Incorporating quoted material into literary analysis Adapted by Andrea Beerwinkle 2014

To
To To

support my argument.
demonstrate my familiarity with the text.

avoid getting kicked out of school for plagiarism!

 An

embedded quote flows naturally into your own writing. When reading a well-embedded quote, it should sound like part of your own sentence.
dropped-in quote does not flow with the rest of the sentence. It sounds jarring and disrupts the sentence and paragraph.

 Beneatha

is a character who believes in freedom of expression. She said this quote: People have to express themselves one way or another (Hansberry 48).
is a character who believes that people need to express themselves one way or another (Hansberry 48).

Beneatha

 Holden

gets frustrated and decides to leave. People are always ruining things for you (Salinger 88).
gets frustrated and decides to leave, claiming that people are always ruining things (Salinger 88). gets frustrated and decides to leave. He claims that people are always ruining things (Salinger 88).

Holden

Holden

Capitalization
Leaving

words out Adding words in Where to put the period.

 The

quote is part of your sentence. Do not capitalize any word unless it would ordinarily be capitalized.
Holden gets frustrated and decides to leave, claiming that people are always ruining things (Salinger 88). not capitalize people even though in the original text it is the first word of the sentence.

Example:

Do

 When

it is necessary to leave out a few words from the original text, use an ellipses () indicating where the words were skipped.
claims that people are ruining things (Salinger 88). use an ellipses when omitting words from the MIDDLE of the quote.

He

Only

 Sometimes

a word needs to be changed in order for the sentence to be grammatically correct.

is just about to apologize when she realizes that this nun is not Mama or Papa [who she] could argue things with (Alvarez 15).

She

 Lead
Use

your reader into the quote.

the quoted material.

Explain

how the quote relates to the main point of your paragraph.

 The

closing punctuation always goes at the very end of the sentence, i.e. after the parenthetical citation.
is a character who believes that people need to express themselves one way or another (Hansberry 48).

Beneatha

 Avoid

plagiarism! At the end of the sentence, include a parenthetical citation.

Why?

The parenthetical citations co-ordinate with the works cited page included at the end of your paper.

Author
Human

mentioned: (page # only)

beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as "symbol-using animals" (3).

Author
Human

NOT mentioned:

(Author page #)

beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).

 Use

a shortened title of the work instead of an author name Place the title in quotation marks if it is a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number.
Border

Collies can make excellent family pets (Dogs as Pets).

 Include

in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name). Do not give paragraph numbers or page numbers
According

to Matthew Perry, Friends was the greatest show.