Dropped Quotes

Attributive Tags or Signal Phrases

Attributive tags, also called "author tags" or "signal phrases", tell us that the student writer is about to quote or paraphrase someone else. Some examples phrases might look like this:

• • The article states

  • The writer explains

  • The text describes

  • The narrator notes

  • The speaker says

  • The study shows

  • The source indicates

  • The researcher writes

  • The evidence suggests

  • The author asks
    
    

More example signal verb ideas:

• observes

• argues

• claims

• asserts

• maintains

• believes

• thinks

• emphasizes

• highlights

• points out

• reveals

• expresses

• reports

• adds

• concludes

• illustrates

• comments

• warns

• admits

• concedes

• responds

• challenges

• disputes

• questions

• counters

• criticizes

• supports

• implies

• agrees

• reflects

• reports

• demonstrates

Simply put, we can clear up the confusion by adding one small change:

Juanita is in a relationship, and Jane is single. They met for coffee last week to catch up. Jane asked, "How was that new date last night?"

Integration

You could also integrate the quote into a larger sentence. This gives your reader more background and context.

Over coffee, Jane asked her friend Juanita, "How was that new date last night?"

Examples using MLA:

Barbara S. Cain, clinical supervisor at the Psychological Clinic at the University of Michigan, points out that…

To make his point, Fisher writes that, “such slavish dependency on cell phones is accompanied by the demise of common social courtesies” (660).

Cain indicates that children in school during COVID may be experiencing inequality when she states...