Incorporating Quotations into Your Writing

When you begin to incorporate quotations into a text, make sure your sentences are logically connected. Introduce your quote clearly, in a way that blends with your writing. Select and edit the quote in a way that leaves the author’s idea intact. Follow the quote with your own analysis and examples to illustrate the idea.

Weak (removing meaningful sections of the quote):

“Shakespeare establishes a reading that draws parallels between Romeo … train their birds” (Brown 334).

Stronger:

“Shakespeare establishes a reading that draws [a parallel] between … the way Juliet treats Romeo and the methods falconers (usually males) use to train their birds” (Brown 334).

Weak (lack of logical order):

Wiesel’s life began in a close-knit Jewish community. “Unlike some other survivors of horrific events, Wiesel does not see suffering as redeeming or as ennobling. He does not believe it leads to greater empathy or wisdom on the part of survivors; he does not believe it has any redeeming value” (Winters 1). As a child he never imagined what he might one day see.

Stronger:

Later in life Wiesel considered the effect of suffering in the lives of the people he has known. “Unlike some other survivors of horrific events, Wiesel does not see suffering as redeeming or as ennobling. He does not believe it leads to greater empathy or wisdom on the part of survivors; he does not believe it has any redeeming value” (Winters 1).

Weak (awkward introduction):

Brown writes about this. “Shakespeare establishes a reading that draws parallels between Romeo and trainable falcons (usually females) and between the way Juliet treats Romeo and the methods falconers (usually males) use to train their birds” (334).

Stronger:

Brown points out, “Shakespeare establishes a reading that draws parallels between Romeo and trainable falcons (usually females) and between the way Juliet treats Romeo and the methods falconers (usually males) use to train their birds” (334).

Weak (simply summarizing the quote, failing to analyze):

Winters argues, “Unlike some other survivors of horrific events, Wiesel does not see suffering as redeeming or as ennobling. He does not believe it leads to greater empathy or wisdom on the part of survivors; he does not believe it has any redeeming value” (Winters 1). Wiesel does not believe that suffering makes people better. He thinks that suffering only hurts people.

Stronger (following the quote with discussion and connection to your argument):

Wiesel struggles to answer the question: why do people suffer? Winters writes, “Unlike some other survivors of horrific events, Wiesel does not see suffering as redeeming or as ennobling. He does not believe it leads to greater empathy or wisdom on the part of survivors; he does not believe it has any redeeming value” (1). Although Wiesel seems to have grown and developed empathy as a result of his suffering, he would prefer that people never suffer in the first place.

Weak (simply summarizing the quote, failing to analyze):

Stronger (following the quote with discussion, including a quotation from the primary source and further analysis):

Juliet’s communication with Romeo demonstrates her assertive nature. “Shakespeare establishes a reading that draws parallels between Romeo and trainable falcons (usually females) and between the way Juliet treats Romeo and the methods falconers (usually males) use to train their birds” (Brown 334). When she calls to Romeo, after their first night together, she intones, “Hist! Romeo, hist! O, for a falconer's voice,/To lure this tassel-gentle back again!”* (2.2.158-9). When she calls to him, he returns to her, as the bird to her master. Juliet is clearly in a position of power in this relationship.

* Note: when you quote poetry, you must honor the line breaks, either by blocking the quotation and formatting it according to line breaks, or by using a forward slash to indicate line breaks. This applies to all poetry. Additionally, when quoting Shakespeare, indicate the act, scene and line numbers, as above: the quotation used here is from Act II, Scene 2, lines 158-9 of Romeo and Juliet.

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