How to Use Quotations in an Essay
Placing quotations in an essay makes your writing livelier, and it causes your ideas to carry more
weight when you have details and evidence from the text. But, using quotes can be tricky. This handout
explains three ways to correctly use words or phrases from a literary text. Notice that it is NEVER
correct to quote a line from a text by itself; you must always set up the quotation by leading into it, or
following it, with writing of your own. See the examples below:
Quote Sprinkling: use words and phrases taken directly from the literature and place them inside your own
sentences.
Correct example: Penelope says she will marry the man who can string Odysseus’s bow and shoot “an
arrow / through iron ax-helve sockets, twelve in line” (book 21. lines 36-7).
Now, explain what is incorrect about the following example:
“An arrow through iron ax-helve sockets, twelve in line” (21.36-7). This is the test Penelope sets up for the
suitors.
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Try it!
1.
Put the following quotation (or use just part of it) into a sentence describing Odysseus’ wisdom:
“if I killed him / we perished there as well, for we could never / move his ponderous doorway slab aside”
(9.207-09).
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Try it again!
2. Put the following quotation (or use just part of it) into a sentence describing Odysseus’ leadership:
“But as [he] sent them on toward Scylla, [he] / told them nothing, as they could do nothing” (12.161-62).
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Dialogue Quote: use a piece of dialogue from the literature and set it off as dialogue. Note the extra
quotation mark!!!
Correct example: Odysseus admits his great loyalty to his family when he says to Calypso, “’it is true,
each day / I long for home, long for the sight of home’” (5.85-6).
Now, explain what is incorrect about the following example:
“I long for home, long for the sight of home” (5.86). Loyal Odysseus says this to Calypso.
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Try it!
1.
Put the following dialogue quotation (or use just part of it) into a sentence describing Odysseus’ loyalty:
“’Where shall a man find sweetness to surpass / his own home and his parents?’” (9.24-5).
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Colon Quote: use this quote set-up when the quotation helps to explain the sentence you have written before it.
You must use a complete sentence before the colon:
Correct example: When Penelope hears Odysseus explain the secret of their bed, she nearly faints with
relief to know that her husband is finally home: “Their secret! As she heard it told, her knees / grew tremulous
and weak, her heart failed her” (23.54-5).
Now, explain what is incorrect about the following example:
Penelope hears Odysseus tell the secret of their bed and: “Their secret! As she heard it told, her knees /
grew tremulous and weak, her heart failed her” (23.54-5).
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Try it!
1.
Use the following quotation (or just use part of it) after a sentence describing how Penelope finally
greets her husband—use a colon:
“With eyes brimming tears she ran to him, / throwing her arms around his neck, and kissed him” (23.56-7).
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