Woden’MoonmTyrFrigga’sMoonTyrMoonTyrWodFriggaThorThor’s Day, August8: Quoting Smartly

EQ: How does one quote to support an argument competently – or, at least, look as if one is doing so?

  • Welcome! Gather yesterday’s work, pen/cil, paper, wits!
  • Submit Missing Work!
  • Get out:
  • Syllabus pp. 14-16
  • Kierkegaard passage
  • Apologies, Clarifications
  • Writing: Quoting Smartly

Quotations support an argument just as buttresses support a Gothic wall.

ELACC12RL-RI1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis

ELACC12RI6: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text

ELACC12RI7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources to address a question or solve a problem

ELACC12RL10: Read and comprehend complex literature independently and proficiently.

ELACC12W1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts

ELACC12W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas

ELACC12W4: Produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience

ELACC12W6: Use technology to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing

ELACC12W8: Gather from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any source and following a standard format for citation.

ELACC12L1: Demonstrate standard English grammar and usage in speaking and writing.

ELACC12L2: Use standard English capitalization, punctuation, spelling in writing.

Greek root of analysis

[A Sample Essay in MLA Format]

Lemmy Kilminster Kilminster 1

Mr. Saunders

British Literature

October 31, 2009

"Signifying Nothing": Nihilism in Macbeth

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth features witches, ghosts, devils, and lots of blood – but scariest of all is a man who believes in nothing. Soldiers call him “brave” (I ii 45), but his wife thinks he is “too full of the milk of human kindness” (I v 86) for power; but Macbeth himself says that “nothing is / But what is not” (I iii 126-8). Never happy with what he has, even when he gets what he thinks he wants, Macbeth spends the play killing for, believing in, and seeing what does not exist – literally, nothing.

Nihilism – the belief that nothing matters or is even real – pervades the play, even in the “comic” scene of a drunken Porter pretending to be a devil welcoming sinners into Hell:

Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub? Here's farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for't (II iii 1-3)

But even this drunken Porter realizes that, whereas Hell is famously hot, “this place is too cold for Hell” (II iii 12). Macbeth, however, spends the entire play in an awful dance with fantasy, focusing on things that do not exist – things he wants, but also things he fears – until, near the end of the play, he comes to believe that life itself is Nothing. In his most famous soliloquy, Macbeth contemplates his long life, which has been full of honor and bravery as well as horror and treachery, and decides that

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing (V v 24-28).

Macbeth begins by having everything –friends, power, and the most loving marriage in all of Shakespeare – but risks and loses it for things he does not have, does not even want. He is Shakespeare’s most profound treatment of nihilism, and of the terrible consequences of believing in nothing.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William, Macbeth. London: Folger Shakespeare Series, 2003.

MLA Rules For Quotation

FIRST AND FOREMOST, AVOID PLAGIARISM!! Plagiarism is using of someone else’s words or ideas without attribution. Even if you paraphrase information in your own words, you still must cite source. I’m awfully good at detecting plagiarism; remember, if you can find it online, so can I. There is no “accidental” plagiarism, and it earns any assignment a zero.

A full discussion of plagiarism is found on page 17 of this syllabus, but it’s easy to avoid: basically, just quote and cite your sources. This is the best way to establish credibility, proving to a reader that you know your material and are in full control of it. There are some differences in how one formats quotations from different kinds of texts, but all involve these steps:

  1. Formatting – visually setting off the words you’re quoting. Use “quotation marks” for short passages (1- 3 lines on your page); indent passages longer than that.
  2. Citing – showing the reader the source of the quotation, in parenthesis just after the quote and, if necessary, in a Works Cited section at the end of your essay.
  3. Integrating – merging the quoted passages with your own writing, so that the essay is smooth and controlled rather than clumsy, awkward, artificial.

Quoting Prose (books, essays, articles, etc)

  • Format short quotations using “quotation marks”; long quotes (3+ lines) are indented.
  • Cite author in text, page number in parentheses after quotation. No author? Cite title.
  • Integrate your quotation smoothly into your own prose.

Integrating means that you NEVER quote chunks of undigested material, like this:

Robert Frost is popular. "He has been recognized with so many awards, sold so many books, and given so many speeches, that he must be called extremely popular" (Avery 23).

Instead, quote only the words you really need, and integrate the quotation into your own prose:

According to Frederick Avery, Robert Frost has won “so many awards, sold so many books, and given so many speeches, that he must be called extremely popular" (23).

If you quote more than three typed lines, indent the quotation, like this:

Measuring Frost’s influence exactly is difficult because, as Frederick Avery has written,

Frost ismore widely read in his native land than any other poet. He has been recognized with so many awards, sold so many volumes, and given so many speeches, that he must be called extremely popular. Also, his impact is seen notonly among writers but in popular films and even greeting cards (23).

No quotation marks are usedwith indented quotations. Integration and citation are still required.

Quoting Verse (poetry, songs, etc)

  • Format short quotations using “quotation marks,” placing a slash between lines.

Long quotations (3+ lines) are indented; keep lines exactly as they appear on page.

  • Cite author in text, line number in parentheses after quotation.
  • Integrate your quotation smoothly into your own prose.

The biggest difference in quoting verse involves the use of the verse line. Lines must appear in your quotation as they do in the poem or song itself, and the line numbers must be cited (NOT page numbers). Show the separation of lines with a slash (/) in short quotations; indent quotations longer than three lines, and make the lines look just as they do in the poem itself. And just as you did with prose quotes, integrate the quotations smoothly into your own writing.

The roads in Frost's poem are identical; they "equally lay/In paths no step had trodden black" (11-12). But the narrator says that he will pretend the roads were different:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference. (16-20)

Quoting Plays (especially Shakespeare)

  • Format short and long quotations according to Prose or Verse rules listed above. Shakespeare often uses both Prose and Verse in his plays.
  • Cite author in text, Act/Scene/line number (III, ii, 34) in parentheses after quotation.
  • Integrate your quotation smoothly into your own prose.

Quoting Sacred Texts (Bible, Qu’ran, etc)

  • Sacred books’ titles are capitalized, but NOT underlined/italicized. I don’t know why.
  • Format short and long quotations according to Prose or Verse rules listed above. Sacred books often use both Prose and Verse forms.
  • Cite book, chapter and verse (Matthew 6: 1-6) for Bible; see me for others. Be sure to indicate which translation you are using – KJV, RSV, NISV for Bible, name for others.
  • Integrate your quotation smoothly into your own prose.

Quoting From The Internet

  • Cite internet address (URL) of webpage from which you got the quotation.
  • Follow all other rules as above.

Now, let’s practice – and knock out a Reading Journal Entry while we’re at it!

  • Get out the Kierkegaard quotation you were to write down yesterday. (If you can’t find it, look on the wall next to the classroom door.)
  • Write a reflection/response on the quotation. This will go as your first Reading Journal entry. You must do both of the following:
  • Correctly format and integrate the Kierkegaard passage as part of your piece.
  • Engage the text. Do your very best to get at what Kierkegaard is saying about the self. Agree or disagree, write about how the idea showed up on SpongeBob – but show me you’ve thought seriously about the text.

Do not turn this in! Show me the finished piece and I will check it for thought and format, then give it back to you. Keep it for your Unit Reading Journal.

The self is theconscious

synthesis

of infinite

and finite, temporal

and eternal, freedom and necessity.

Not to be oneself is to despair.

–SørenKierkegaard (1813-1855)

The Sickness Unto Death

\

Turn In TODAY:

  • Reading Journal Entry with Kierkegaard quotation properly formatted and integrated

Turn In BY TOMORROW:

  • EtymologyE-Search (“analysis”)