Introduce the quotation or paraphrase by setting it in context. For a nonfiction source, identify the author the first time you cite the source. For a literary source, identify the speaker or writer and the position of the quoted piece in its work for every quotation. There are three ways to introduce quotations or paraphrases:
1. You can use a full sentence followed by a colon to introduce a quotation.
Coming upon the witches, Macbeth unknowingly echoes them: “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (1.3.39).
Economist Grant Houston lays the blame on bad government policy: “subsidies to corn growers keep the price of corn artificially low” (122).
2. You can use a lead-in naming the author or character, followed by a comma.
Often since his walk, the speaker confides, “They flash upon that inward eye/ Which is the bliss of solitude” (21-22).
According to Sanchez, parents are furious about the ban on bake sales at schools (“PTA Focuses on Food” 16).
[No quotation marks in this example because it’s a paraphrase.]
3. You can also begin a sentence with your own words and complete it with quoted words. In this case, do not use a comma before the quotation.
Mr. Bennet, however, is “among the earliest of those who waited on Mr. Bingley” (7).
Houston argues that “tariffs on imported sugar unfairly subsidize US sugar growers” (248).