1. Using Quotations Effectively

2. Why Quote?

3. What are some general rules? Try not to begin a paragraph with a quotation. Use a topic sentence. Use a signal phrase to incorporate the quotation into your paragraph. A quotation cannot stand by itself. Use proper formatting: in your English classes, you will use the MLA (Modern Language Association) citation style—we will discuss this format today.

4. What are some reasons for not beginning a paragraph with a quotation?

5. Beginning with a topic sentence, and not a quotation, allows you to point out the specific part of your thesis that the paragraph will address.

6. Similarly, when you are ready to provide a quotation in your paragraph, a signal phrase helps point your reader to the specific context of the quotation and can help announce why the quotation supports your discussion.

7. What is a signal phrase? A signal phrase gives a few words of your own to “signal” or point to the quotation you are using. A signal phrase can identify the speaker in the quotation, the text’s author, and/or give the quotation’s context. Signal phrases may come before the quotation, interrupt it, or follow it.

8. Examples (signal phrase is in bold) When contemplating the relationship between people and their poets, Angelou asserts, “It may be enough, however, to have it said that we survive in exact relationship to the dedication of our poets…” (184).

9. Notice that in the sentence, the parenthetical citation comes after the end quotation mark. Let us look again: Maya finds a kindred spirit in her friend Louise: “I liked her for being able to fall in the sky and admit it” (141).

10. Notice also that end punctuation waits until the end of the last parenthesis: Maya is surprised that Bailey Sr. has “no need to pretend in front of those Mexican peasants” (233). No end punctuation appears in the quotation itself.

11. You can use of brackets if you need to change some words to make a sentence work: Maya believed “[she] was well-known for being ‘tender-hearted’” (92). The brackets tell us that the pronoun “she” was not in the original sentence. Note the punctuation for a quote within a quotation.

12. Next, Some Practice, Using I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Choose one of the quotations you selected Write a short paragraph around it Use a signal phrase Use correct parenthetical citation.