When answering a question, a quotation will
help support your answer with direct evidence.
The key to success is choosing a quote that is
relevant—a line/sentence/part of the text that
actually supports your answer.
In order to do this:
 1) Reread your answer. Ask yourself, “How
can I prove this?”
 2) Choose a quotation that illustrates your
answer directly.
 3) You should easily be able to explain how
your ENTIRE quote directly proves your
answer.
You must also shorten your quote
appropriately. Just because you found a
supportive quotation does not mean you need
the entire paragraph/page/etc.
In order to do this:
 1) Underline/circle/identify the key
words/phrases that prove your answer
DIRECTLY
 2) Get rid of any part of the quotation that
does not help in doing this or is irrelevant in
understanding your answer.

Embedding quotations into your writing is easy.
Embedding quotations into your writing fluently
is going to take more work. There are two steps
to embedding a quote once you have one.
1) Introducing the quotation.
 Do NOT say “For example,” “To explain my
point,” “An example that proves this is,” or
simply plop the quote into the paragraph without
any intro. Think of the introduction as a way to
fill your reader in on what they are about to
read.
 Do insert quote fluently. Example: Antigone
defends her reasoning for burying Polyneices
by admitting “if I had left my brother/ Lying in
death unburied, I should have suffered”(2.53).
2) Explaining the quotation afterwards.
 DO NOT say “This quote means…” Instead,
explain your thoughts/
interpretations/translations of the quote into
your own words.
 Explain how and why it proves your
claim/answer.
 Apply it to a larger theme.
 Pick apart each word.
This explanation is the part that can be
expanded on the most, depending on how
detailed you want to get. It will make up the
larger part of each body paragraph.
 Citing
quotations will often depend on the
type of text you are pulling from (novel,
article, play, poem, etc.) For the sake of
Antigone, we will focus on plays. You must
always give credit to where you have pulled
your quote.
Here are some options on how to cite your
quotes…
If quotations are less than three lines you can
embed them into your writing—use the “/”
symbol to signify a line break (keep all
capitalization and punctuation the same).
Ex. “No, from the very beginning/ There have
been those who have whispered
together,/Stiff-necked anarchists, putting their
heads together,/ Scheming against me in
alleys” (1.122-125).
 If
you quote more than three lines of text, set off
quote on new line, indent about one inch from lefthand margin, and don’t use quotation marks:
No, from the very beginning
There have been those who have whispered together,
Stiff-necked anarchists, putting their heads together,
Scheming against me in alleys (1.122-125).
You must cite all quotations—for Antigone, this
means Scene and line #’s.
 “Must
you doddering wrecks/ Go out of your
heads entirely?” (1.115-116).
***Note that the punctuation (? Or !) remains,
but there is still a period after the parenthesis.
 Ex. “We are old men: let the young ones
carry it out” (1.59).
***Note that the punctuation is left out—the
period comes after the parenthesis.
In Exodus, line 10-11,
the Messenger asks,
“Who can say/ That a
man is still alive when
his life’s joy fails?”
Full citation within
In Exodus, the
Messenger asks, “Who
can say/ That a man is
still alive when his life’s
joy fails?”(10-11).
Partly cited within,
parenthetical at the
end.
Good luck 