QUOTATION BLENDING

Use Quotations when another writer’s words can say something better than you. you want to add authority to your paper. Basically, you are providing proof that what you are arguing is true. Don’t use quotations to repeat basic plot information. If you can paraphrase something without losing any meaning or depth, then it is better to paraphrase.

Incorrect Mr. Radley is an unattractive man. “He was a thin leathery man with colorless eyes, so colorless they did not reflect light.”

Better Mr. Radley is an unattractive man: a “thin leathery man with colorless eyes.”

Best Harper Lee describes Mr. Radley as “a thin leathery man with colorless eyes…[that] did not reflect light.”

Tricks Use ellipsis (…) marks when you want to quote the beginning and end of a passage but not its middle. Use brackets [ ] to signal that you made an adjustment to the original quote in order to blend it into your writing. If you begin your quotation in the middle of a sentence, you need not indicate deleted words with an ellipsis.

Quotation in the middle of a sentence When Dill flees the courtroom because Mr. Gilmer is “talking so hateful to [Tom Robinson],” he is sickened by people’s hatred and the injustice of Tom’s predicament.

Quotation at the end of a sentence Dill’s trauma is further shown in his desire to be a “clown…[and] stand in the middle of the ring and laugh at the folks.”

Quotation divided by your own words “I destroyed [Bob Ewell’s] last shred of credibility at that trial,” Atticus reflects solemnly, “if he had any to begin with.”

Activity Idea: Scout is no longer childlike and trusting. Quote: “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” Middle of Sentence End of the Sentence Divided by your own words

Middle of Sentence When Scout realizes “Tom was dead the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed,” she is no longer childlike and trusting (Lee 241).

End of Sentence Scout is no longer childlike and trusting once she realizes “Tom was dead the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (Lee 241).

Divided by writer’s own words “Tom was a dead man,” Scout pessimistically realizes, “the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (Lee 241).