Using Quoted Material from the Text

Here!Here! Have a quote!Have a quote!

the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.

Bringing it in• Don’t just SLAM down a quote. Introduce it carefully

into your paragraph.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain states“the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.”

-Mention the author, the author’s credentials, and/or the source in your sentence

- Precede the quote with a sentence ending with a colon

“the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.”

American humorist Mark Twain once wrote the following warning about customs:

The technical aspects

• Be sure to surround your selected quotation with quotation marks.

• If asked for, be sure to provide parenthetical citation [ (Author page#) ] at the end of the sentence containing the quoted material. For most quotations, the end mark is placed after the parentheses.

Support your quotes!

• Quotes only work to support a writer’s ideas when the writer explainsexplains the connection between the quote and the writer’s topic.

American humorist Mark Twain once wrote the following warning about customs: “the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it” (25). Although Twain seems to innocently write of a child’s boredom at church, he addresses a larger issue. Through young Tom’s attitude toward custom, Twain builds the platform from which the wily author questions the moral justifications of slavery and recognizes the difficulty of societal change.

You thought the quote was important to include, so write about it!

Yes, Quotations can be cute, but…

• Direct quotations are like infants; they should never be left alone.

• They need to be gently introduced to their surroundings.

• Left on their own, they would stumble, fall, and generally stink up the place.

• Be sure that your direct quotations are safely nestled among words and ideas that support them.