Integrating Quotations Gracefully
This exercise addresses the following course competencies:

Document secondary sources in the MLA style and integrate them effectively.

Understand and avoid all forms of plagiarism.
Read "Using Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism" in Troyka, chapter 31, pages 192.
A writer should integrate material from sources smoothly into his or her own words. Anyone can stick
in a quotation, but it takes some skill to incorporate quotations, paraphrases, and other references into
one's own writing without awkward gaps and jerks.
You should aim for a seamless texture as you move from your own analysis of your subject to the
comments and ideas of others and back again to your own comments. There are techniques that can
help you achieve a stylistic smoothness as you integrate source materials into your own writing.
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In the following examples, borrowed from Cumbie's web site, the writer gracefully integrates her own
words with the words from a secondary source by Anastasia Toufexis entitled, "Love: The Right
Chemistry." Toufexis's essay presents a neurochemical perspective on love.
Here are eight sample patterns of integration. Notice the parenthetical citation shows the page number
from which the quotation came.
At the beginning . . .
"Goofy grins and sweaty palms" are one physiological indication that we may be in love (Toufexis
166).
In the middle . . .
In her essay, Toufexis gives credit to a specific chemical, oxytocin, for "enhancing orgasms" which
may certainly explain the physiological reaction in mating (167).
At the end . . .
Toufexis describes the effects of love as "goofy grins and sweaty palms" (166).
Divided by your own words . . .
"Lovers often claim that they feel as if they are being swept away," and research suggests that they are
indeed "literally flooded by chemicals" (Toufexis 166).
Introduced with a colon . . .
As Toufexis notes, the criteria for a love match is learned in childhood and we put it all together as
adults: "All the information gathered while growing up is imprinted in the brain's circuitry by
adolescence. Partners never meet each and every requirement, but a significant number of matches
can light up the wires" (168).
Introduced with a comma . . .
Love produces wonderful feelings, and as Fisher notes, "that is one reason why it feels so horrible
when we're abandoned or a lover dies" (qtd. in Toufexis 167).
Introduced using that . . .
With true love, she argues that "age is not vital" (Toufexis167).
Introduced using As...said or As...suggests . . .
Love and nature seem to act in tandem, for as Walsh suggests, "nature has wired us for one special
person" (qtd. in Toufexis 167).
Exercise: Integrating Quotations
Using the web sites you visit and evaluate today, find eight sentences that follow the patterns
described above. Cut and paste them into the Word document that your group will turn in at the end of
class. Give the URL where the sentence came from, label its type using the headers above, and then
explain whether or not the quote is actually integrated effectively.
Ultimately, you will be able to effectively integrate quotes into your own writing!
Remember that your reader needs to know the author's last name and the page number of the source
from which you are borrowing ideas or exact words. In the following examples, Charles Norris is the
author of a pamphlet published by the Food and Drug Administration. You may put the author's name
in your sentence (as in example 1) or in parentheses with the page number (as in example 2),
depending on what you wish to emphasize in your sentence.
Example 1:
Charles Norris, chief spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration, insists that it is not the
responsibility of the government to provide "absolute protection against risks to female health" that
contraceptive products may entail (2).
Example 2:
The Food and Drug Administration claims that the government is not responsible for providing
"absolute protection against risks to female health" resulting from the use of contraceptive products
(Norris 2).