English Composition II
Susan Arvay
Quote Integration
Below are some examples of common problems with quote integration and suggestions for
how to address them.
Example #1: Quotes that lack a “lead-in”
The lead-in to a quote should tell your reader who is speaking, and in what context he or she is
speaking.
No lead-in:
The members of the Younger family feel trapped by their circumstances and don’t see a lot of
opportunity to realize their dreams. “Sometimes it’s like I can see the future stretched out in
front of me—just plain as day. The future, Mama. Hanging over there at the edge of my days.
Just waiting for me—a big, looming blank space—full of nothing” (638).
With a lead-in:
The members of the Younger family feel trapped by their circumstances and don’t see a lot of
opportunity to realize their dreams. Walter is particularly frustrated not just by his situation,
but also by his mother’s apparent lack of understanding of why he is so angry all the time. He
tries to make her understand the source of his frustration: “Sometimes it’s like I can see the
future stretched out in front of me—just plain as day. The future, Mama. Hanging over there
at the edge of my days. Just waiting for me—a big, looming blank space—full of nothing” (638).
Example #2: Quotes that are integrated as run-on sentences
Integrated as a run-on:
King argues that protesters who engage in civil disobedience aren’t creating tensions “Actually,
we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to
the surface the hidden tension that is already there” (496).
Integrated as a complete, grammatical sentence:
King argues that protesters who engage in civil disobedience aren’t creating tensions, but are
“merely bring[ing] to the surface the hidden tension that is already there” (496).
 Notice how the verb “bring” needs to be modified to fit grammatically into the sentence
above. If you need to change the wording of the quote in order to make it “fit,” then
put every modification you make within square brackets.
Here’s another option for the quote above:
King argues that protesters who engage in civil disobedience “are not the creators of tension,”
but “merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already there” (496).
 Notice that you can select just those parts of the quote that are most necessary for your
own argument. Just be sure to include enough of the quote to get across a substantial
idea—one that really adds something to your argument.
Example of an “insubstantial” quote:
King argues that protesters who engage in “nonviolent direct action” (496) aren’t creating
tensions, but are just revealing problems that already exist in the community.
Example #3: Quotes left standing as sentences by themselves
Try to avoid leaving too many quotes as free-standing sentences.
Free-standing quote:
King justifies his involvement with the Birmingham protests by arguing that everyone
everywhere should take a stand against injustice because we are all ultimately affected by what
happens to others. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an
inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny” (491).
Quotes “woven into” your own sentences:
King justifies his involvement with the Birmingham protests by his philosophy that “[i]njustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Since all people are “caught in an inescapable
network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny” (491), he cannot passively stand by
while injustices are happening in Alabama.
Example #4: Block quotes
If you use a quote that runs for five or more typed lines in your essay, then format it as a block
quote.
Properly formatted block quote:
King’s critics perceive him as the “extremist” because of his support for and involvement in the
acts of civil disobedience happening in Birmingham. But King replies by situating himself in a
lineage of respected “extremists” in order to question the very terms of his critics’ argument:
Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you ,do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them that spitefully use you, and persecute
you.” [. . . ] And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a
butchery of my conscience.” And Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half
slave and half free.” And Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal. . . .” So the question is not whether we will be
extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. (498)
 Notice that block quotes place the page number AFTER the final punctuation of the
quote, not before it as in a “regular” quote. Also notice that block quotes are NOT
placed within quotation marks. The fact that it’s indented from the left margin tells
your reader that it’s a quote.
 Notice also that I left out a big chunk from the middle of the quote because I just didn’t
need THAT much of the original text to get the point across. I told the reader that I had
left out some of the original by putting an ellipsis (three spaced periods) within square
brackets.
Example #5: Quoting a quote:
When you quote material that’s already in quotation marks, you need to change the “inner”
quotation marks from double-quotation marks to single quotation marks.
Original text from King:
I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the “donothingism” of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is
the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest.
This same passage quoted in your paper:
Many people see their options in the face of injustice as either giving up or turning violent. King
rejects these options as a false dichotomy. He chooses to “emulate neither the ‘do-nothingism’
of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist,” preferring instead “the
more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest” (497).
 Notice that the word “do-nothingism” has been placed within single quotation marks in
my quotation of the original. Whenever you have to “nest” quotation marks like this,
the outermost set is always double.