As you write about literature, it is important that you know how to properly add quotations.
Think sandwich:
Lead-in
Quotation
Comment
*Provide a transition into your quotation; do not simply “drop it” into your paragraph. ALWAYS mention who is speaking the quotation (perhaps it is just the narrator) and when in the story it appears.
*Afterwards, provide an analysis or explanation why this quotation proves your point.
*Use correct punctuation to incorporate the quotation.
*ALWAYS put direct quotations in quotation marks.
*ALWAYS include the author’s last name and page number in the MLA format shown below. Do NOT put the letters “p.” or
“pg.” See KEYS FOR WRITERS for help!
SAMPLE PARAGRAPH:
Jem, a main character in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, shows courage when he is in lifethreatening situations. One example occurs on Halloween night when Jem and Scout hear a noise as they walk home from the school. Upon realizing that the noise is not coming from Cecil Jacobs, the children grow scared, yet
Jem does not show it. He acts brave in order to help Scout, who says, “I wondered how long he would keep the Cecil
Jacob myth going” (Lee 261). Despite the danger the Finch kids are in, Jem keeps pretending that the sounds are from their friend in order to ease Scout’s worry. He clearly proves he is brave.
**If you use a quotation that has dialogue within it, follow the format:
As narrator, Scout says, “I couldn’t believe it! Jem said, ‘I dare you!’ He was so brave“ (Lee 503).
**You can also incorporate a quotation by introducing with a complete sentence followed by a COLON.
Here’s how:
As she narrates the event, Scout tells the reader that she knows Jem is tricking her: “I wondered how long he would keep the Cecil Jacob myth going” (Lee 261).

More examples of quotes being integrated in papers:
Example 1
Du Bois expands on this concept of isolation and disconnection in Souls, and in doing so, provides the expression that will influence later African American writers:
It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, —an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts. (Du Bois 554)
As Du Bois previously touches upon, double consciousness is a phenomenon that is caused by societies perceived expectations of him. This perceiving of “one’s self through the eyes of others,” creates a duality that results in a loss and a search for identity.
Example 2
The theme of exile is not exclusive to only leaving the Philippines, but also in Bulosan’s sojourn to find meaning and acceptance in America. In “My Education,” Bulosan touches upon the idea “that their must be a common denominator which every immigrant or native American should look for in order to understand her and be of service to her people” (124 ). Bulosan is looking for a concept—a greater idea about what it means to be American that Bulosan defines as the “American reality” (124).
Example 3
In her essay “Performative acts and Gender Constitution,” Judith Butler argues, “what is called gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo” (Butler 392).
What Butler is conveying is the difference between sex and gender, which is that sex is biological and gender is socially constructed. This distinction being made is an important concept for feminists in general, because the argument that gender is performance challenges the very stability and notions of patriarchy, which is a power structure based on a heteronormative lifestyle.