Integrating Sources
Choosing Quotations and “Quote
Sandwiches”
Responding to Your Critical Sources
• As you write your research paper, you should ask yourself what
each of your sources is going to add to your argument. As you
read critical sources about your chosen work of literature and
interact with the ideas of others (the critics) in your papers, there
are two things you need to do:
– Make the relationship between your own ideas and your source’s ideas
CLEAR.
– Are you using the quote because it makes a point you agree with?
– Are you using the quote because it makes a point you disagree with?
– Are you using it because it you are about to show a connection between one
source’s ideas and another source’s ideas?
– Are you using it because you want to explore it further with your own evidence
from the work of literature?
– It is not enough just to say that you agree/disagree. What else do you
need to do? The answer is to explain why and make your agreement or
disagreement unique to you.
Using Sources and Giving Credit
• You’ve found your sources, read them, annotated them, and you’re ready
to use your sources in your essay.
• So… which quotes should you use?
– Quotes that contain ideas you want to respond to.
– Quotes where the original source’s wording is especially good or important
to your response.
– Quotes where the original source explains a complex idea clearly and
succinctly.
– Quotes that contain ideas that would make most people want proof (which
the quote you use should provide).
• Any quote you use should have an explanation/response that is TWICE AS
LONG as the original quote. If a quote takes up two full lines of your
paper, the explanation/response to that quote should take up FOUR.
(This is true for quotes from critical sources AND quotes from the
literature.)
The “Quote Sandwich”
• This is a way to integrate quotes into your paper
smoothly and avoid drop-in quotes.
• The first piece of “bread”
– Introduce quote, possibly mention author, connect
quote to what you were saying before.
• The “Meat”
– Your quote, correctly cited with in-text citation.
• The second piece of “bread”
– Interpretation/explanation of quote (NOT simply
rewording the quote), connect quote to what you will
say next. This is where you RESPOND to the quote.
Online Examples of Quote Sandwiches
• http://www.csun.edu/~hflrc006/quote.html
• https://sites.google.com/site/sasamtani/quot
e_sandwich003.jpg
• Notice that both of these examples make the
quote a part of a sentence the essay author
wrote, and notice that both examples give
credit to the source’s author.
Example of quote use from literature
and a critical source:
Introduce quote
from literature
Quote w/in-text
citation
Analysis of quote
Introduction of
critical source
Quote w/in-text
citation
Analysis of quote
The chapters “The Sea Still Rises,” “The Grindstone,” and
“Calm in the Storm” all contain vivid descriptions of
revolutionary fervor that were clearly designed to strike fear
into the hearts of Dickens’ Victorian audience. The same people
who were downtrodden and pitiful in earlier chapters take on a
more sinister, active character: “Every lean bare arm, that had
been without work before, had this work always ready for it
now, that it could strike” (275). In this sentence, Dickens
reminds his readers of the condition of the people, using the
words ‘lean’ and ‘bare.’ All throughout the chapters that
describe the early days of the Revolution, there is a tone of
warning in the narrator’s voice. One commentator, being
critical of Dickens for his violently negative portrayal of the
Revolution, accuses him of thinking that “the poor are best
when they suffer or pass their days passively” (Scheckner).
However, a close reading of these chapters suggests that it is
not so much that Dickens prefers the poor in their passive state,
but rather that he is trying to give a warning; to show what
happens in a society where the upper layer ignores the needs
of the lower, as he felt was the case in England at the time.
Practice Quote Sandwich:
• We are going to practice responding to a critic. Choose
a quote from the article, read it carefully, and then ask
yourself what your response to this quote from a critic
is. Look back over the relevant sections of Death of a
Salesman. What lines, word choices, and other
literary elements support your response to the quote
you chose?
• Write a paragraph where you use the quote from a
one of these critics AND a quote from the play.
Remember to introduce and explain your quotes
sufficiently. Use the quote sandwich method.
Possible Quotes (Feel free to choose
one you marked as intriguing.)
• Quote 1: “The play constructs the American Dream as
harmful as long as it is based on selfish greed with no
consideration for the good of the larger community”
(Benziman 21).
• Quote 2: “Side by side with his denunciation of the
selfish ethics of individuals and society under
capitalism, Miller does construct a model of material
and professional success that manages to uphold
ethical and social values. This positive potential of the
American dream is embodied in the seemingly minor
characters of charley and his son, who function as
analogical contrasts for Willy and his sons” (Benziman
24).