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Introducing quotations

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This document provides guidance on how to properly incorporate quotations into writing. It discusses that quotations should be used to support your own ideas, not replace them. The document then outlines four methods for integrating quotations: 1) Using a colon and complete sentence to introduce a quotation, 2) Using a comma after an introductory phrase, 3) Including the quotation within your own sentence, and 4) Using short quotations within a sentence without special punctuation. Providing context for the quotation and analyzing its significance are also emphasized.

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Introducing Quotations A guide to successful quoting
What is a quotation? • Quoting simply means repeating what someone else has said or written. • When a character says something in a play or novel s/he is speaking but when you repeat what the character says in your writing or in oral work you are quoting the character. • When you want to include words or phrases taken from a poem, play or prose you are quoting. • When you do this you must use quotation marks (‘inverted commas’) to show that it is not your work.
Why quote? • Imagine you are a lawyer and your essay is your way of convincing a jury (your teacher or examiner) of your argument. A lawyer might be interesting, persuasive and thought provoking but without evidence a jury is never going to be sure that what the lawyer is saying is true. • Quotes and examples work like evidence in a court case – they convince your audience that what you’re writing is accurate.
Why quote? Continued • Quotations, then, are used to support your own ideas; they should not take the place of your ideas nor should they be used to tell the story. • Quotations are a useful way of exploring how theme, character and language are used in a text or a particular part of it. • You should usually provide some kind of context (where does it come from / fit into the text?) for the quotation and comment on what is interesting about it.
How to use quotations Using a quote is like building a sandwich or burger: The first bit of bread is like your introduction for your quote. After making a point, give some The quote is the meat in context for the quote and the middle of the explain how it illustrates your sandwich. It might be argument. yummy but it tastes better between two bits of bread! The second piece of bread is like your comment on your quote. Why is it interesting? What does it reveal about character/language/plot/ a certain literary technique etc?
Layout of quotations • Point • Example / Quotation • Explanation •PEE!
Organising Quotations • Make your point • Follow it with a quotation • Put your quotation in ‘ …’ • If it is a short quotation, it should be placed within your sentence and should be introduced with a comma (,) • If it is longer than 6 words, it should be introduced with a colon (:); placed on the next line and double- indented • Complete your quotation by making a comment on it.
Examples 1. Introduce the quotation with a complete sentence and a colon. • Example: In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau states directly his purpose for going into the woods: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." • Example: Thoreau's philosophy might be summed up best by his repeated request for people to ignore the insignificant details of life: "Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!" • Example: Thoreau ends his essay with a metaphor: "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in."
. 2. Use an introductory or explanatory phrase, but not a complete sentence, separated from the quotation with a comma • Example: In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau states directly his purpose for going into the woods when he says, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." • Example: Thoreau suggests the consequences of making ourselves slaves to progress when he says, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us." • Example: Thoreau asks, "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?" • Example: According to Thoreau, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us." • You should use a comma to separate your own words from the quotation when your introductory or explanatory phrase ends with a verb such as "says," "said," "thinks," "believes," "pondered," "recalls," "questions," and "asks" (and many more). You should also use a comma when you introduce a quotation with a phrase such as "According to Thoreau."
3. Make the quotation a part of your own sentence without any punctuation between your own words and the words you are quoting. • Example: In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau states directly his purpose for going into the woods when he says that "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." • Example: Thoreau suggests the consequences of making ourselves slaves to progress when he says that "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us." • Example: Thoreau argues that "shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous." • Example: According to Thoreau, people are too often "thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails." • Notice that the word "that" is used in three of the examples above, and when it is used as it is in the examples, "that" replaces the comma which would be necessary without "that" in the sentence. You usually have a choice, then, when you begin a sentence with a phrase such as "Thoreau says." You either can add a comma after "says" (Thoreau says, "quotation") or you can add the word "that" with no comma (Thoreau says that "quotation.")
4. Use short quotations--only a few words--as part of your own sentence. • Example: In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau states that his retreat to the woods around Walden Pond was motivated by his desire "to live deliberately" and to face only "the essential facts of life." • Example: Thoreau argues that people blindly accept "shams and delusions" as the "soundest truths," while regarding reality as "fabulous." • Example: Although Thoreau "drink[s] at" the stream of Time, he can "detect how shallow it is." • When you integrate quotations in this way, you do not use any special punctuation. Instead, you should punctuate the sentence just as you would if all of the words were your own. No punctuation is needed in the sentences above in part because the sentences do not follow the pattern explained under number 1 and 2 above: there is not a complete sentence in front of the quotations, and a word such as "says," "said," or "asks" does not appear directly in front of the quoted words. • All of the methods above for integrating quotations are correct, but you should avoid relying too much on just one method. You should instead use a variety of methods.

