quote integration ms. howell’s guide to providing solid evidence and commentary
TRANSCRIPT
QUOTE INTEGRATION
Ms. Howell’s Guide to Providing Solid Evidence
and Commentary
BASIC IDEAS
In literary analysis, quotes are the lifeblood of the
piece. Without evidence, there is no real argument.
Without an argument there is no essay.
Although you need quotes as evidence, you don’t
simply slap them into the paper and call it good. You
have to both grammatically and thematically
incorporate them into your paper.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Don’t leave a quote hanging. It needs to be incorporated
grammatically into the sentence that it accompanies.
Sometimes you have to alter a quote a little in order to
make it fit grammatically into a sentence. If you don’t, it
throws the reader off.
Don’t include bits of the quote you don’t plan to use.
Don’t exclude bits of the quote that are ESSENTIAL to your
paper.
HOW DO I DO THIS?!
For starters, don’t panic.
There are a number of
strategies available to help
you integrate quotes
seamlessly so that you don’t
end up with a paper that
looks like Robert De Niro
over here.
QUOTE INTEGRATION TECHNIQUES
PUNCTUATION IS YOUR FRIEND
In cases where you are connecting a quote to a
introductory clause, you can incorporate the quote
by using some form of punctuation.
The punctuation mark you use largely depends on
the length, content, and context of the quote and the
text that precedes it.
Very often you can use this technique to seamlessly
incorporate your quote.
YOUR THREE BFFS
The comma, semi-colon, and the colon can be
veritable lifesavers when it comes to quotations.
Bear in mind that the standard grammar rules for
each of these bad boys remains the same, so you
have to be careful of how you integrate your quotes
so that you don’t unwittingly create fragments or
run-ons.
EXAMPLE: COMMA
As Walton clearly indicates, “Strange and harrowing
must be his story, frightful the storm which
embraced the gallant vessel on its course and
wrecked it—thus!” (Shelley 29)
EXAMPLE: SEMI-COLON
Frankenstein’s misfortune is alluded to early on as
Walton compares the poor man to a ship destroyed
by the storms it has weathered; “Strange and
harrowing must be his story, frightful the storm
which embraced the gallant vessel on its course and
wrecked it—thus!” (Shelley 29)
EXAMPLE: COLON
As Walton foreshadows Frankenstein’s fate, the
reader clearly sees that there are only remnants of
the greatness that Victor once had, and that he has
descended into irreparable desolation: “Strange and
harrowing must be his story, frightful the storm
which embraced the gallant vessel on its course and
wrecked it—thus!” (Shelley 29)
OTHER ISSUES
When Quotes Get Out of Hand
ALTERING THE QUOTE
Sometimes a quote needs to be altered in some
way in order to make it fit grammatically into your
sentence.
Normally you can fix this problem by using
brackets to indicate parts of the text you have
altered.
In other places, it may make sense to cut out
sections of the text that you may not need.
EXAMPLE QUOTE
“Now I am twenty-eight and am in reality more
illiterate than many schoolboys of fifteen. It is true
that I have thought more and that my daydreams are
more extended and magnificent, but they want (as
the painters call it) keeping; and I greatly need a
friend who would have sense enough not to despise
me as romantic, and affection enough for me to
endeavor to regulate my mind” (Shelley 19).
WHY IT NEEDS REDUCTIONS
While the quote is lovely and detailed, you may not
need all of it to make your point. If you include a
huge quotation, the assumption of the reader is that
you will discuss ALL of it, and not merely one part.
If you only need to discuss one or two ideas in the
quote, then it is completely reasonable to only
include those ideas. This will, of course, require that
you pare the quote down to the most important
pieces.
OMITTING TEXT: EXAMPLE
As Walton indicates to his sister, “…I greatly need a
friend who would have sense enough not to despise
me as romantic, and affection enough for me to
endeavor to regulate my mind” (Shelley 29). This
need for companionship clearly illustrates that
Walton cannot feel completely at ease without
someone to affirm his own ambitions. But these
ambitions are tied to “romantic” notions which,
while admirable, are perhaps irrational.
OMITTING TEXT: EXAMPLE 2
Walton often comments about his lack of
companionship, often indicating that he needs
someone to share in the “romantic” notions he wants
to pursue: “…I greatly need a friend who would have
sense enough not to despise me as romantic, and
affection enough for me to endeavor to regulate my
mind” (Shelley 29).
ALTERING/IMBEDDING QUOTES
Sometimes it will make more sense to incorporate
the quote by imbedding it into the rest of your
sentence. Depending on what precedes or follows
the quote, you may need to grammatically alter the
quote so that it fits in with the rest of the sentence.
Otherwise, you will have an incorrect sentence.
BRACKETS ARE YOUR FRIEND
When Walton discusses his lack of companionship,
he mentions that “…[he] greatly [needs] a friend who
would have sense enough not to despise [him] as
romantic, and affection enough for [him] to endeavor
to regulate [his] mind”(Shelley 19).
The bracketed words indicate places where the
text has been altered to make it fit the sentence.
Specifically, I have changed all first person pronouns
to third person, and only altered one verb.
WHY THIS IS LEGAL
In academic writing, brackets simply tell your
reader that the original text is written differently
from the quote you provided. As such, you are still
paying homage to the original writer’s ideas, but
with a slight variation to make it fit your purposes in
terms of grammar/emphasis.
WHAT NOT TO DO WITH BRACKETS
You should only use brackets to grammatically
alter a text, as in the example I gave you where I
simply switched pronouns.
You should never use brackets to thematically
change the text, or “tweak it” to make it say what it
does not say.
While most readers may not see the distinction, a
professor who knows her stuff will be able to call
bullsh*!.
WORD FROM THE WISE
I got my degree in
this stuff, so I
know categorical
bull when I see it.
Don’t try me.
ELLIPSES…
The same basic rules behind brackets also apply
for the our friend the ellipsis (…).
When you use ellipses, you are indicating that you
are purposely leaving out a section of the text. As
such, it is implied that there was more to it than you
are using.
It is also not an excuse to alter the overall meaning
of the text.
POHLMANN METHOD
If you are familiar with what I term the “Pohlmann
Method” of quote integration, it also works in these
cases.
There are, of course, some caveats to the method
in my opinion, and integrating quotes this way can
sometimes cause more confusion than clarity.
If you are not familiar with Pohlmann’s style, no
worries.
MS. HOWELL’S ISSUES
From what I’ve “seen,” “Pohlmann’s method” lends “itself to creating” “choppy incorporation of” quotes. Very often, I “have found” that students abuse “this method” as a way of “making it look like they are using evidence” whereas, “in fact”, they are just taking up space.
As such, while many students think that this method shows that they are effectively using evidence, for the most part I only see what was supposed to be a full idea.
Also, the sheer amount of quotation marks is a bit distracting.
WHEN IT WORKS
Pohlmann Method works best when you need to
integrate shorter quotations whilst keeping them
grammatically within a single sentence.
It also works well if you are using evidence that
comes from two different sentences in the text, and
you want to integrate them to show their thematic
significance.
WHEN IT DOESN’T WORK
Um, look at the example on from two slides ago. If your
evidence looks like this, it’s quite likely that you are ABUSING
the method.
While I have no problem with lifting small portions of text, I do
take issue with splitting a unified idea into fifteen different
pieces. In those cases, the full quote itself would be better.
For the most part, I feel that it is better to give the full quote,
and then break it down into shorter bits that are part of your
analysis.
FOR YOUR REFERENCE
Attached to the class website is Dr. P’s explanation
of how to integrate quotes PROPERLY, so check it
out for further practical examples.
That’s all for now.