How to Weave Quotations into Your Paper

Tips and Tricks to Weave Quotations into Your Writing

First of all,

you want your quotations to transition neatly into your writing. Each sentence should flow into the next, and quotations should not "stand alone."

How to Choose Quotations/Paraphrases

Here's an example of choppy sentences:

School uniforms decrease violence. "Youths who feel safe, secure, and free from threats of violence perform better academically" (King 32).

To create smooth transitions, ask yourself what the quotation is doing:

• is it supporting you?
• is it offering an example?
• is it offering a different view?

Your transitional phrase should tell the reader what quotation is doing.

Instead, add some transitions and weave the quotation into the writing, like this:

School uniforms decrease violence in schools. Not only that, but students "who feel safe, secure, and free from threats of violence perform better academically" (King 32).

Sometimes a quotation doesn't fit into your writing. Can you change it?

Of course! Changing the quotation can help it weave into your writing better, but there are some rules:

If you need to change a capital letter to a lowercase letter to weave it into the middle of your sentence, use brackets:

Original quotation: "Total home smoking bans were linked to a significant reduction in smoking and successfully quitting."

Changed: In fact, researchers found that "[t]otal home smoking bans were linked to a significant reduction in smoking and successfully quitting" (Lewis 34).

Sometimes you might need to change the tense of the quotation to fit into your writing:

Original text: "The team found that positive messages are better at persuading smokers to quit" (Lewis 33).

Changed: As it turns out, "positive messages [can] persuad[e] smokers to quit" (Lewis 33).

Sometimes you might need add words into the quotation. Whenever you add something to the original text, use a set of brackets:

Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states, "some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning every rumor or tale" (78).

Other times, you might need to cut out extra information from a quotation. In that case, use ellipsis marks, which are three periods preceded and followed by a space :

In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that "some individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale . . . and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs" (78).

Be flexible with your writing!

There are many ways to weave quotations into your writing. Change it up often to keep your writing fresh and interesting!

Precede the quotation with a speech tag including the author's name and title, separated from the quotation with a comma.

John Doe, historian and prolific writer of World War II events, argues that in 1941 "almost all Americans assumed the war would end quickly” (Doe 223).

This not only introduces your source but establishes it as reliable.

In other words, do not choose quotations that offer a main idea in place of your own main idea. Choose a quotation that will support YOUR main idea.

Precede the quotation with a complete sentence that indicates the quotation's message.

Use a colon after the sentence to connect it to the quotation. (If you use just a comma, you have an error known as as "comma splice.")

Here's an example:

John Doe explains why Americans underestimated such a major war: "[A]lmost all Americans assumed the war would end quickly" (Doe 223).

Integrate the quotation within your own sentence structure.

This is frequently the smoothest way to introduce a quotation, and the way that demonstrates most clearly that you understand what you have read and are using it to support your own points, rather than letting what you have read make points for you.

Here's an example:

Americans underestimated World War II because they "assumed the war would end quickly" (Doe 223).

When writing your paper, you want outside sources that will *support* what you are already saying. You do not want the quotation to "speak for you."

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In this example, the quotation helps support the main claim and offers details.

Your quotation could:

• support your points
• help define what you are saying
• help illustrate what you are saying
• offer a counterargument that you could stand against
• help clarify your points by offering specific detail

Let's look at some examples:

Teachers who use media in the classroom help their students not only develop media literacy but also skills in the real world. In her book, Technology and Media in the Early Years, Faith Rogow agrees that "[m]edia literacy education builds on children's natural curiosity, encouraging their questions, [and] helping them learn how to find credible answers."

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This quotation introduces how difficult it might be to take a stand. It could serve as a good intro to a paper about the student's opinion on what caused the Civil War. After this quotation, the student can begin explaining *their* opinion.

Some people assume the Civil War was caused over the North and South's disagreement over slavery, but the root cause is much more complex. Kenneth Stampp identifies "the search for the causes of a great national crisis such as the Civil War [as] one of the most absorbing historical problems" (14). Not only that, but he says "it is also ... exasperating" (14).

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This quotation offers the reader a specific piece of information that might have been unavailable to the writer initially.

California's recent drought is not a new problem. Actually, "[s]ince 1984, the State of California has been in the grip of a severe drought" (Gleik 4).

Now let's look at some other samples and see if we can identify what is wrong with them:

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"Many people believe adoption of school uniform policies will lead to increased school safety, student discipline, and student learning" (King 32). We should make students wear uniforms because there are many benefits.

What's wrong with how this quotation was used?

There were a few things wrong with that example:

• the quotation was speaking FOR the writer.
• the quotation was "standing alone."
• the quotation and the writing was choppy. There were no transitions.

How can we fix it?

(on your handout, let's rewrite these sentences to see if we can fix it)

So you have to write a paper and include outside sources...

If the idea of using outside sources and quotations in your paper seems intimidating, you've come to the right place.

Today we talked about how to weave quotations into your writing, and hopefully you feel more confident about using outside sources.

If you would like more help with weaving quotations into your writing, you can always meet one-on-one with a tutor in the Writing Lab!

Today we will talk about:

• how to gather outside sources for your paper

• how to choose quotations and outside information for your paper

• how and when to weave quotations into your paper

So let's get started!

How to Gather Outside Sources

Once you know your topic and the general direction of your paper, you can begin researching.

Possibly the best resource for students is the online library database system.

Students can access a number of scholarly, peer-reviewed articles, journals, and magazines through Delta College's online database system.

(Let's go online to learn how to access information in our database.)

Take your time to find the right sources

• When looking through the database system, take your time finding just the right source materials. Sometimes you need to narrow or broaden your search terms.

• Read the abstract of the article (if it has one) to determine if it will support your paper. Skim over the article to see if it will fit somehow in your paper.

• Bookmark the articles that you are interested in using.

More Ways to Find Sources

• Some people prefer a tangible source. You can search through your library catalog to find books, magazines, and journals. Often you might find related sources nearby on the library shelves.

• If appropriate to your paper, you can interview credible sources for your paper. If you do, write questions before the interview. During the interview, listen carefully and take good notes. When you use the person's exact words, use quotation marks.

How to Weave Quotations into Your Essay or Research Paper