Blending Quotations ________________________________________________________________

The Basics To make your writing clear and easy to read always integrate (blend) 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 multiple-sentence quotations sparingly. Use your own words to introduce a quotation.

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. –Ellipses allow you to drop superfluous words and phrases … Remember to use brackets [ ] if you add or change a word. Use signal phrases which precede the quote.

Example from To Kill a Mockingbird. Original example: –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) Original — unblended: –Mr. Radley is an unattractive man. “He was a thin leathery man with colorless eyes, so colorless they did not reflect light” (Lee 32). Smoother integration — well blended: –Mr. Radley is unattractive, a “thin leathery man with colorless eyes” (Lee 32). –The part about his eyes is omitted. Even smoother integration: –Harper Lee describes Mr. Radley as “a thin leathery man with colorless eyes…[that] did not reflect light” (Lee 32).

Another Example Original: –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” and Maggie turns back to the forest (Hemingway 179).

Using Signal Phrases Ineffective: –T.S. Eliot, in his “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” 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). The signal phrase makes the sentence flow more smoothly?

Student Examples from Night Timed Writing Original: –Now, as Rabbi Eliahu searches hopelessly for a son of his whom had abandoned him, Elie renounces his faith completely. “And in spite of myself, a prayer formed inside of me, a prayer to this God in whom I no longer believed” (Wiesel 91). A suggested revision: –Now, as Rabbi Eliahu searches hopelessly for a son of his whom had abandoned him, “a prayer formed inside [Elie]…to this God…in whom [he] no longer believed,” and he renounces his faith completely (Wiesel 91).

Your Turn…

More Student Examples Original: –Night also represents the fire that killed so many people. “And just as the train stopped, this time we saw flames rising from a chimney into a dark sky” (Wiesel 28). A suggested revision: –Wiesel suggests night represents death by fire as he and other passengers witness “flames rising from a chimney into a dark sky” which are no doubt burning people alive (Wiesel 28).

More Student Examples Original: –You start to see this fairly early in the book. “What had happened to me? My father had been struck in front of me, and I had not even blinked” (Wiesel 39). A suggested revision: –Elie is disgusted with himself when his father is beaten right “in front of [him], and [he] had not even blinked” (Wiesel 39). He begins to question his own values as his concern for his father appears to decrease.

More Student Examples Original: –Through out the book, most of the killings or horrible events, including Elie, occur during the night. “They must of taken him away before daybreak and taken him to the crematorium” (Wiesel 112). A suggested revision: –Throughout the book, many horrible events including the killings occur during the night. Indeed, Wiesel tells of a man “taken…away before daybreak… to the crematorium” (Wiesel 112).