Field/Quote Integration*

Quotation Integration: No Dropping Allowed

-Readers should be able to seamlessly move from your words to the words of a source. This means you should avoid dropping quotations into the middle of your paper like this:

Some experts have argued that a range of legitimate concerns justifies employer monitoring of employee Internet usage. “Employees could accidentally (or deliberately) spill confidential corporate information . . . or allow worms to spread throughout a corporate network” (Tyman).

-Instead, use a signal phrase and integrate the quote into your sentence like this:

Some experts have argued that a range of legitimate concerns justifies employer monitoring of Internet usage. As PC Word columnist Daniel Tyman points out, companies that don’t monitor network traffic can be penalized for their ignorance: “Employees could accidentally (or deliberately) spill confidential corporate information . . . or allow worms to spread throughout a corporate network.”

-You can also integrate quotes into your own sentences without using signal phrases like this:

Experts argue that legitimate concerns such as the possibility that “employees accidentally (or deliberately) spill confidential corporate information..or allow worms to spread throughout a corporate network” justify employer monitoring of employee Internet usage” (Tynan).

Verbs to use in signal phrases:

Acknowledge, adds, admits, agrees, argues, asserts, believes, claims, comments, compares, confirms, contends, declares, denies, describes, disputes, emphasizes, endorses, grants, illustrates, implies, insists, notes, observes, points out, reasons, refutes, rejects, reports, responds, suggests, thinks, writes

*All signal phrases and examples from Hacker, A Pocket Style Manual 5th Edition

Now you try. These are examples plucked from the assignment I collected we met last time. Try to integrate the quote seamlessly.

  1. People are too resourceful for a ban on sugar or guns to be effective. The phrase ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’ comes to mind. “To attempt to control crime or violence by controlling the general ownership or use of guns among the public at large is to attempt to control the behaviors of a very small fraction of the population (the criminally or violently inclined fraction) by controlling the behaviors and activites of rougly half the U.S. populaion. Whatever else might be said about the approach, it is certainly not very efficient” (Wright 64).
  1. Obesity is a major issue in America. Almost everyone you know is overweight; including yourself. In The Truth About Toxic Sugar, “the past three surgeon generals and the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff have declared obesity a ‘threat to national security’” (Lustig).
  1. Reasons for regulating sugar have a lot to do with obesity and its effects on a person. “The consequences of obesity are well-documented with an estimated 2.8 billion adults dying each year from related conditions: overweight and obesity have also been linked to chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, Type II diabetes, respiratory diseases and certain cancers” (Jou and Teechakehakij).
  1. Althougth sugar is considered empty calories by authorities, scientists argue differently “A growing body of scientific evidence is showing that fructose can trigger processes that lead to liver toxicity and a host of other chronic diseases. A little is not a problem, but a lot kills-slowly” (Lustig).