Using QuotationsEffectively

Designed By:

Hollye Wright and Leslie Harper

Using Quotes as Evidence

An example from Brenda Spatt’s Writing from Sources:

For example, the only quotation in a New York Times article describing the political and economic chaos in Bolivia presents the opinion of a government official:

Even the government acknowledges its shaky position. “The policy is unstable, capricious and chaotic,” Adolfo Linares Arraya, Minister of Planning and Coordination, said.

Adding to the ConversationFor example, in the following passage the author wants

to acknowledge what a previous author has said on the subject and add to the conversation.

Kamowski points out that the church contemporary with Chaucer produced “fake” miracles. As he argues, we have a “contrast of ancient scenes of moral victory against contemporary scenes of moral failure” (11). By taking Kamowski’s argument one step farther it is possible to suggest that the romance structure of this tale also mirrors the desire to return to the old church because…

Treating Sources Fairly

Follow the principle of charity: be careful not to distort or over-simplify another writer’s work (Ramage, Bean, and Johnson 128), and never frame a quote in a way that gives it a different meaning than what the author originally intended.

Quoting Accurately

“Don’t make minor changes or carelessly leave words out, but faithfully transcribe the exact words, the exact spelling, and the exact punctuation that you find in the original” (Spatt 108).

An example from Brenda Spatt’s Writing from Sources:

OriginalThose who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those

who steal from the public purse. Adlai Stevenson

Inexact QuotationAdlai Stevenson believed that “those who act against the

public interest are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse.”

Exact QuotationAdlai Stevenson believed that “those who corrupt the mind

are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse.”

Quoting TechnicalitiesAdding to or altering a quote:When quoting other sources, you want to “draw [the reader’s]

attention not to the texts you’re quoting but to the work you’re doing with those texts” (Harris 20).

In this example, [the reader’s] replaces the vague pronoun “their.”

Signaling the reader that you are aware of spelling or grammar mistakes in the quote:

Richard Farson points out that “increased understanding and concern has [sic] not been coupled with increased rights” (Spatt 109).

Deleting words from a quote:

When using ellipses, “you should be guided by . . . fairness to the author quoted and the grammatical integrity of your writing” (Gibaldi 114).

Quoting a statement that already includes a quote:

Brenda Spatt illustrates how to integrate a quote into a sentence: “Thoreau warned his readers to ‘beware of all enterprises that require new clothes’” (101).

Introducing a Quote

• When quoting another source, you want to introduce the quotation, not drop it in without warning. There are many ways to set up a quote. For example, you can talk about the author and his/her expertise or discuss the publication the quote came from.

• The first time you refer to a source you should use the author’s full name. If you refer to the same author multiple times, use the last name after the first occurrence.

• To quote a sentence or more, you can introduce the quote followed by a colon or comma.

• You don’t have to quote an entire sentence. To quote a word or phrase, just place the quote where it fits smoothly into your sentence. Remember to use quotation marks and cite the source appropriately.

• In some disciplines, including English, writers conventionally use the historical present tense when introducing another source (i.e. Chaucer writes rather than Chaucer wrote).

Works CitedGibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of

Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003.

Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts. Logan: Utah State UP, 2006.

Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings. 8th ed. New York: Longman, 2010.

Spatt, Brenda. Writing from Sources. 7th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.

Quotation Exercise

Using the 3 negative and 3 positive reviews ofthe cultural artifact you have chosen to evaluate:

1. Identify material (from each source) that you might want to quote in your essay.

2. Craft one possible way that you can use this material in your essay. This includes introducing the quote and commenting on how it fits with your argument.