"Did you think to
kill me? There's
no flesh and
blood within this
cloak to kill.
There is only an
idea. Ideas are
bulletproof “ (V
for Vendetta).
QUOTING
THINGS
CORRECTLY
Introduction to
Incorporating (working-in)
Quotations
A Couple of Preliminary Notes
•- Quotations are some of the most important data you
can have to support a claim. Remember to copy
wording and punctuation exactly as it appears in
the source from which you are taking it.
•- When students are told to find quotations from a book,
they sometimes think that they can only use something
that is already in quotation marks (dialogue). You can
actually use anything from a book, whether it be
dialogue or narration or some of both, that serves your
purposes.
Mr. Youmans wrote an email to me that
says, “You are so dum.”
So…um…how would you interpret this?
Any other way you can interpret it?
Mr. Youmans wrote an email to me that
says, “You are so dum [sic].”
“Sic” is written in
italics and surrounded
by brackets [].
The Latin verb sic ("thus"; in full: sic erat scriptum, "thus was it
written") added immediately after a quoted word or phrase (or a
longer piece of text), indicates that the quotation has been
transcribed exactly as found in the original source.
Incorporating
Quotations
(Smoothly and Correctly)
Method #1
Introduce a quotation that is a
complete sentence with a
complete sentence of your
own and a colon.
Example: Katniss finds that Rue
hasn’t always eaten as well as she
would imagine she has: “’Oh,’ says
Rue with a sigh. ‘I’ve never had a
whole leg to myself before’” (143).
Example #2:
Marvin told me exactly what he
thought about my haircut: “That mullet
makes you look like you just stepped
out of the 1980’s.”
Why is it important to
provide CONTEXT for
your quotes?
Look at today’s political ads?
What could happen if you were having a conversation
with someone and they only repeated a specific thing
you said without providing context?
Can you think of examples of people’s words being
taken out of context that were malicious, confusing, or
funny?
Incorporating
Quotations
(Smoothly and Correctly)
Method #2
Most of the time, you only need one
set of quotation marks around a
quotation.
When Nailer points out Nita’s wealth,
Pima responds, “Yeah, she’s rich all
right. But she’s not crew” (121).
However, if you have more than one speaker in your
quotation or you want to quote both narration and
dialogue, then you will need to have a quotation within
a quotation.
To do this, put a normal set of double quotation marks
around the entire quotation and put the inner
quotation in single quotation marks.
Example: Katniss finds that Rue hasn’t always eaten as
well as she would imagine she has: “’Oh,’ says Rue with a
sigh. ‘I’ve never had a whole leg to myself before’” (143).
Example: Katniss and Peeta would like to avoid the
reaping if they could: “’We could do it, you know,’ Gale
says quietly. ‘What?’ I ask. ‘Leave the district. Run off.
Live in the woods’” (43).
***By the way, if you are quoting dialogue, do NOT put each new speaker in
a new paragraph as you would if you were the author writing the story.
Note: avoidance is not always a bad thing. It is
often easier for you and for the reader if you
avoid having a quotation in a quotation.
Katniss and Peeta would like to avoid the
reaping if they could: “’We could do it, you know,’
Gale says quietly. ‘What?’ I ask. ‘Leave the
district. Run off. Live in the woods’” (43).
BECOMES:
Consider the last quotation within a quotation
avoided in this way:
Katniss and Peeta would both like to avoid
the reaping if they could. This is seen when Gale
says, “We could do it, you know… Leave the
district. Run off. Live in the woods” (43).
Incorporating
Quotations
(Smoothly and Correctly)
Method #3
•Make the quotation the ending of your
own sentence without using any
punctuation between your own words and
the words you are quoting.
•Unlike method #2, you don't set these
quotations off with a verb like "says" or
"exclaims" and a comma. Instead, you work
it into your sentence.
Examples:
•The narrator lets the reader know his true motivation for helping his
brother when he confesses that “When Doodle was five years old, I
was embarrassed at having a brother of that age who couldn’t walk,
so I set out to teach him” (318). *
•He observed that Doodle seemed “all head, with a tiny body which
was red and shriveled like an old man’s” (316).
•Katniss remembers how her family had been "slowly starving to
death" (27).
•When Katniss sees her score, she thinks that "There must be a
mistake" (108).
•Pima warns Nailer that he “shouldn’t be fooled just because she
looks so sweet" (121).
Further Explanation
* Notice that in the first example the word “that” replaces a comma.
You usually have a choice, then, when you begin a sentence with a
phrase such as "that narrator says." You either can add a comma after
"says," or you can add the word "that," with no comma.
Incorporating
Quotations
(Smoothly and Correctly)
Method #4
•Use very short quotations--only a
few words--as part of your own
sentence.
EXAMPLE: Mr. Kirk felt that Mr. Myers’ obsession
with “kitties” to be “interesting”, but I thought it
disturbing.
kindof
of Mr.
grown
man
to
Mr.was
Myers
found aWhat
picture
Kirk
in refers
high school
catsitas
“kitties”?
andhis
said
was
“fascinating” how he avoided
remaining single that whole “six” years of high school.
Examples:
• The narrator’s first impression of Doodle was that he was
a “nice crazy,” but he also felt that he was a
“disappointment” (316).
•The narrator’s love for his brother is felt when he describes
the rain falling on his lifeless body as “heresy” (323).
•Katniss knows the winner's district will be "showered with
gifts" (19).
•Katniss has learned that it is smart to avoid talking about
"tricky" (6) topics that could get her and her family in
trouble.
•The Capitol wants the districts to regard the Hunger Games
as a "festivity" (19).
•It rather ironic that the "Girl who was on Fire" (67) is pelted
with fireballs.