Quote Integration

This page is meant to help you all become experts with integrating your quotes into your sentences and paragraphs. Please read through all of the material on this page and really work on integrating and analyzing your quotes before submitting your essay.

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Why Quote?

Most effective arguments incorporate the voices of others through the use of quotes. Outside sources boost your credibility as a writer, illustrating the larger conversation happening and what the experts have to say. This in turn strengthens your credibility as a writer, showing that you have done your research and considered perspectives that align or vary from your own views.

Integrating Quotes

With that said, quotes don’t speak for themselves! Never leave your reader hanging by inserting a quote without explaining why it is there. A “hit and run” quote is just that—a quote that is inserted haphazardly with no explanation of who said it, what the quotation means or how the quotation relates to your argument.

Integrating a quote basically means adding in the right words to help the reader understand it and see its significance. Don’t rush it! It is better to be too thorough then leave the reader confused without enough information.

It is also important to carefully pick quotes that have impact and connect to the claim you are making. Some writers quote too much, some writers quote too little. Find that balance. Your voice should dominate and the quotes should be there to help you prove your point—not be the point.

Here are two academic examples with the quotes themselves in bold.

Student "quotation sandwich" example from a research paper on fake news and journalism today:

One last step that could be taken to boost journalists’ credibility would be to have organizations push for more investigative journalism. Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who is one of the most notorious, hard working journalists in Ghana, urges on his website, “sometimes simply gathering information is not enough, you need to back it up with hardcore evidence and this is what I do.” This is something that the news industry needs to take into consideration. The public will trust media organizations more if they know journalists are digging deep for the evidence and going straight to the source to discover information. This relates to turning back to journalism’s roots. If news industries have more investigative journalists going to the source and getting proof of the facts, people will no longer have to ask, “How do you know that?”

Professional "quotation sandwich" example from Malcolm Gladwell’s article “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”:

Social networks are effective at increasing participation—by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires. The Facebook page of the Save Darfur Coalition has 1,282,339 members, who have donated an average of nine cents apiece. The next biggest Darfur charity on Facebook has 22,073 members, who have donated an average of thirty-five cents. Help Save Darfur has 2,797 members, who have given, on average, fifteen cents. A spokesperson for the Save Darfur Coalition told Newsweek, “We wouldn’t necessarily gauge someone’s value to the advocacy movement based on what they’ve given. This is a powerful mechanism to engage this critical population. They inform their community, attend events, volunteer. It’s not something you can measure by looking at a ledger.” In other words, Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice. We are a long way from the lunch counters of Greensboro.

Here is a template you can use to get started--no pressure!

In "___________[title]____________," ________[author]__________ asserts that

_____________________________________________________________________.

Specifically, he/she mentions,

"_________________________________________________________________" (MLA

citation). In other words, ______[author]___________ believes

_______________________________________

_______________________________________. _______[Author]__________'s point is that

________________________________________________________________. This is

significant because _____________________________________________________.

Integrating and Citing

Integrating Quotations

Embedding a quotation means that the quotation is included in a single sentence with many of your own words and commentary. The most sophisticated embedded quotations have commentary before and after the words you are quoting (see example #3).

When choosing a quotation to include in your writing, select only the words that help make your point. You do not need to choose an entire sentence when a portion of the sentence will do.

Following are some examples of quotations that are not embedded. After each is the same quotation shortened and embedded in the writer’s own words or embedded in the writer’s commentary.

#1
Not integrated:

Charles Dickens wrote during the eighteenth century, “It was the best of times and the worst of times” (Smith 35).

Integrated:

For Charles Dickens, the eighteenth century was both “the best of times” and “the worst of times” (Smith 35).

#2
Not integrated:

The Puritan community admired Arthur Dimmesdale. “He was the mouthpiece of heaven’s messages of wisdom” (Lee 139).

Integrated:

The Puritans admire Dimmesdale because he is “the mouthpiece [for] heaven’s messages of wisdom” (Lee 139).

#3
Not integrated:

The citizens of Thebes view Creon as prideful. “Do you want me to show myself weak before the people?” (Jones 960).

Integrated:

Creon’s fear of appearing “weak before the people” causes him to stubbornly adhere to Antigone’s death sentence (Jones 960). What Creon thinks is strong leadership has the opposite effect on the citizens of Thebes who now have little respect for this prideful king.

Not integrated:

He hoped to move somewhere better. “One day, a miracle happened. My dad obtained a substitute teaching job at a high school; he bought a house and furniture” (Johnson 31).

Integrated:

The promise of a better life dawned when his father got “a substitute teaching job at a high school” (Johnson 31).

Note:

Sometimes a sentence is more effective by embedding a single quoted word rather than using several words. Using more of your own words and less of the quotation creates the opportunity for better commentary and thus, a more meaningful statement. Example:

Not integrated:

“Your pleasure with her would soon grow cold... and then you’d have a hellcat in bed and elsewhere” (Jones 960).

Integrated:

According to Creon, Princess Antigone is not good enough for his son because she is only a woman and a “hellcat” that will bring him nothing but trouble (Jones 960).

Block Quotes:

*When a quote is longer than three lines, be sure that you separate the quote from the paragraph, indent, and double space it. For example (example is single-spaced to save space):

Paine examines the need of separation from Great Britain throughout his works, stating that “America would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European power taken any notice of her” (Paine 139). He says that:

We have boasted the protection of Great Britain, without considering, that her motive was interest, notattachment; and that she did not protect us from our enemies on our account; but from her enemies on her account, from those who had no quarrel with us on any other account, and who will always be our enemies [now] on the same account. (Paine 140)

This statement empowers the United States to break free from the hold Great Britain has, and become a separate nation.

Citations in Text (examples are single-spaced to conserve space)

One author’s name in reference

This research has been validated within the past decade (Wallace 52-57).

One author’s name in text

Wallace states that this research has been validated within the past decade (52-57).

Two authors’ names in reference

Much argument has surrounded the presentation of this theory (Rich and Stone 304).

Two authors’ names in text

Rich and Stone express dismay about the controversy surrounding the theory (304).

Three or more authors’ names in reference

Professionals from the fields of business and education addressed questions about Japan’s national identity (Carlisle et al. 42-45).

Three or more authors’ names in text

Carlisle, Sharma, and Kaiser discussed questions about Japan’s national identity (42-45).

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