Writing & Incorporating
Quotes Effectively
Mini-Lesson
staff.hartdistrict.org/jrosenast/Quotesinessay.ppt
Punctuation Is Important
To avoid confusing your readers,
punctuate quotations correctly, and work
them smoothly into your writing.
Punctuation shows your readers:
•which words are yours
•which words you have quoted
Punctuating Brief Quotations
Quoting a Sentence or Sentences:
Gene begins to reveal his internal war with
Finny when he says, “What was I doing
up here anyway? Why did I let Finny
talk me into stupid things like this?” (5).
Notice how my words (Gene begins to reveal his internal
war with Finny when he says) lead into the quote I have
chosen to use.
Punctuating Brief Quotations
Quoting a Fragment:
Jack is not able to kill the piglet during
their first attempt at hunting for food
“because of the enormity of the knife
descending and cutting into the living
flesh; because of the unbearable blood”
(31).
Again, notice how my words lead into the
quote.
Quoting A Quotation
Ron said, “Dad yelled, ‘No way!’”
Golding writes, “Jack seized the conch.
‘Ralph’s right of course. There isn’t a snakething. But if there was a snake we’d hunt it
and kill it.’” (36).
Just like Leper in A Separate Peace, my brother
Shaun said, “‘You always were a savage
underneath.’”
Quotations with Omissions
(Using ellipses)
According to Gene, the faculty at Devon treated
the boys differently during the summer
session because “we reminded them of what
peace was like… of lives which were not
bound up with destruction” (10).
Quotations with Brief
Insertions
(Using brackets)
It is evident that Finny believes in the war
before his fall from the tree because he tells
Gene, “I’m wearing this [his pink shirt] as an
emblem. We haven’t got a flag, we can’t float
Old Glory proudly out the window. So I’m
going to wear this, as an emblem” (11).
Use brackets when you are inserting your own words into a quote
in order to make the meaning of the quote more clear.
Quoting Poetry: A Single Line
Caesar is obviously crushed by Brutus’
disloyalty when he states: “Et tu, Brutè?
Then fall Caesar” (III.i.78).
Set off the quoted verse from your written prose by using
a colon.
For a single line of poetry, use quotation marks.
Include the line number of the verse followed by a
period. If from a play, include the Act, scene, and line number.
Quoting Poetry: Two or Three Lines
We know the conspirators feel that they have
acted in the best interest of Rome when
Cinna cries, “Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is
dead! / Run hence, proclaim, cry it about
the streets” (III.i.78-79).
Use quotation marks.
Separate the lines of the quoted verse with a slash /
and a space on each side.
Include the line numbers of the verses followed by a
period. If from a play, include Act, scene, and line number.
Quoting Poetry: More Than Three Lines
Antony uses the rhetorical devices of repetition and irony
in his speech to the plebeians:
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honorable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill;
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? (86-92)
Block indent 10 spaces (tab twice) and do not use quotation marks or
slashes.
Include the line numbers of the verses preceded by a period.
How To Integrate Quotations
When you are using brief quotations, you
must integrate them-work them smoothly into your sentences
and
show their relevance to your ideas.
Don’t Forget to PEE
PEE (Point-Example-Explanation)
When writing, your objective is to
state the point, give specific
examples, text references, or
quotes to back the point up, and
then explain the examples.
Not Integrated
Brinker becomes disillusioned with the war, and
Ralph becomes disillusioned with the glory of
being chief. “He found himself understanding
the wearisomness of this life, where every path
was an improvisation and a considerable part
of one’s walking life was spent watching one’s
feet” (76).
Not Integrated
Tolkien was very talented in using
descriptions. "He was as noble
and as fair in the face as an elflord, as strong as a warrior, as
wise as a wizard, as venerable as a
king of dwarves, and as kind as
summer” (20).
Integrated
In the same way that Brinker becomes disillusioned
with the war, Ralph begins to feel a sense of
disillusionment toward the glory of being chief.
Golding’s narrator begins to allude to Ralph’s
waning enjoyment of being the leader on the
island when he states, “He found himself
understanding the wearisomness of this life,
where every path was an improvisation and a
considerable part of one’s walking life was spent
watching one’s feet” (76).
Integrated
In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived
For," Thoreau states that his retreat to
the woods around Walden Pond was
motivated by his desire "to live
deliberately" and to face only "the
essential facts of life“ (10).
Methods For Inserting Brief
Quotations
Final Position
For several reasons, “all of them, all except Phineas,
constructed at infinite cost to themselves these
Maginot Lines against an enemy they thought they
saw across the frontier…” (123).
Beginning Position
“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of
man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true,
wise friend called Piggy” (202), declares Golding’s
narrator at the end of his novel.
Methods For Inserting Brief
Quotations
Middle Position
In the same way William Golding’s novel has been
considered a “body of work that speaks to the tragedy of
the human condition,” John Knowles’ A Separate Peace
can be considered a work of literature that shines a
light into the dark recesses of the human heart.
Interrupted
“As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods,”
proclaims King Lear, “– They kill us for their
sport" (King Lear IV.i.40-44). This
proclamation by an old king who has just realized
that everything he once held dear-- territory and
power– has been stripped from him by his own
flesh and blood– daughters Regan and Goneril–
is said to have inspired the title of William
Golding’s Nobel Prize winning novel, Lord of the
Flies.
Do’s & Don’ts
DO’s
• Introduce your quotes
- Use variety
• Discuss your quotations
- Explain
• Use only what’s necessary in
the quotes
- Paraphrasing can be helpful
• Blend quotes into your own
sentences
• Use transitional words,
phrases, and sentences
• Maintain unity
• Site your quotes
• PEE always
DONT’s
• Use quotes as stand alone
sentences
• Insert quotes without
introductions or explanations
(dropped quotations)
• Jump from one quote to
another without transitions