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Introducing quotations

  • 1. Introducing Quotations A guide to successful quoting
  • 2. What is a quotation? • Quoting simply means repeating what someone else has said or written. • When a character says something in a play or novel s/he is speaking but when you repeat what the character says in your writing or in oral work you are quoting the character. • When you want to include words or phrases taken from a poem, play or prose you are quoting. • When you do this you must use quotation marks (‘inverted commas’) to show that it is not your work.
  • 3. Why quote? • Imagine you are a lawyer and your essay is your way of convincing a jury (your teacher or examiner) of your argument. A lawyer might be interesting, persuasive and thought provoking but without evidence a jury is never going to be sure that what the lawyer is saying is true. • Quotes and examples work like evidence in a court case – they convince your audience that what you’re writing is accurate.
  • 4. Why quote? Continued • Quotations, then, are used to support your own ideas; they should not take the place of your ideas nor should they be used to tell the story. • Quotations are a useful way of exploring how theme, character and language are used in a text or a particular part of it. • You should usually provide some kind of context (where does it come from / fit into the text?) for the quotation and comment on what is interesting about it.
  • 5. How to use quotations Using a quote is like building a sandwich or burger: The first bit of bread is like your introduction for your quote. After making a point, give some The quote is the meat in context for the quote and the middle of the explain how it illustrates your sandwich. It might be argument. yummy but it tastes better between two bits of bread! The second piece of bread is like your comment on your quote. Why is it interesting? What does it reveal about character/language/plot/ a certain literary technique etc?
  • 6. Layout of quotations • Point • Example / Quotation • Explanation •PEE!
  • 7. Organising Quotations • Make your point • Follow it with a quotation • Put your quotation in ‘ …’ • If it is a short quotation, it should be placed within your sentence and should be introduced with a comma (,) • If it is longer than 6 words, it should be introduced with a colon (:); placed on the next line and double- indented • Complete your quotation by making a comment on it.
  • 8. Examples 1. Introduce the quotation with a complete sentence and a colon. • Example: In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau states directly his purpose for going into the woods: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." • Example: Thoreau's philosophy might be summed up best by his repeated request for people to ignore the insignificant details of life: "Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!" • Example: Thoreau ends his essay with a metaphor: "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in."
  • 9. . 2. Use an introductory or explanatory phrase, but not a complete sentence, separated from the quotation with a comma • Example: In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau states directly his purpose for going into the woods when he says, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." • Example: Thoreau suggests the consequences of making ourselves slaves to progress when he says, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us." • Example: Thoreau asks, "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?" • Example: According to Thoreau, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us." • You should use a comma to separate your own words from the quotation when your introductory or explanatory phrase ends with a verb such as "says," "said," "thinks," "believes," "pondered," "recalls," "questions," and "asks" (and many more). You should also use a comma when you introduce a quotation with a phrase such as "According to Thoreau."
  • 10. 3. Make the quotation a part of your own sentence without any punctuation between your own words and the words you are quoting. • Example: In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau states directly his purpose for going into the woods when he says that "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." • Example: Thoreau suggests the consequences of making ourselves slaves to progress when he says that "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us." • Example: Thoreau argues that "shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous." • Example: According to Thoreau, people are too often "thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails." • Notice that the word "that" is used in three of the examples above, and when it is used as it is in the examples, "that" replaces the comma which would be necessary without "that" in the sentence. You usually have a choice, then, when you begin a sentence with a phrase such as "Thoreau says." You either can add a comma after "says" (Thoreau says, "quotation") or you can add the word "that" with no comma (Thoreau says that "quotation.")
  • 11. 4. Use short quotations--only a few words--as part of your own sentence. • Example: In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau states that his retreat to the woods around Walden Pond was motivated by his desire "to live deliberately" and to face only "the essential facts of life." • Example: Thoreau argues that people blindly accept "shams and delusions" as the "soundest truths," while regarding reality as "fabulous." • Example: Although Thoreau "drink[s] at" the stream of Time, he can "detect how shallow it is." • When you integrate quotations in this way, you do not use any special punctuation. Instead, you should punctuate the sentence just as you would if all of the words were your own. No punctuation is needed in the sentences above in part because the sentences do not follow the pattern explained under number 1 and 2 above: there is not a complete sentence in front of the quotations, and a word such as "says," "said," or "asks" does not appear directly in front of the quoted words. • All of the methods above for integrating quotations are correct, but you should avoid relying too much on just one method. You should instead use a variety of methods.