How to Integrate Quotations in Literary Analysis

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How to Integrate Quotations in Literary Analysis

• A Simple Guide

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• Your essay is your argument. Too many quotations
  can overpower your voice.
• Use quotations sparingly.
• Make all major points in your own words and use
  quotations to support them. Dont rely on the
  quotation to make the point for you.

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Basics

• All phrases and longer passages taken from text
  must be enclosed in quotation marks.
• The page number and authors last name must be
  placed after the quotation and before the closing
  punctuation.
• In one of her visions of the future, Niska sees
  the soldiers of WWI fighting They lived in the
  mud like rats and lived only to think of new ways
  of kill one another (Boyden 49).

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For long quotations (4 lines or more), indent
one inch from the left and omit quotation marks.
Placethe parenthetical citation after the period

• Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and
  dehumanizes him throughout her narration
• They entirely refused to have it in bed with
  them, or even in their room, and I had no more
  sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs,
  hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance,
  or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept
  to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on
  quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to
  how it got there I was obliged to confess, and
  in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was
  sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

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POWER

• Quote only words, sentences, or passages that are
  powerful.
• Dont use long quotations to take up space.
  Select the phrases that are relevant to your
  argument.

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Introduce a Quotation

• Never drop a quotation in your paper. You must
  use your own words to introduce a quotation.
• Never leave a quotation alone as a sentence.
• Always make sure you provide the following
• context, quotation and analysis (i.e., explain
  how it supports your argument)

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Be Strong

• In order to make your own writing flow as
  smoothly as possible, it is usually best to use
  only an effective part of the quotation as part
  of your own sentences.

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Introducing Quotations

• You can use an independent clause and a colon to
  introduce your quotation.
• When Niska returns to Moose Factory and for
  the first times since her childhood, she notices
  how different she is from the assimilated
  Aboriginal population . . . it was obvious
  that an invisible wall, one impossible to breach,
  lay between me and the homeguard Indians of this
  white town (168).

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Introducing Quotations

• Another way to introduce quotations is to weave
  them into your sentence. Remember, the sentence
  must be grammatically accurate.
• Niska compares her feelings of alienation
  from the assimilated homeguard Indians to an
  invisible wall that is impossible to
  breach(168).
• While walking through Moose Factory for the
  first times since her escape from residential
  school, Niska notes that an invisible wall, one
  impossible to breach, lay between her and the
  homeguard Indians (168).

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Remember

• Context Quotation Analysis A

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Analysis

• When Niska returns to Moose Factory and for the
  first times since her childhood, she notices how
  different she is from the assimilated Aboriginal
  population . . . it was obvious that an
  invisible wall, one impossible to breach, lay
  between me and the homeguard Indians of this
  white town (168). Niskas feelings of
  alienation from the very people who, only decades
  ago, were living with her in the bush, highlights
  the . . .

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Ellipses

• When omitting words from within a single
  sentence, use only three ellipsis dots (. . . ).
  Three point ellipses have single typed spaces
  before and after each of the three dots
• Faulty waterhad
• Correct water . . . had.

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Brackets

• Use brackets to specify ambiguous pronouns within
  a quotation.
• Example As revealed to me Oedipus by the
  Delphi oracle (15).

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You Do the Work

• Do not rely on quotations to do the work for you.
  
• You must always follow a quotation or paraphrase
  with commentary.
• Never end a paragraph with a quotation.

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Make Changes

• Quotations should fit into your argument. If
  punctuation, pronouns, or verb tenses do not flow
  with your own words, paraphrase or make minor
  changes to the quotation, surrounding them with
  brackets

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Integrating Quotes Pattern 1

• 1. An introducing clause plus the quotation
• Gatsby is not to be regarded as a personal
  failure because "Gatsby turned out all right at
  the end" (176), according to Nick.
• This is a complex sentence.
• Because is a subordinate conjunction.

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Pattern 2

• 2. An assertion of your own and a colon plus the
  quotation
• Fitzgerald gives Nick a muted tribute to the
  hero "Gatsby turned out all right at the end"
  (176).
• This works best if your quotation is a complete
  clause

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Pattern 3

• 3. An assertion of your own with quoted material
  worked in
• For Nick, who remarks that Gatsby "turned out all
  right" (176), the hero deserves respect but
  perhaps does not inspire great admiration.
• This works best when you pull only power words
  from the quotation.

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• Note The words in bold effectively introduce the
  quote. No quote ever stands alone. Follow your
  quotes with commentary. Do not begin commentary
  with words such as this quote shows or this
  quote reveals.
• Note how the following commentary flows from the
  quotation and has substance.

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Model Commentary

• Taken from A Writers Model A Locust in the
  Garden
• The story alludes again and again to the
  sheltering comfort of the garden. The man tries
  to maintain an illusion that nothing serious has
  happened to him, that in time he will feel as if
  he had always been like that (397). The garden
  is his refuge against reality.
•