Integrating Quotations

    Quotations illustrate and support arguments.

The 3 ways to use quotations.

     Drop-in: (AKA lonely, naked): This quotation appears in its own sentence without any context or interpretation. Sentences before and after are isolated, so they can’t give context. Because the quotation is on its own, the reader may freely interpret it, making it useless as support.

•  “He thinks a complicated murder scheme which baffles the lazy reader, who won’t be bothered itemizing the details, will also baffle the police, whose business is with details.”

• What does the quote mean? Is it all necessary? Who is ‘he’? What is the essay writer’s point?

Introduced: Introduced quotes have a short phrase to give context or identify the speaker. Sciences favor these as they are more interested in the source and authority of the quotation than the essay writer’s words.

• Chandler states, “[mystery writers] [think] a complicated murder scheme which baffles the lazy reader, who won’t be bothered itemizing the details, will also baffle the police, whose business is with details.”

• We know what Chandler thinks about mystery writers and complicated murders.

• We do not know the essay writer’s point.

Integrated: Integrated quotations blend the support for an argument with the actual argument. They are the preferred form of quotation for argumentative essays.

• Complicated murder schemes are the easiest to solve by the police “whose business is with details” and will go about “itemizing the details” methodically to deduce the murderer (Chandler).
  • The argument is about how easy it is for police to solve complicated murders.
  • The quotations are short and simply support the argument’s position.
  • Because the quote is integrated with the argument, there is no other way to interpret the quote.

How to Integrate Quotations

• Have an argument: above, the argument is Complicated murder schemes are the easiest to solve by the police. Prove the statement with support.
  • ONLY quote when you need to support an argument.

• Only quote what you absolutely need to in order to make your point. Long quotes add clutter.

• Understand the quotes: Make sure you know what they can actually support.

• Use verbs and other words that show causal relationship:
  •  demonstrate, cause, show, suggest, illustrate, because, since, etc.

Using Brackets

Use brackets to show words in the quotation have been changed from the original quotation. Change words to make your argument and quotation flow together.

• POV: Quotations need to be entirely objective, so remove all 1^st and 2^nd person pronouns.
• Explanation: Replace pronouns when it is unclear who (or what) they refer to.
• Verbs: Verbs must match the tense of your essay and agree with changed pronouns.

     Do not replace whole phrases in brackets. Each word changed must get its own pair of bracket.

• Wrong: “It is not a very fragrant world, but it is the world you live in”
  • What is ‘it’? The pronoun is ambiguous so I don’t know what’s being talked about.
  • Using 2^nd person makes an assumption about me. I don’t live in this world, so I can disregard what this statement says simply because it doesn’t apply to me.

• Right: “[The mean streets] [are] not a very fragrant world, but it is the world [people] live in”
  • The ambiguous ‘it’ has been replaced with specific nouns, and the verb has changed to match.
  • The ‘you’ is now ‘people’ applying the statement to a broader population.

Using Ellipses ( . . . )

Ellipses show words have been removed from a quotation as the extra words detract from the meaning. Arguments with integrated quotations are best when kept  to one sentence, two at the most.

• Only use ellipses to show words missing from the middle of a quotation.

• Do not use an ellipsis at the beginning or end of a quotation.

• DO NOT CHANGE THE QUOTE’S MEANING. It’s wrong and a form of plagiarism.

• “A complicated murder scheme which baffles the lazy reader . . . will also baffle the police.”

• The quote’s meaning has changed even though the words haven’t.

• Example: “The realist in murder writes of a world . . . where no man can walk down a dark street in safety because law and order are things [people] talk about but refrain from practicing.”

Block Quotes

     Block quotes are long quotations (more than 4 lines) useful for explaining something very technical, or where all of the original author’s words are necessary to the point. However, most of the time block quotes:

• Take up space (popular among students)
• End up summarizing instead of supporting.
• Lose readers to the original point to be supported.
• Require too much explanation to be useful.

If you must use a block quote (it’s very rare that you must), it takes special formatting.

• Double indent from left and no quotation marks.

     The realist in murder writes of a world in which gangsters can rule nations and almost rule cities, in which hotels and apartment houses and celebrated restaurants are owned by men who made their money out of brothels, in which a screen star can be the fingerman for a mob, and the nice man down the hall is a boss of the numbers racket; a world where a judge with a cellar full of bootleg liquor can send a man to jail for having a pint in his pocket, where the mayor of your town may have condoned murder as an instrument of moneymaking, where no man can walk down a dark street in safety because law and order are things we talk about but refrain from practicing.

• Break up blocks with ellipses or your own words.
  • “The realist in murder writes of a world” where “law and order are things [people] talk about but refrain from practicing.”

Quotation Mechanics

     All capitalization and punctuation belong to you because it is your sentence in your essay.

• Capitalization: Capitalize the quotation as if it were not in quotation marks: First word of your sentence and proper names are capitalized, but nothing else.
  • Murder requires a corrupt world where “law and order are things [people] talk about but refrain from practicing” (Chandler).
• Punctuation: In the example above, there is no comma before or at the end of the quotation.
• Question marks: Change question marks to periods when using quotes to support arguments.
• Exclamations: Change exclamation points to periods. Arguments are about logic and reason, not excitement.

Common Mistakes

• Repetition: Instead of making an argument, you repeat and summarize the quote.
  • Chandler points out that the world is unpleasant, but it’s the world people live when he says “[The mean streets] [are] not a very fragrant world, but it is the world [people] live in”
• Too little. One and two word quotations don’t have enough material to convince the reader.
  • Chandler points out that it’s not a “fragrant world” where mobsters are in charge and people live.
• Exchanges: Back and forth dialogue exchanges between characters are confusing and only summarize.
  • Carmen Sternwood isn’t very bright since she doesn’t understand what Marlowe says. “You’re making fun of me.” “Uh-uh.” “What?”