Conventions of Composition Rule 201

Rule: Although you might be tempted, don't pad your work with unnecessary, nonessential portions of quoted material. Edit flabby quotations down to their shiny bones: the “money” words or phrases within a longer quotation that BEST support your claim. Extraneous words only obscure the thrust of your argument, and, after all, it's your essay, not Hawthorne's or Shakespeare’s or Morrison’s, so be greedy and guard your own air-time. When you do quote evidence, the quotations should be embedded into your own writing, worded so that the quotation flows from your own sentence. Because you will use quotations in your writing to support an assertion, you should precede a quotation with context and follow it with analysis (meaning a quotation should neither begin nor end a body paragraph). Sentences of analysis should not begin with the words, "This quotation shows" because obviously the quotation shows something or you wouldn't be using it; instead, begin your analysis. 

Note 1: If you need to change a quotation so that it makes sense with surrounding text, enclose added words in square brackets. You may omit words in the exact location of the square-bracketed words. If you need to omit other words, insert ellipses. You do not need to insert ellipses at the beginning or end of a quotation.

Note 2: One common mistake students make when writing about texts is that they refer to the quotation as if it comes from a book. Even though all of the quotations clearly do come from books, you should talk about them as if they come from the story of somebody’s life. One test to see if you’re doing it right: Read your writing aloud. Does it sound as though you’re talking about a book or about real people? Go for the latter. More on this in rule 202.

Examples:

Wrong: This quotation shows Sula’s fierce desire to live life on her own terms. “Yes. But my lonely is mine. Now your lonely is somebody else’s. Made by somebody else and handed to you. Ain’t that something? A second hand lonely.” 

Okay: As Sula lies dying, she expresses her fierce desire to live life on her own terms when she says, “Yes. But my lonely is mine. Now your lonely is somebody else’s. Made by somebody else and handed to you. Ain’t that something? A second hand lonely.”

BEST: As Sula lies dying, she expresses her fierce desire to live life on her own terms by proclaiming that her “lonely is [hers]...[not made] by somebody else and handed to [her as a] second hand lonely.”

Wrong: Ruth Hale says, “Nobody knows Zeena’s thoughts;” this quote shows that Zeena is a mysterious woman because her thoughts remain impenetrable (178).

Okay: Ruth Hale saying that “Nobody knows Zeena’s thoughts” depicts Zeena as a mysterious woman because her thoughts remain impenetrable (178).

BEST: Zeena remains mysteriously impenetrable because “[n]obody knows [her] thoughts” (178).

Practice integrating these quotations into the correct context:

1. Krakauer tells how McCandless's story ends when he talks about what they found four months later: "Four months later his decomposed body was found by a party of moose hunters."

2. Lizzy's first refusal comes when she talks about Darcy's proposals to him for the first time and feels the honour (British spelling) of the fact that he asked her, but she declines by saying, "I am very sensible of the honour of your proposals, but it is impossible for me to do otherwise than decline them."

3. This is what happens. "Arthur's house had settled into a steady routine. It was Arthur's accepted role to lie squelching in the mud making occasional demands to see his lawyer, his mother or a good book; it was Mr. Prosser's accepted role to tackle Arthur with the occasional new ploy such as the For the Public Good talk, or the March of Progress talk, the They Knocked My House Down Once You Know, Never Looked Back talk and various other cajoleries and threats."

Resources for further explanation on integrating quotations:

UW-Madison's The Writing Center's Integrating Quotes from a Literary Text

Ashford University's Guidelines for Incorporating Quotes

The Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill's Quotations