Integrating Quotations (in MLA)
1. Smoothly integrate quotations with original writing so readers can move from your words to the words of a source without feeling a “jolt.” Avoid dropping quotations into the text without warning; instead, provide clear signal phrases, usually by including the author’s name, to prepare readers for the quotation.
Appropriate : Although the bald eagle is still listed as an endangered species, its ever-increasing population is very encouraging. According to ornithologist Jay Sheppard, “The bald eagle seems to have stabilized its population, at the very least, almost everywhere” (96).
NOT Appropriate (dropped quotation): Although the bald eagle is still listed as an endangered species, its ever-increasing population is very encouraging. “The bald eagle seems to have stabilized its population, at the very least, almost everywhere” (Sheppard 96).
2. To avoid monotony, vary signal phrases as in these examples:
In the words of author and activist Rick Bass, “My heart was wild and did not belong among people."
As Flora Davis has noted, “The turbulent, affluent, optimistic 1960s provided an unusually hospitable climate for feminism.”
The Gardners, experts in archaeology, point out that “Colorado was the cradle of the Anasazi culture.”
“This action is in fact a call for a lawless world,” claims linguist Noam Chomsky.
Psychologist Sidney McMaynerberry offers an argument for his theory: “It’s all in your mind.”
Brady answers her critics by asserting, “I did not know that it was made of people.”
3. Using precise verbs lets you show how an author approaches a topic. Is your source arguing a point, making an observation, reporting facts, drawing a conclusion, refuting an argument, or stating a belief? Choosing an appropriate verb, such as one from the following list, can make the author’s stance clear. These can be used in signal phrases or paraphrasing.
Active verbs to use with articles and essays:
4. Try integrating a short phrase into the grammar of your sentence.
Choose words, phrases, sentences, stanzas, or paragraphs that support your argument and represent the source fairly and accurately.
Quote only what is necessary to show that your claim is believable. Instead of quoting a complete sentence, practice integrating a phrase or part of a sentence from the source within your own sentence structure:
Brian Millsap claims that banning DDT in 1972 was “the major turning point” in the bald eagle’s comeback.
The ultrasonography machine takes approximately 250 views of each breast, step by step. Mary Spletter likens the process to “examining an entire loaf of bread, one slice at a time” (40).
In refusing to have the cat fixed, Judith was uncompromising. As the narrator says, Judith believed it would be “morally wrong” for her to neuter the cat “simply to suit her own convenience” (144).
Punctuating Quotations in MLA
1. Note that the period is placed after the citation in most short quotations. Block quotations (4 lines or longer) are the exception.
When a neighbor suggests that the lottery should be abandoned, Old Man Warner responds, "There's always been a lottery" (284).
If the end punctuation is a question mark in the original, it is included inside the quotation marks. A period is still used after the citation.
Laura's life is so completely ruled by Amanda that when urged to make a wish on the moon, she asks, "What shall I wish for, Mother?" (1.5.140).
2. Signal Phrase: When the quotation is introduced by a signal phrase, such as says, exclaims, or argues, it is introduced with a comma as in a piece of dialogue.
When a neighbor suggests that the lottery should be abandoned, Old Man Warner responds, "There's always been a lottery" (284).
Jackson asserts, “the development of nuclear weapons has directly increased terrorism” (11).
3. When a shorter phrase of quotation is integrated into the grammar of a sentence, the use of punctuation follows what is required by the grammar of the sentence.
When Rita sees Johnny's relaxed attitude, "she blushe[s], like a wave of illness" (159).
In the above example, a comma is needed before the quotation to correctly punctuate this sentence. You can check this by asking whether the sentence would need a comma even if the quotation marks were left off: When Rita sees Johnny's relaxed attitude, she blushes, like a wave of illness. A comma is needed between attitude and she. Therefore, a comma must be used before the quotation to make it work with the grammar of the sentence.
The canaries provided music and color, a spot of beauty that "might spell the difference between sanity and madness" (60).
In the above example, no comma is needed before the quotation to create correct grammar in the sentence. This can be checked by asking whether a comma is needed even if the quotation marks were left off: The canaries provided music and color, a spot of beauty that might spell the difference between sanity and madness. No comma is needed between that and might, so none is used before the quoted material.
4. Brackets: Brackets should be a last resort--- used only when no other method will work. They are used to insert changes into the text of a quotation. Any additions or changes made to quoted material must be marked off by brackets.
If you need to insert words that will help clarify the quotation for readers, use brackets to set these words off from the rest.
Mama describes Dee as "lighter [-skinned] than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure" (289).
In the previous example, the word in brackets clarifies for readers that it is Dee's skin that Mama is describing as lighter.
Brackets can also be used to change the tense of a quotation to make it fit the sentence into which it is integrated.
5. Tense shifts should be avoided.
Tense shift (AVOID this): When Rita sees Johnny's relaxed attitude, "she blushed, like a wave of illness" (159).
Revised with brackets (do this instead): When Rita sees Johnny's relaxed attitude, "she blushe[s] like a wave of illness" (159).
6. Ellipses—three periods with a space before each and a space after the last—are used when words are omitted from the middle of a quotation. If you omit an entire sentence, use four periods. Do not begin or end a quotation with an ellipsis; it is assumed that material is left out before and after what is quoted.
According to John Ashbery, “The seasons are . . . bumping into other things, getting along somehow” (lines 4-5).
7. Enclose embedded quotations in single quotation marks. You may sometimes want to use a quotation with another quotation embedded in it---- when you are quoting dialogue from a novel, for example. In such cases, set off the main quotation with double quotation marks, as you usually would, and set off the embedded quotation marks with single quotation marks.
In the following example, we are quoting a quotation inserted into a non-fiction article, so we must indicate that the quotation was read by us in the original. Also, in this case we do use the comma between the source name and the page number
As Senegalese Conservationist Baba Diom states, “In the end, we will conserve only what we love” (qtd. in Strand, 1).
Here, we are quoting dialoge from a literary source, so there is no need to tell the reader we quoting from a second source.
Early in the novel, the narrator's half-sister Kwan sees--- or thinks she sees--- ghosts: "'Libby-ah,' she'll say to me. 'Guess who I see yesterday, you guess.' And I don't have to guess she's talking about someone dead" (3).