Using Quotations in Your
Writing
Mrs. Snipes
Troy High School
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In writing about literature, use direct
quotations from the text(s) you are
analyzing. They help to establish your
critical authority and they have stronger
weight than the other forms of evidence,
such as paraphrase and summary.
Quotations also enliven an essay by
varying your style with samples of the
author’s.
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On the other hand, quotations should not be
overused, so that the paper becomes a
patchwork of quoted passages, stitched
together with a few transitional sentences. If
the excerpts can speak for themselves, the
reader may just as well read the original.
Quotations should be brief and emphatic,
reserved for reinforcing a main point or
demonstrating a feature of the author’s style.
Principles for effective use of
Quotations in Writing:
1. Limit most quotations to single words or phrases:
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To reinforce a point:
The Misfit is a ruthless killer. Yet,
surprisingly, when he removes his
glasses, his eyes seem “pale and
defenseless-looking” (O’Connor 1135).
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To comment on the author’s style:
Laertes says that the “folly” of his tears at
Ophelia’s death “drowns” his “speech of
fire” (Hamlet, 4.6.186 – 192). This metaphor
not only expresses his feeling of helplessness,
it alludes to the way his beloved sister died—by
drowning.
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Note: Be especially wary about quoting
passages over four lines long in your paper,
which have to be indented and single-spaced.
A useful guideline is to include no more than
one long quotation for every 500 words (or two
typed, double spaced pages) of a paper. Such
long excerpts should not be wasted on
summarizing the plot or on repeating
paraphrased ideas.
Ineffective use of long
quotation:
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“‘Now look here, Bailey,’ she said, ‘see here, read this,’
and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the other
rattling the newspaper at his bald head. ‘Here this fellow
that called himself the Misfit is aloose from the Federal
Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it
says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn’t
take my children in any direction with a criminal like that
aloose in it’” (“A Good Man is Hard to Find” 1123). The
grandmother begins by trying to persuade her son,
Bailey, into changing his plans of going to Florida for the
weekend. She does not feel it is safe for the family to go
to Florida because the criminal is heading there.
Here the writer’s “commentary” is really a monotonous
repetition of the ideas in the passage.
Effective Commentary:

Early on in the story, we get a clear sense of
the grandmother’s methods. She wants the
family to vacation in Tennessee rather than
Florida. She uses forms of persuasion that she
thinks are subtle: seizing on a sensationalist
news story, looming over her grown son,
prodding his sense of fatherly responsibility.
She would say that she has the family’s best
interests at heart. But to the long-suffering
Bailey, she is a bully and an irritant.
2. In introducing a quotation, make the
context clear—by describing the
situation, the speaker, or both.
Context Unclear:

Juliet does not want to obey. “When I do,
I swear / It shall be Romeo, whom you
know I hate, / Rather than Paris”
(3.5.122-24).
Context Clear:


Secretly married to her family’s enemy, Juliet
rejects her mother’s order to marry the gallant
young count: “When I do, I swear / It shall be
Romeo, whom you know I hate, / Rather than
Paris” (3.5.122-24).
Note: A slash, with a space before and after it,
is used to separate lines of verse and poetry. If
the quotation is longer than three lines, indent
it to ten spaces and single space it, but do not
use slashes.
3. In introducing a quotation, do not call
attention to the page or act number. That
creates a false emphasis, and
sometimes confuses literature and life.
Instead, describe the situation.


Wrong: On page 48, Nick first meets
Gatsby, whom he describes as “an
elegant young roughneck.”
Right: It is at one of the wildly
extravagant parties that Nick first meets
Gatsby, whom he describes as “an
elegant young roughneck (Fitzgerald
48).
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Wrong: Near the end of scene three, Macbeth
describes the king’s “gashed stabs” and Lady
Macbeth faints.
Right: As Macbeth is describing the murdered
king, with his “gashed stabs,” Lady Macbeth
faints (2.3.107-21).
Note: The exception is if the location in the
literature is relevant to the point being made.
Act III, in Hamlet as in most of Shakespeare’s
tragedies, marks the climax of the action.
4. Make the transition between your words
and the author’s clear and smooth.
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No transition: Juliet’s father is very angry.
“Out, you green-sickness carrion” (3.5.157).
Smooth transition: Juliet’s father is furious.
He curses at her in morbid terms: “Out, you
green-sickness carrion” (3.5.157).
Smooth transition: Juliet’s father is so angry
that he calls his young daughter “greensickness carrion” (3.5.157).
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In other words, use the introduction of a
quotation to focus on its salient qualities,
to support your interpretation.
Note: Before a complete sentence in
quotation marks, a colon ( : ) or a
comma is needed. No punctuation is
used before a word or phrase, as in
“green-sickness carrion.”
5. Make the structure of your sentence
conform to that of the author.
Original: “I have a speech of fire, that
fain would blaze / But that this
folly drowns it” (4.6.191-92).

