Ms. Bilskemper
English 11


A quotation is anything you copy from a text
- when referring to a quotation in literary
analysis, it does not always mean dialogue
Quotations must be in quotation marks with
a citation at the end of the sentence, which
consists of the author’s last name and the
page number of the quotation

A quotation CANNOT stand alone; it must be
incorporated into a sentence. This means
that every sentence in your paper will have at
least some of your own words (unless you are
doing a block quotation)


… a helium balloon!
We all know what happens when you let go of
a helium balloon: it flies away. In a way, the
same thing happens when you present a
quotation that is standing all by itself in your
writing, a quotation that is not "held down"
by one of your own sentences. The quotation
will seem disconnected from your own
thoughts and from the flow of your
sentences.



Piggy, the intellectual, is a boy whose “knees
were plump” and who was “very fat” (Golding 7).
These physical features contributed to his
getting habitually teased by the stronger boys.
When Ralph says he “can’t decide what to do
straight off” and that he has to “have time to
think things out,” he demonstrates that he takes
his leadership role seriously (Golding 23).
Jack Merridew proves himself to be a bully when
he tells Piggy, who is the weakest in the group,
to “shut up” and that he is “talking too much”
(Golding 21).


The purpose of incorporating quotations is
not only so that your paper “flows” better,
but so you also are explaining the context
surrounding the quotation and the analysis of
it.
In the following examples, be aware of how
context, analysis, and the quotation are
brought together.

"[A] house made of gingerbread and candy,
with sugar window panes," is where the witch
lived, and in part because of its deceptive
appearance, the forsaken children were
deceived (Grimm 506).

The shoemaker's religious side was revealed
when he "committed himself to heaven" after
working on the leather for the shoes and
before going to bed (Grimm 569).

The Brothers Grimm revealed the elves'
happiness when "they hopped and danced
about, jumping over chairs and tables, and at
last they danced out the door" (559).

“There was a gay fiction among us that we
were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a
skeleton truth that we never did,” asserts Pip
as he reminisces about the prestigious and
elite Grove of the Finches, continuing, “To
the best of my belief, our case was in the last
aspect a rather common one” (Dickens 333).

Estella is very adamant that she has not and
cannot possibly love someone else: “’I have
not bestowed my tenderness anywhere. I
have never had any such thing’” (Dickens
254).

Finally realizing his intended great
expectations do not match up with his
aspirations of being with Estella, Pip states,
“Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me, all a
mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I
only suffered in Satis House as a convenience,
a sting for the greedy relations, a model with
a mechanical heart to practice on when no
other practice was at hand; those were the
first smarts I had” (Dickens 361).

With the re-introduction to the convict, now
known as Magwitch, Pip fully realizes that
“Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me, all a
mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I
only suffered in Satis House as a convenience,
a sting for the greedy relations, a model with
a mechanical heart to practice on when no
other practice was at hand” (Dickens 361).

There are only two punctuation marks to
introduce a quotations
 A comma (,) following verbs (states, says, yells,
commands, etc)
 A colon (:) following complete sentences

NO PUNCTUATION FOLLOWS ‘THAT’!


Try your hardest to pick the BEST bits of
quotations for your paper. Just because a
quotation is longer, doesn’t mean it makes it
better.
BUT… if you must use it, and it MORE THAN
FOUR LINES, you must use a block quotation




It must be introduced with a complete
sentence followed by a colon (:)
Enter down one, indent one inch (two tabs),
single space the entire quotation with every
left margin indented the same.
You will not use quotation marks
The parenthetical citation comes AFTER the
punctuation.
After one simple interaction with someone of a higher social
class, Pip begins a downward spiral into self-deprecating
thoughts:
So, leaving word with the shopman on what day I
was wanted at Miss Havisham’s again, I set off on the
four-mile walk to our forge; pondering, as I went
along, on all I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was
a common laboring-boy; that my hands were coarse;
that my boots were thick; that I had fallen into a
despicable habit of calling knaves Jacks; that I was
much more ignorant than I had considered myself last
night, and generally that I was in a low-lived bad way.
(Dickens 429)