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Lesson Objective:
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To learn how to integrate evidence into sentences integrate evidence into
sentences
Why use evidence?
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Textual evidence is used to support your points. It is not used to make the point
for you.
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The evidence helps you to prove that your point is true.
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Evidence gives credibility to your point.
The Basics
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Always integrate quotations
into your text.
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NEVER just “drop” a quotation
in your writing!
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In other words, don’t let a piece
of textual evidence stand alone
as its own sentence.
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Use your own words to
introduce a quotation.
Example from Warsan Shire’s Home
What not to do!
Shire uses metaphors to explore the
danger refugees face. “No one leaves
home unless/ home is the mouth of a
shark”.
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Bad example!
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Why?
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The quote is just “dropped in.”
What you should do:
Original — not integrated:
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Shire uses metaphors to explore the danger refugees face. “No one leaves home unless/
home is the mouth of a shark”.
Smoother integration:
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Shire uses the metaphor of “the mouth of a shark” to explain that people “[leave] home”
due to the dangers they face.
Even smoother integration:
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Shire’s metaphor of “the mouth of a shark” conveys the extreme dangers that refugees
face at “home.”
How do I do it?
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First, carefully select the best parts of the text to
support your point.
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Second, abridge the selection to only the most
relevant and strongest evidence. Look for the “power
words and passages.”
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Third, integrate the evidence into your own writing.
Remember, the evidence is there to support your
point, not to make it for you.
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Make any changes necessary so that the evidence
flows grammatically with your writing.
When you integrate:
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Use only the most effective part of the quotation.
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Maintain a smooth sentence style.
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Remember to use ellipses to indicate you have removed words.
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Remember to use square brackets [ ] if you add or change a word.
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Use phrases to precede the quotation.
Standard Evidence Integration:
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This type of integration uses “signal phrases” to introduce a piece of evidence.
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It is preferable to use this type of integration when you want to attribute the
idea to its source.
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Example: Henry David Thoreau explained, “I went to the woods because I
wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I
could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I
had not lived.”
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Standard integration should be connected to your point and integrated in a way
to allow your reader to understand the relevance of the selected evidence.
Standard Evidence Integration:
WRONG: Grendel is overcome with emotion when he first sees
Wealtheow. “She was beautiful, as innocent as dawn on winter
hills. She tore me apart as once the Shaper’s song had done”.
CORRECT: Grendel is overcome with emotion when he first sees
Wealtheow. He states, “She was beautiful, as innocent as dawn
on winter hills. She tore me apart as once the Shaper’s song had
done”.
Standard Evidence Integration:
Avoid over using the phrase the author says, “yada yada yada.”
Vary your integration signal phrases when using standard integration.
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Whenever possible, try to integrate the evidence so
that it flows “naturally” with your own writing. Instead
of integrating the evidence by using something like:
the character states, “yada yada yada,”
Making your
sentences flow!
use the evidence as an integrated part of your own
writing. It makes it even better!
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Natural evidence integration makes the evidence a
part of your own writing, leading to better support of
your points.
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When done correctly, if you were to remove the
quotation marks, you should not be able to tell where
your words end and the evidence begins. This
technique strengthens your writing.
Natural Evidence Integration
Use brackets [ ] to change verbs or other parts of the evidence when necessary.
Remember: Literature must be written about in the PRESENT TENSE. So, if you
need to change the tense of a verb, use a bracket [ ] to indicate the change.
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Example of Standard Integration: Dwight is a bully who takes out his anger and
insecurity on those who are weaker than he is. The narrator states, "This made
him furious; on the way back to the car he would kill anything he saw. He killed
chipmunks, squirrels, blue jays, and robins".
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Example of Natural Integration: Dwight is a bully who takes out his anger and
insecurity on those who are weaker than he is. While hunting, he boosts his ego by
"kill[ing] anything he [sees]. He kill[s] chipmunks, squirrels, blue jays, and robins".
Natural Evidence Integration
Finally, with natural evidence integration, you may need to omit a word or two in order for the
evidence to grammatically fit your sentence or to make it clearer. If you omit any words, indicate
with ellipses.
Keep in mind that you can only omit words provided you do not change the meaning of the
evidence.
Example of Standard Integration: When Grendel listens to the Shaper’s songs, he learns about
the origin of his being. He says, “He told of an ancient feud between two brothers which split the
world between darkness and light. And I, Grendel, was the dark side, he said in effect. The
terrible race God cursed”.
Example of Natural Integration: When Grendel listens to the Shaper’s songs, he learns about
the origin of his being. He hears the story of “an ancient feud between two brothers which split
the world between darkness and light,” and Grendel discovers that he was “the dark side . . . [t]he
terrible race God cursed”.
What not to do – use the word ‘quote’:
This is evident in the quote, “is this a dagger I see
before me?”
• Instead make it part of a fluent sentence:
• This is evident when Macbeth asks, “is this a dagger I
see before me?”
• Other ways to embed:
• On his way to murder Duncan, Macbeth sees a
“dagger of the mind” which leads him towards the
King’s chamber.
• You try: Re-write these sentences to embed the
quotes. You might also want to trim/edit them.
• Macbeth begins to feel guilty after the murder of
King Duncan. This is demonstrated in the quote, “Will
all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from
my hand?”
• “A falcon towering in her pride of place/ Was by a
mousing owl hawked at, and killed.” This shows that
nature is unsettled.
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You try: Re-write these sentences to embed the quotes. You might also
want to trim them.
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Macbeth begins to feel guilty after the murder of King Duncan. This is
demonstrated in the quote, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean
from my hand?”
•
“A falcon towering in her pride of place/ Was by a mousing owl hawked at, and
killed.” This shows that nature is unsettled.
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Possible Answers:
Macbeth begins to feel guilty after the murder of King Duncan, we can see this
when he asks if “all great Neptune’s ocean [could] wash this blood” from his
hands.
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Shakespeare shows how unsettled nature is by describing a falcon being
“hawked at, and killed” by a mousing owl.
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** Remember! To check if you have embedded accurately, read your sentence
without quotation marks and see if it makes sense.
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Test: How well integrated are these?
The Great Gatsby opens with the line, “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave
me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.”
Nick is “simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.”
The narrator concludes with the idea that they are “boats against the current, borne back
ceaselessly into the past.”
Daisy shows her pessimistic view of women in the quote, “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best
thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
Fitzgerald demonstrates Gatsby’s “vast carelessness” when Nick describes how he and Daisy,
“smash.. up things and creatures.”