1. How to Quote a Quote

2. First, let me ask you this? Does this cake look good to you?

3. So, why did you say, “No”?
You wouldn’t eat the ingredients of a cake one-by one.
All the ingredients must be blended together.
Quoted material must be blended into the entire “cake,” as well.
You must use punctuation to connect each quote to the idea it follows.

4. How would you add this support?
We were like some family on a TV commercial, with names like Myrtle and Fred. I could just hear us striking up a conversation about air fresheners.
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver

5. All quotes must connect to what comes before
All quotes must connect to what comes before. In a paper, you might state the following:
Taylor begins to experience some frustration when she thinks that Lou Ann is trying to force her to play a traditional domestic role: “ We were like some family on a TV commercial, with names like Myrtle and Fred. I could just hear us striking up a conversation about air fresheners” (88).
Please notice the placement of the punctuation and page number.
Notice also the “connection” punctuation. What has been used?
Notice also the use of PRESENT TENSE.

6. How would you add this support?
I walk down the hall, past the laundry room, and into the family room. I close the door behind me, muffling the rumbling of the small shoes in the dryer.
“Where were you?” my mother says.
“In the bathroom,” I say.
“Hmph,” she says.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers

7. How to Add It All Your support might look like this:
The novel begins with muffled sound and with what appears to be a typical uncommunicative conversation between a parent and child:
I walk down the hall, past the laundry room, and into the family
room. I close the door behind me, muffling the rumbling of the small shoes in the dryer.
“Where were you?” my mother says.
“In the bathroom,” I say.
“Hmph,” she says. (1)
If you have a longer quote, or one with dialogue layers, indent 10 spaces and keep the punctuation the same as it appears in the actual work itself. Notice the colon, however.

8. Notice how this rule changes when you decide to use less of the text.
The novel begins with muffled sound and with what appears to be a typical uncommunicative conversation between a parent and child: “ I close the door behind me, muffling the rumbling of the small shoes in the dryer. ‘Where were you?’ my mother says” (1).

9. What You Need to Know
Essentially, you will need to know just these few rules in order to use support quotes from any text.
Remember, though, that quoted material is to be used as SUPPORT ONLY. Do not present the quoted material first and then “explain it.”
Do not begin or end a paragraph with a quote.