…or how to get an A without plagiarizing Embedding Quotes …or how to get an A without plagiarizing

Particularly when quoting literature, using the most effective part of a quotation as part of one of your own sentences will result in a stronger style (and a better grade).

William Golding's book Lord of the Flies is about kids stranded on an island.  Some of the kids are good and some are bad. “Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever" (Golding 180).  So the reader might ask what causes irresponsible behavior?  Ralph is good, but Jack is bad. Eh….not so hot…………..

There are bad kids on the island. This is grammatically correct……but… There are bad kids on the island. One of them is Roger. He drops a boulder on Piggy and kills him. “Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever” (Golding 180). This caused Piggy’s death.

Much more like what you should be doing………….. The truest form of wickedness on the island is evident in Roger. He demonstrates his true depravity when, “with a sense of delirious abandonment, [he] leaned all his weight on the lever” (Golding 180). Well aware of Piggy’s place beneath him, Roger willingly takes Piggy’s life.

Gets an A+………………… Roger’s murder of Piggy clearly illustrates the depths children can sink to without appropriate supervision. As he stood high above Piggy on the mountain, “Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever” (Golding 180). His willingness to welcome the moment with “delirious abandonment” clearly demonstrates the level of pleasure that Roger received by committing this horrific act.

Weak: To describe Arnold Friend, Oates says, “He spoke in a simple lilting voice, exactly as if he were reciting the words to a song” (1057).

Better: Oates describes Arnold Friend’s voice as “lilting…as if he were reciting the words to a song” (1057).

Good points but not properly expressed: We can tell that Lennie is like a child because he is always doing the same thing that George is doing like on page 4 where is says “Lennie who had been watching and imitating George exactly.” This shows that George is a role model for Lennie.

Same points but expressed better: We can tell that Lennie is like a child because he is always doing the same thing that George is doing. For example, when Lennie and George are sitting near the creek in Chapter One, Lennie watches closely and “imitated George exactly” (Steinbeck 8). This action shows that George is a role model for Lennie, even for the simplest things.

Using point/quote/discuss properly and embedding quotes: The reader can tell that George is important to Lennie because he looks up to him and models his behavior on George’s actions. For example, when they are sitting near the creek at the beginning of Chapter One, Lennie is watching George closely and “imitated George exactly.” When George, feeling angry and frustrated, “explodes” at him, “ ‘God amighty, if I was alone I could live so easy’ ” Lennie’s face is “drawn with terror”—he cannot bear George to be angry with him (Steinbeck 8).

Catch-22………. Guilt is a theme visible in Catch-22, but the reader finds that guilt is not always needed. For example, Yossarian could not have helped Snowden in his hour of need. Heller illustrates Snowden’s “secret” when he writes that when a man is dropped “out a window…he’ll fall. Set fire to him and he’ll burn. Bury him and he’ll rot, like other kinds of garbage” (450). It is only human nature to feel guilt when one takes the blame for an incident, even if it is not his fault. Human emotion is a strong feeling that can plague one person for years after an incident.