Integrating Quotes
Review your MLA Style Guide (pages 5-9) and refer to the guide when you are unsure of how to integrate your quotes.
When writing a literary essay, it is important to use direct quotes* and paraphrases** to help you support your point. It is often called the “proof.”
As stated in your guide, there are many ways for you to integrate your quotes without simply plopping them into your work. What we don’t want is a sudden jolt.
*A direct quote is one in which you copy an author's words directly from the text and use that exact wording in your essay. You must use quotation marks to indicate that these are someone else’s words and in brackets, indicate where you found the source.
**A paraphrase is when you take someone else’s ideas and put those ideas into your own words. It is still essential for you to indicate that the idea is someone else’s by showing where the information came from in brackets after the paraphrase.
Some examples of PARAPHRASING to compare :
The original passage:
Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
A legitimate paraphrase:
In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).
An acceptable summary:
Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).
A plagiarized version:
Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.
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Integrating Quotes
A few tips
Read the passage below:
BLANCHE: He acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! There’s even something sub-human-something not quite to the stage of humanity yet! Yes, something –ape-like about him, like one of those pictures I’ve seen in –anthropological studies! Thousands and thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is-Stanley Kowalski-survivor of the stone age! Bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle! And you- you here-waiting for him! Maybe he’ll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you… (72)
This passage reveals Blanche’s feelings about Stanley. If I wanted to use this quote to prove that Stanley is crude and uncivilized, I may want to use only part of this passage. I do not want to use the entire passage as it limits the flow of my paper and is also unnecessary.
Examples:
Possible “proof” / How I integrated the quote:Blanche tries to tell her sister that Stanley is “like an animal” (Williams 72). / I took only what I needed and made it part of my sentence.
She describes him as being “ape-like…[b]earing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle!”(Williams 72). / Here I used a few sentences but used the ellipses (…) to eliminate what I did not need in my proof. I also used the square bracket to indicate that I changed the capital B to a lower case b. However, be sure to NEVER use a quote out of context!
YOUR TURN:
On the left is an outline for a paragraph. On the right are a few quotes that can help you prove your point. Find the BEST quotes and try to integrate them using at least 3 different methods (as outlined on pages 8-9 of your MLA Guide). For example, use at least ONE signal phrase, a colon or a statement that introduces the quotation.
Paragraph Outline / Possible Quotes (Proofs/Evidence)Topic sentence:
Stanley is crude and powerful. Like an animal chasing his prey, he does not stop until he is successful.
First Point:
Stanley digs into Blanche’s past. He is suspicious of her and is sure to tell his wife Stella everything that he uncovers about Blanche. In this way, he ensures that Stella no longer trusts her.
Proof (Quote/Paraphrase)
He asserts that his “supply-man at the plant…knows all about her”(79) and that she lived in a “second class hotel” (99). He is also sure to tell Stella that Blanche was involved with a “seventeen-year-old boy-she’d gotten mixed up with” (101).
Explanation:
Stanley sees her as untrustworthy and does not appreciate the way she attempts to fool him into believing that she is better than him. He does not stop until he proves her wrong.
Second Point:
He cuts off her only means of escape by telling Mitch about her past life.
Proof (Quote/Paraphrase)
He claims that he had no choice but to tell Mitch since they were “budd[ies]” and that refused to let his “best friend get caught!” (103).
Explanation:
By driving Mitch away from her, Stanley ensues that Blanche is isolated and alone.
Point Three:
He traps Blanche after he defeats her and in the end, driven by his need to satisfy his desire to have her, he rapes her.
Proof (Quote/Paraphrase):
Explanation:
From when he first sees her, Stanley is intent on conquer her.
Concluding Sentence:
Clearly, Stanley sets out on his plan of destruction as he views Blanche as a potential danger to his relationship with his wife and as someone to hunt and destroy. / “If I didn’t know that you was my wife’s sister I’d get ideas about you” (41).
“There is a such thing in this state of Louisiana as the Napoleonic code, according to which whatever belongs to my wife is also mine—and vice versa (40).
“Well, this somebody named Shaw is under the impression he met you in Laurel, but I figure he must have got you mixed up with some other party because this other party is someone he met at a hotel called the Flamingo” (77).
“Lie Number One: All this squeamishness she puts on! You should just know that the line she’s been feeding to Mitch. He thought she had never been more than kissed by a fellow! But Sister Blanche is no lily” (99)
“Our supply-man down at the plant has been going through Laurel for years and he knows all about her and everybody else in the town of Laurel knows about her….She moved to the Flamingo! A second class hotel which has the advantage of not interfering in the private social life of the personalities there! (99)
She didn’t resign temporarily from the high school because of her nerves! … They kicked her out of that high school A seventeen-year-old boy-she’d gotten mixed up with! (101).…
“Mitch is a buddy of mine. We were in the same outfit together-Two-forty-first Engineers. We work in the same plant…You think I could face him if-“ (103)
“You’re goddam right I told him! I’d have that on my conscience the rest of my life if I knew all that stuff and let my best friend get caught!” (103)
“I’ve been on you from the start! Not once did you pull any wool over this boy’s eyes! You come in here and sprinkle the place with powder and spray perfume and cover the light bulb… and lo and behold the place has turned into Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile. Sitting on your throne and swilling down my liquor! (127-8)
“Come to think of it-maybe you wouldn’t be bad to –interfere with…”(129)
Stage Direction:
“He springs toward her, overturning the table” (130)
“He picks up her inert figure and carries her to the bed” (130)