.”

T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock is timid, “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons.”

ALL QUOTATIONS MUST BE FRAMED WITHIN AN INTRODUCTORY PHRASE – NO QUOTE CAN

“STAND ALONE”!

Dickinson’s speaker begins with the observation, “Because I could not stop for

Death, he kindly stopped for me.”

C. Explanatory Phrase

• For this section, I’m using a quote from Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Because I Could Not Stop For Death.”

C. Explanatory phrase

1. Well, it…explains…amplifies…emphasizesa. What the quotation means (restate in your own words, interpret to show how the quote supports your topic, connects to your thesis.)

Ex. The speaker has become so caught up in her busy life that she cannot catch a moment, even for Death, and is grateful when Death puts an end to the chaos.


b. Pick a word in the quotation and tell me why that word is key.

Ex. The word “kindly” is significant; unlike the “Grim Reaper” of other texts, Dickinson’s Death is personified as a gentleman.

C. Explanatory Phrase

c. Pick a technique in the quotation and show me how the author uses that technique.

Ex. Here, Dickinson uses personification to turn Death into a pleasant, long-awaited friend, not a feared enemy.


d. Reconnect the quote to a previous quotation/sentence.

Ex. As Whitman showed earlier, Death here is a welcome event, a part of the natural cycle of things. Existence goes on after death, albeit in different form.


2. Above all, use this to show how your chosen quote supports your thesis statement.

D. And phrases/clauses NOT to use..

1. This quote shows…2. As exemplified (shown, discussed)

in this quote:3. Elli is thinking in this quote…4. As quoted by:5. One example is: “…”