Blending Quotations ________________________________________________________________

The Basics Always integrate quotations into your text. NEVER just “drop” a quotation in your writing! In other words, don’t let a piece of textual evidence stand alone as its own sentence (unless it’s multiple sentences long). Use your own words to introduce a quotation. After a quote, put the author’s name in parenthesis followed by a page number (if given).

How To Improve Blending Quotes Use only the most effective part of the quotation. Maintain a smooth sentence style. Remember to use ellipses if necessary. Remember to use brackets [ ] if you add or change a word. Use signal phrases which precede the quote.

Example from TKAM Original example: Bad example! Why? Mr. Radley is an unattractive man. “He was a thin leathery man with colorless eyes, so colorless they did not reflect light” (Lee 32). Bad example! Why? The quote is just “dropped in.”

Example from TKAM (cont’d) Smoother integration — well blended: Mr. Radley is unattractive, a “thin leathery man with colorless eyes” (Lee 32). Even smoother integration: Harper Lee describes Mr. Radley as “a thin leathery man with colorless eyes…[that] did not reflect light” (32).

Another Example Original: Smoothly blended into sentence: Hemingway hints of a storm on the move. “The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain” (Hemingway 179). Smoothly blended into sentence: A storm approaches the town as “the shadow of a cloud [moves] across the field of grain” (Hemingway 179) and Maggie turns back to the forest.

Using Signal Phrases Ineffective: T.S. Eliot, in his “Talent and the Individual,” uses gender-specific language. “No poet, no artist of any art, has his meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists” (Eliot 29). Why ineffective? the quote is “dropped in.”

Using Signal Phrases Use signal phrases to blend the quote into the sentence, making it read smoothly: T.S. Eliot, in his “Talent and the Individual,” uses gender-specific language. He argues, for instance, that “no poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. [Indeed,] his significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists” (Eliot 29). See how the signal phrase makes the sentence read smoother?