1. Integrating quotations
Tips on how to integrate textual support smoothly into your own writing

2. What works?
INEFFECTIVE
Rodriguez writes, “My parents, who are no longer my parents in a cultural sense.” He expresses the alienation from his family that has resulted from his assimilation into English-speaking American culture.
EFFECTIVE
Rodriguez describes his parents as “no longer [his] parents in a cultural sense” to express the alienation from his family that has resulted from his assimilation into English-speaking American culture.

3. What Works? (continued)
INEFFECTIVE
de Crevecoeur argues that poor Europeans have no real attachment to their homelands. “Can a wretch who wanders about, who works and starves, whose life is a continual scene of sore affliction or pinching penury; can that man call England or any other kingdom his country?”
EFFECTIVE
de Crevecoeur criticizes the lack of social mobility in Europe using a biting rhetorical question: “Can a wretch who wanders about, who works and starves, whose life is a continual scene of sore affliction or pinching penury; can that man call England or any other kingdom his country?”

4. Options for Integrating Quotations: Incorporate
Incorporate the quotation into your sentence, punctuating it as you would if it were not a quotation.
Mukherjee argues in favor of an acculturation model “that differs from both the enforced assimilation of a ‘melting pot’ and the Canadian model of a multicultural ‘mosaic’”(4).

5. Options for Integrating Quotations: Incorporate
If you must change an element within the quote to make it work grammatically, use brackets to indicate the change.
Rodriguez describes his parents as “no longer [his] parents in a cultural sense” to express the alienation from his family that has resulted from his assimilation into English-speaking American culture.

6. Using incorporation with quote ‘sprinkling’ (less is more)
Incorporate words and phrases from a quote into your commentary - not the whole quote
-use this most often!
de Crevecoeur questions the ability of a European peasant, a “wretch , who works and starves,” whose meager existence is characterized by “sore affliction” and “pinching penury,” to feel any sort of patriotism or affection toward his homeland.

7. Options for Integrating Quotations: Attribute
Introduce a full-sentence quotation by using an attributive speech tag like “he writes,” “she claims,” and so on.
Jacob Needleman claims, “A dream is a vision or truth, of what can be and ought to be, and a dream is a deception.”
Elaine Pagels asks, “Whom do we include in the ‘American Dream’?”

8. Options for Integrating Quotations: a cautionary note
Do NOT use an attributive speech tag like “he writes,” “she claims,” “she argues,” “he asserts,” etc. to introduce a quote that is NOT a complete sentence.
INCORRECT: Rodriguez writes, “My parents, who are no longer my parents in a cultural sense.”
ALSO INEFFECTIVE: Rodriguez writes, “My parents, who are no longer my parents in a cultural sense” in order to express the loss of family intimacy.

9. Options for Integrating Quotations: Colon quote
Use a full sentence of your own to introduce a full sentence by the quoted author.
You must use a colon to introduce the quotation in this case.
Jacob Needleman says it best: “A dream is a vision or truth, of what can be and ought to be, and a dream is a deception.”

10. Options for Integrating Quotations: Colon or comma?
Jacob Needleman says it best: “A dream is a vision or truth, of what can be and ought to be, and a dream is a deception.”
Underlined portion = a complete sentence; introduce quote with colon
Jacob Needleman says, “A dream is a vision or truth, of what can be and ought to be, and a dream is a deception.”
Underlined portion = a fragment; introduce quote with comma
AP English Language and Composition: Glass

11. Punctuation Rules: The Basics
Capitalize the first letter of any complete sentence you quote unless you introduce it with “that.”
In describing the New World, de Crevecoeur claimed, “The rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe” (1).
de Crevecoeur claimed that the “rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe” (1).
de Crevecoeur claimed that “[t]he rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as they are in Europe” (1).
AP English Language and Composition: Glass

12. Punctuation Rules: The Basics (continuted)
If the quotation is broken into two parts, do not capitalize the first letter of the second part.
“Can a wretch who wanders about, who works and starves, ” de Crevecoeur inquires, “can that man call England or any other kingdom his country?”

13. Punctuation Rules: Commas and Periods
Commas and periods go within closing quotation marks, EXCEPT when a parenthetical reference follows the quotation.
Jacob Needleman said, “A dream is a vision or truth, of what can be and ought to be, and a dream is a deception.”
In her essay, Dr. Linguist notes, "The gestures used for greeting others differ greatly from one culture to another” (3).

14. Punctuation Rules: Question Marks, Exclamation Points, and Dashes
If a question mark, exclamation point, or dash is part of the original quotation, place it within the closing quotation mark.
Elaine Pagels asks, “Whom do we include in the ‘American Dream’ ?” (5).

15. Punctuation Rules: Question Marks, Exclamation Points, and Dashes
If a question mark, exclamation point, or dash is part of your sentence that includes the quotation, place it outside of the closing quotation mark.  
Do other columnists agree with David Brooks’ claim that “maximum status goes to the Gladwellian heroes who occupy the convergence points of the Internet ecosystem” (2)?

16. Block Quotes: 4+ Lines
Begin quote as a new line of text.
Indent 1” from left margin.
No quotation marks
Parenthetical citation goes outside final punctuation within quote.
In his poem “The Problem," Ralph Waldo Emerson explores the inner philosophical struggle of a religious yet unorthodox man:
I like a church;I like a cowl;
I love a prophet of the soul;
And on my heart monastic aisles
Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles:
Yet not for all his faith can see
Would I that cowlëd churchman be. (1-7)