1. Integrating Quotations into Sentences
Adapted from

2. General Rules
You should never have a quotation standing alone as a complete sentence, or, even worse, as an incomplete sentence, in your writing.
Think of quotations as helium balloons: a quotation that is not “held down” by one of your own sentences will fly away, appearing disconnected from the rest of your writing.
We all know what happens when you let go of a helium balloon: it flies away. In a way, the same thing happens when you present a quotation that is standing all by itself in your writing, a quotation that is not "held down" by one of your own sentences. The quotation will seem disconnected from your own thoughts and from the flow of your sentences.

3. Typical Student Sample
In Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago, the master manipulator and “bad guy,” manipulates Othello into thinking that Desdemona, the daughter of Brabantio, is cheating on Othello with Cassio. “Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio; Wear your eyes thus, not jealous nor secure”( ). In Imagine Dragons “Demons,” he manipulates himself into thinking that what he is thinking and feeling will get better.

4. Typical Student Sample
In Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago, the master manipulator and “bad guy,” manipulates Othello into thinking that Desdemona, the daughter of Brabantio, is cheating on Othello with Cassio. “Look to your wife; observe her well with Cassio; Wear your eyes thus, not jealous nor secure”( ). In Imagine Dragons “Demons,” he manipulates himself into thinking that what he is thinking and feeling will get better.

5. Technique 1:
Introduce the quotation with a complete sentence and a colon.
Example 1: In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau states directly his purpose for going into the woods: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

6. Technique 1:
Introduce the quotation with a complete sentence and a colon.
Example 2: Thoreau ends his essay with a metaphor: "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in."

7. Hint
Using a comma instead of a colon in this situation will most likely create a comma splice!

8. Technique 2:
Use an introductory or explanatory phrase, but not a complete sentence, separated from the quotation with a comma
Example 1: Thoreau asks, "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?"

9. Technique 2:
Use an introductory or explanatory phrase, but not a complete sentence, separated from the quotation with a comma
Example 2: In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau states directly his purpose for going into the woods when he says, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

10. Technique 3:
Make the quotation a part of your own sentence without any punctuation between your own words and the words you are quoting
Example 1: Thoreau argues that "shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous."

11. Technique 3:
Make the quotation a part of your own sentence without any punctuation between your own words and the words you are quoting
Example 2: Thoreau suggests the consequences of making ourselves slaves to progress when he says that "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us."

12. Hint
If you use a “that,” you don’t need a comma before the quotation.

13. Technique 4:
Use short quotations--only a few words--as part of your own sentence
Example 1: Thoreau argues that people blindly accept "shams and delusions" as the "soundest truths," while regarding reality as "fabulous."

14. Technique 4:
Use short quotations--only a few words--as part of your own sentence
Example 2: In "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For," Thoreau states that his retreat to the woods around Walden Pond was motivated by his desire "to live deliberately" and to face only "the essential facts of life.”

15. Hint
The commas and periods go inside the final quotation mark ("like this.").

16. Your task:
In your Othello essay, incorporate at least one example of each of these techniques when it comes to introducing quotations into your sentences.