St. Francis Prep
Giknis
English 10
Writers’ Workshop
Incorporating Direct Textual Evidence into Body Paragraphs
Each body paragraph of an essay should deal with a particular point of support mentioned in the thesis. You
already know this.
You also already know that each body paragraph should start with a transition and topic sentence, but where
do you go from there in terms of expanding on the piece of support from your thesis?
Returning to the “argument with your friend” strategy we’ve been looking at all along, a good place to turn at
this point in your argument is to some direct evidence. If you are talking about the Jets, it might be statistics.
If you’re talking about literature, this direct evidence is textual support.
TEXTUAL SUPPORT
There are two types of textual support that can be used in the body paragraphs.
1. Paraphrasing a segment of the work as support for your argument.
a. Example: Macbeth shows his corruption when he kills his friend Banquo.
This is obviously pretty weak. It is vague and feels like book reporting. You should avoid paraphrasing.
2. Direct quotation: this is when you take a section word-for-word from the pages of the work.
a. Example: Lady Macbeth shows her diabolical ambition when she immediately plans
Duncan’s death, saying “Oh, never shall sun that morrow see!” (1.6.56-57).
A direct quotation is much stronger and drives the point home more clearly. Think again about having an
argument with your friend. Isn’t it better when he/she uses specific information rather than just vague
statements?
For example, if you’re trying to convince your friend that Ke$sha is better than The Beatles as musical artists
you could say
Ke$sha is clearly a greater musical artist than The Beatles because she has a better sound and sells a lot
of records.
Or, you could make a specific argument:
Ke$sha is obviously a superior musician to The Beatles, as seen by the fact that her hit song “Tik-Tok”
has sold more copies than any of The Beatles singles (“12 Extremely Disappointing Facts”).
Note: For an in-text citation, the period comes AFTER the parenthetical citation, not before.
OVER 
St. Francis Prep
Giknis
English 10
FORMATTING
So now that you are convinced that direct textual support in the form of a quotation from the work is superior
to simple paraphrasing, let’s look at where it goes in the paragraph itself. First, a couple tips:
1. A quote should not start your paragraph. The first sentence of your paragraph should be a topic
sentence (transition + subject of thesis + stance + single support = topic sentence).
2. Your quote should not be the entire second sentence of your paragraph, either. You need to introduce
your quote with some context and an introductory phrase.
a. For example:
To begin, Lady Macbeth shows how ambition overruns her morality when she receives the letter from
her husband indicating that he has been prophesied to be king. When reading the letter, she immediately jumps
to the conclusion that she and her husband will kill Duncan, observing that his arrival will be a “fatal
entrance…under my battlements” (1.6.35). There is no consideration that this is an immoral action, thus
illustrating that the conscience and guilt later seen in the play has been temporarily overwhelmed by the
ambition to become queen.
3. Notice that the quote is not simply plopped in the middle of the paragraph without integration, but
exists as part of another sentence. It also has a little (not a lot) of contextual information around it.
4. Feel free to use multiple quotes within a paragraph, and to use only phrases from the book. It does not
have to be a full sentence to be used as direct textual evidence.
a. So how much of my essay should be directly quoted textual evidence? A good rule of thumb is
that directly quoted material should not compose more than 10% of your essay, and should be
broken up throughout the essay itself (no coming in one big quote in a single paragraph).
5. Lastly, do NOT end a paragraph with your quote. You should have at least a sentence of explanation
following the quote, explaining what it is illustrating. Try to avoid saying “This quote shows…” That’s
kind of amateur.
6. To make this as scientific as possible, here is a general formula for integrating a quote into your body
paragraph:
a. Topic sentence (1-2 sentences)
b. Introductory and contextual information (1-2 sentences)
c. Quote (hopefully integrated into a sentence)
d. Explanation
PRACTICE
The subject of your essay is blood. The stance is that it is symbolic for guilt. The piece of support is the scene
where Macbeth is washing blood from his hands and cannot get clean (2.2). The quote you’ll use to support is
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather…make the
green one red” (2.2.60-62). Build a body paragraph to be shared after based on this information.