Integrating Quotations
I.Q.
Integrating Quotations Gracefully
This power point is designed to address the
following course competencies:
 Document secondary sources in the MLA
style and integrate them effectively.
 Understand and avoid all forms of
plagiarism.
Integrating Quotations Gracefully
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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.
Integrating Quotations Gracefully
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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.
Is it acceptable to commit a hit-and-run
with your vehicle?
 Just as it is not acceptable to hit a child,
animal, or object and drive away, it is not
acceptable to just dump a quote in the
middle of your writing. “To be, or not to
be, that is the question.”
 See that. That was a hit-and-run quote. It
is not acceptable.
 It must be part of a larger, complete
sentence, that has a signal phrase. (See the
power point, “Signal Phrases.”)
Integrate your quotations!
I.Q.
 As Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, was fond
of saying in his most troubled times,
Prince Harry of Wales, too, often wonders
after a scandalous photo of him has been
snapped by the paparazzi: “To be, or not
to be, that is the question.”
 See that. That was NOT a hit-and-run
quote.
 It is part of a larger, complete sentence,
that has a signal phrase. (See the power point,
“Signal Phrases.”)
So now what?
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In the following examples, the writer
gracefully integrates his own words with
the quoted words from a secondary
source by Anastasia Toufexis entitled,
“Love: The Right Chemistry.”
Toufexis’s original essay presents a
neurochemical perspective on love.
The writer is using Anastasia Toufexis as
the authority to support his points about
love.
Here are eight sample patterns of integration.
(Notice the parenthetical citation shows the page number from which each quotation
came.)
Where can the quoted
words appear in a larger
sentence?
1. At the beginning . . .
“Goofy grins and sweaty palms” are one
physiological indication that we may be
in love (Toufexis 166).
2. In the middle…
In her essay, Toufexis gives credit to a
specific chemical, oxytocin, for
“enhancing pleasure” which may
certainly explain the physiological
reaction in mating (167).
(Note that because the author is mentioned in the sentence, only the page
number is needed in the parenthetical/in-text citation.)
3. At the end…
Toufexis describes the effects of love as
“goofy grins and sweaty palms” (166).
4. 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).
(Note how smooth this move is! It incorporates the
quote from Toufexis linked by the writer’s own words.
Nice!)
5. 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).
(Note that the writing up to the colon must be
a complete sentence AND the quoted material
after the colon must also be in complete
sentences.)
6. Introduced with a comma,
Love produces wonderful feelings, and as
anthropologist Helen Fisher notes, “that is
one reason why it feels so horrible when
we’re abandoned or a lover dies” (qtd. in
Toufexis 167).
Note that before the comma, the writing is not in a
complete sentence. The signal phrase plus the quoted
piece equal a complete sentence.
Also, who is Helen Fisher? The original essay was by
Toufexis. However, Toufexis quoted Fisher in her piece. To
use Fisher, from the Toufexis essay, the in-text citation will
be an abbreviated form for “quoted in Toufexis.”)
7. Introduced with that…
With true love, she argues that “age is not
vital” (Toufexis167).
Again, note that before the word, “that,” the writing is
not in a complete sentence. The signal phrase plus
“that” plus the quoted piece equal a complete sentence.
SP + that + quoted piece = complete sentence
8. Introduced using As…argues or
As…suggests… or As “expert” verb…
Love and nature seem to act in tandem, for
as psychobiologist Anthony Walsh
suggests, “nature has wired us for one
special person” (qtd. in Toufexis 167).
Again, the essayist’s own writing before
the name of the expert plus the verb
plus the quoted piece = a complete
sentence.