By beginning the quotation at a
convenient point:
Laertes says that he could express
his outrage in a “speech of fire”
(4.6.191).

By using an ellipsis (three spaced
periods) to show that something from the
original has been omitted:
Laertes claims that his “speech of fire
. . . would blaze” if the “folly” of his
grief did not prevent it” (4.6.191-92).

By using brackets to change something in the
original but without changing the meaning:
- a noun to a pronoun, or vice versa
The grandmother does not give any
details of the crime reported in the
newspaper story. She describes it
only as “what it says [the Misfit] did
to these people.”
- a verb or pronoun from one person to another
Juliet describes Romeo to her
unsuspecting mother as someone
whom Lady Capulet “know[s]” that
Juliet “hate[s].”
Laertes claims that his “speech of fire…
would blaze” if the “folly” of his tears did not
“drown [ ] it” (4.6.191-92).
Note: The empty brackets show that the verb ending has
been omitted.
- A past tense (in which most stories are
written) to the historical present (in which
critical essays must be written
The grandmother tries to intimidate
Bailey by “[standing] with one hand
on her thin hip” and “rattling the
newspaper” at him.
- A puzzling word to a clearer synonym
Polonius calls Ophelia “a green
[inexperienced] girl” (Hamlet, 1.3.
101).
- An error in style or reasoning that occurs
in the original, indicated by the Latin
word sic, meaning thus.
Keats, always an uncertain speller,
wrote in one letter, “I shall go to
town tommorrow [sic] to see him.”
Note: Because sic is a foreign word, it
must be italicized.
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The parentheses should not be used in place
of brackets. They indicate an afterthought or
minor point from in the original text. The
brackets mean “editor’s note”—the signal to
the reader that the original thread has been
altered.
But use brackets and ellipses sparingly; they
can be cumbersome and distracting. The
preferred method of creating smooth
transitions is careful excerpting.
6. The critics own sentence should not be
interrupted with a long quotation. That is
a form of weak subordination. It makes
the sentence awkward and blurs the
focus.
Awkward: Laertes goes from his usual confidence to a new,
helpless sadness in one line, “I have a speech of fire, that fain
would blaze / But that this folly drowns it,” which shows how
much his only sister’s death has upset him.
Smooth: Laertes goes from his usual confidence to a new,
helpless, sadness in one line: “I have a speech of fire, that fain
would blaze / But that this folly drowns it.” The swift change in
his mood shows how much his only sister’s death has upset
him.
Notice that the revision is not only easier to understand, but
more specific. It allows the writer to comment on the
question in both the sentence that introduces it and the
sentence that follows it.
7. After the quotation, comment further why it is
important or how it is worded.
Secretly married to her family’s
enemy, Juliet rejects her mother’s
order to marry that gallant young
count: “When I do, I swear / It shall
be Romeo, whom you know I hate, I
rather than Paris” (3.5.122-24)
S.O.S.: Speaker-OccasionSignificance
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Remember what you learned as a freshman!
Frame a quote with a lead-in: speaker and
occasion (or context, meaning, what is
happening when the quote occurs in the
literature) + significance or commentary
(meaning, your analysis).
As a general rule, you should follow a direct
quote with at least two complete sentences of
commentary and analysis.
Sample of Using Supporting Text in a
Literary Analysis Paper:

Sita continues to pledge her loyalty when she
tells Rama, “I am devoted and faithful to my
husband. I have always shared your joy and
sorrow, and now I am most desolate. . . Your
joy has always been mine to share, and your
sorrow”(1156). Here, Sita’s sense of devotion
and loyalty in her decision to join Rama in exile
reflect the Hindu philosophy of dharma, or
sacred duty and righteousness. Her words
further reflect her sense of solidarity as she is
compelled to join her husband even in the face
of adversity.
Notice:
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In the previous example, the quotation has a
lead in explaining the speaker and a hint of
context.
The quotation is woven into the context of the
lead-in phrase, is punctuated correctly, and is
cited correctly according to MLA parenthetical
citations.
The quotation is followed by two sentences of
meaningful analysis and commentary.
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Reference the information in this
presentation any time you need help
incorporating quotations as supporting
text in your writing!
You’re welcome!
Source:

Hamilton, Sharon. Solving More
Common Writing Problems. Portland,
ME. 1997.