Integrating Quotes

Why use quotations? When choosing quotations for a literary analysis paper, remember the purpose of quoting. Your paper develops your claim/thesis. You use quotations from your text to support that very argument; that is, you select, present, and discuss material from the text specifically to prove your point – to make your case. Quoting for any other purpose is counterproductive.

Quoting, Summarizing, or Paraphrasing? Summarize or paraphrase material when it is not so much the language of the text that justifies your position, but the substance or content.

Quoting Selectively Quote ONLY the portions of the text specifically relevant to your point. Use ONLY what you need. If it is particular words or phrases that prove your point, you do not need to quote the entire sentence they appear in.

An introducing phrase plus the quotation: Quote from the book: “Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering” (114-115). How to write it in your paper: Golding illustrates how savagery can overcome anyone when Ralph enters the play after the boar hunt and is “fighting to get near [Robert], to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh” (114-115).

An assertion of your own and a colon plus the quotation: Quote from the book: “Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering” (114-115). How to write it in your paper: Savagery has even begun to overtake Ralph: “The desire to squeeze and hurt was over- mastering” (114-115).

An assertion of your own with quoted material worked in: Quote from the book: “Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering” (114-115). How to write it in your paper: Savage urges have even overtaken Ralph and he finds himself “fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh,” and even more horrific, discovers that “the desire to squeeze and hurt was over- mastering” (114-115).

Structure of your body paragraph (5-7 sentences) Topic sentence Evidence or Data this is your quote, paraphrase, or summary from LOTF Elaboration on your evidence This is also called your “reason” or “warrant” It’s your justification as to why your quote proves Golding’s theme Transition into next paragraph

Example body paragraph By the middle of the book, savagery has even overtaken rational-thinking Ralph. When he participates in the boar hunt, Ralph is overtaken by his primal urges and finds himself “fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh,” and even more horrific, discovers that “the desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering” (114-115). At this point, he has become consumed by the same compulsions that have engulfed Jack and his hunters: to hurt, to draw blood, to kill. Golding uses the example of Ralph to illustrate how savagery will overcome even the most sane of people when they are exposed to conditions outside of their normal, civilized world, leading them to do unthinkable things. (needs a transition to next par.)