Integrating quotations

Tips on how to integrate textual

support smoothly into your own
writing

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 1

What works?
INEFFECTIVE EFFECTIVE
Rodriguez writes, “My Rodriguez describes his
parents, who are no parents as “no longer
longer my parents in a [his] parents in a cultural
cultural sense.” He sense” to express the
expresses the alienation from his family
alienation from his that has resulted from
his assimilation into
family that has resulted
English-speaking
from his assimilation
American culture.
into English-speaking
American culture.

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 2

What Works? 2
INEFFECTIVE EFFECTIVE
de Crevecoeur argues de Crevecoeur criticizes
that poor Europeans the lack of social mobility
have no real attachment in Europe using a biting
to their homelands. rhetorical question: “Can
“Can a wretch who a wretch who wanders
wanders about, who about, who works and
works and starves, starves, whose life is a
whose life is a continual continual scene of sore
affliction or pinching
scene of sore affliction penury; can that man call
or pinching penury; can England or any other
that man call England kingdom his country?”
or any other kingdom
his country?”
AP English Language and Composition: Glass 3
Options for Integrating
Quotations: #1 = Incorporate
 Incorporate the quotation into your sentence,
punctuating it as you would if it were not a
quotation.

Mukherjee argues in favor of an acculturation

model “that differs from both the enforced
assimilation of a ‘melting pot’ and the
Canadian model of a multicultural
‘mosaic’”(4).

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 4

Options for Integrating
Quotations: #1 = Incorporate 2
 If you must change an element within the quote
to make it work grammatically, use brackets to
indicate the change.

Rodriguez describes his parents as “no

longer [his] parents in a cultural sense” to
express the alienation from his family that
has resulted from his assimilation into
English-speaking American culture.

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 5

Options for Integrating
Quotations: #2 = attribute
 Introduce a full-sentence quotation by using an attributive
speech tag like “he writes,” “she claims,” and so on.
Jacob Needleman claims, “A dream is a
vision or truth, of what can be and ought to
be, and a dream is a deception.”

Elaine Pagels asks, “Whom do we include in

the ‘American Dream’?”

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 6

Options for Integrating
Quotations: a cautionary note
 Do NOT use an attributive speech tag like “he writes,” “she
claims,” “she argues,” “he asserts,” etc. to introduce a
quote that is NOT a complete sentence.

INCORRECT: Rodriguez writes, “My parents, who are no

longer my parents in a cultural sense.”

ALSO INEFFECTIVE: Rodriguez writes, “My parents,

who are no longer my parents in a cultural sense” in
order to express the loss of family intimacy.

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 7

Options for Integrating
Quotations: cautionary note 2
 What’s the problem with following a speech tag
with a non-sentence quote?

 Speech verbs like say, assert, exclaim, ask, etc.

take a full-sentence complement. They “expect”
a full sentence to follow them.

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 8

Options for Integrating
Quotations: cautionary note 3
 Notice how ungrammatical and unfinished the
following “sentences” sound:

Mukherjee says.

The girl said, “The grumpy man, who

lives next door.”

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 9

Options for Integrating
Quotations: #3 = Use a sentence.
 Use a full sentence of your own to introduce a full
sentence by the quoted author.

 You must use a colon to introduce the quotation in

this case.
Jacob Needleman says it best: “A
dream is a vision or truth, of what can
be and ought to be, and a dream is a
deception.”
AP English Language and Composition: Glass 10
Options for Integrating Quotations:
Colon or comma?
Jacob Needleman says it best: “A dream is a vision or truth,
of what can be and ought to be, and a dream is a deception.”

Underlined portion = a complete sentence; introduce quote

with colon

Jacob Needleman says, “A dream is a vision or truth, of what

can be and ought to be, and a dream is a deception.”

Underlined portion = a fragment; introduce quote with comma

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 11

Punctuation Rules: The Basics
 Capitalize the first letter of any complete sentence you quote
unless you introduce it with “that.”

In describing the New World, de Crevecoeur claimed, “The

rich and the poor are not so far removed from each other as
they are in Europe” (1).

de Crevecoeur claimed that the “rich and the poor are not so
far removed from each other as they are in Europe” (1).

de Crevecoeur claimed that “[t]he rich and the poor are not
so far removed from each other as they are in Europe” (1).

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 12

Punctuation Rules: The
Basics, 2
 If the quotation is broken into two parts, do not
capitalize the first letter of the second part.

“Our team is bound to win," said Coach

Glass, "because UHS students are excellent
Ultimate Frisbee players."

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 13

Punctuation Rules: Commas
and Periods
 Commas and periods go within closing quotation
marks, EXCEPT when a parenthetical reference
follows the quotation.

Jacob Needleman said, “A dream is a vision or

truth, of what can be and ought to be, and a
dream is a deception.”

In her essay, Dr. Linguist notes, "The gestures

used for greeting others differ greatly from one
culture to another” (3).
AP English Language and Composition: Glass 14
Punctuation Rules: Colons and
Semi-Colons
 When colons and semi-colons are not part of the
quotation, put them outside of the closing
quotation marks.

At the English Department meeting, Ms.

Balzer voiced her opinion on the rules for
integrating quotations: “They’re not intuitive,
but they are very important"; several other
teachers agreed.

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 15

Punctuation Rules: Question Marks,
Exclamation Points, and Dashes
 If a question mark, exclamation point, or dash is
part of the original quotation, place it within the
closing quotation mark.

Elaine Pagels asks, “Whom do we include in

the ‘American Dream’ ?” (5).

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 16

Punctuation Rules: Question Marks,
Exclamation Points, and Dashes
 If a question mark, exclamation point, or dash is
part of your sentence that includes the quotation,
place it outside of the closing quotation mark.

Do other columnists agree with David

Brooks’ claim that “maximum status goes to
the Gladwellian heroes who occupy the
convergence points of the Internet
ecosystem” (2)?

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 17

Block Quotes: 4+ Lines
 Use block quotes sparingly, if at all.

 The more your quote, the more you must

explain!

 Ifyou really must use a block quote,

remember these guidelines…

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 18

Block Quotes: Usage Rules

 Begin quote as a new line of text.

 Indent 1” from left margin.

 No quotation marks

 Parenthetical citation goes outside final punctuation

within quote.

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 19

Block Quotes: Example
In his poem “The Problem," Ralph Waldo Emerson
explores the inner philosophical struggle of a religious
yet unorthodox man:
I like a church;I like a cowl;
I love a prophet of the soul;
And on my heart monastic aisles
Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles:
Yet not for all his faith can see
Would I that cowlëd churchman be. (1-7)

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 20

Integrating
quotations: fin!
Time to practice…

AP English Language and Composition: Glass 21