Quote Flow
(How to embed textual evidence within a
sentence)
Don’t Float
Your Quotes!!
Textual Evidence
 Textual Evidence:
1.
Is anything within the written text: can be
a. What a person says
b. Narrator explaining something
TEXTUAL EVIDENCE IS ANYTHING WITHIN THE TEXT;
Textual evidence is you proof to prove your answer to the question
Answer + textual evidence + explanation of quote and how it proves
your answer
Don’t Float Your Quotes
 Method 1:
Identify the speaker of the dialogue before the quotation.
Transition words like (for example, for instance) are good to use sometimes.
Examples
1. Smith states, "He was a winner.”
2. Ortega believes,"You stick to it.”
3. For instance, Marc says that “his favorite class is chemistry.”
4. Macbeth desperately asks, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean
from my hands?” (II.ii.59).
Don’t Float Your Quotes
 Method 2
Blend the text as if the words were already a natural part of your own sentence.
Examples:
1. Hardy used “the lantern hanging at her wagon” as a symbol of Tess’s future.
2. Because his emotions are swirling as a result of leaving the bedside of his dying
friend, Paul experiences “the earth streaming with forces which pour into
[him] through the soles of [his] feet” (33).
a. Anytime you insert your own words within a quote you must put it in
brackets.
Don’t Float Your Quotes
 Method 3: shortening quote
 If you omit material in order to be concise, mark the
omission with 3 periods (called an ellipsis). You do not need
to use these at the beginning and end of your quotations. It is
understood that you are taking passages from a longer work.
Ex. As Lennie continued to crush Curley’s fist, he turned
“white and shrunken…his fist lost in Lennie’s paw” (68).
Examples

Examples for introducing quotations

1. Edith Hamilton states, “ ____________” (55).

2. According to Hamilton, “___________.” (45).

3. In her book, Mythology, Edith Hamilton maintains that “__________” (59).

4. In Hamilton’s view, “_____________” (39).

5. Hamilton argues that, “_______” (39).


Examples for including commentary on your quote

1. Hamilton’s claim that ____________ assumes that ________.

2. Hamilton emphasizes _________.

3. Hamilton’s points out ________ because _________.

4. Hamilton provides ample evidence that _________ is _________.

5. Although Hamilton’s claims support _________, it can also be said that ______.

You may use the examples above, but they are only a few simple examples. The most effective way to
introduce quotes and include commentary would require that you tailor your introductions and
commentary to fit the topic and purpose of your paper.
Practice Quote Flow
 Fix the following examples to where it fluidly embeds textual evidence.
1.
James talks about stealing purses and selling watches when he was at his
worst. He has no emotions concerning this. “Every time they surged up, I
shoved them back down inside me the way you stuff clothing in a drawer and
shut it.”
Method #1: James asserted that “every time they surged up, [he] shoved them
back down inside [himself] the way you stuff clothing in a drawer and shut
it.”
Method #2: He has no emotions concerning this because “every time they
surged up, [he] shoved them back down inside [himself] the way you stuff
clothing in a drawer and shut it.”
Warm-up 10/24/12 (Practice Quote
Flow)
 1. “Ferocious beasts of the forest who lie in wait for their
prey” show how Fredrick Douglass thinks the people are
cruel and animal-like.
Fredrick Douglass thinks that people are cruel and animal-like
and compare them to “ferocious beasts of the forest who lie
in wait for their prey.”
 2. Lennie’s strength overpowered Curley. “The next minute
Curley was flopping like a fish on a line, and his closed fist
was lost in Lennie’s big hand.” “Curley was white and
shrunken by now, and his struggle had become weak. He
stood crying, his fist lost in Lenny’s paw.”
Lennie’s strength so overpowered Curley that Curley looked
“like a fish on a line” with his “fist lost in Lennie’s paw.”