Quoting Effectively: A How-To Guide
Quoting effectively is important because the right quotation presented properly can add rigor, force, support, and respect to your writing. Quoting ineffectively or awkwardly makes our writing seem random, unrefined, and uncritical.
As you’re writing, ask yourself: Do I need this quote? Why? Will it fit into my argument? Does it fit where I’m planning to include it? If the answers to those questions are yes, then using the quote is justified.
We use quotes because they say what we want to say better than we can say it ourselves. It’s also a way of giving credit to people who have smart things to say, and it’s necessary to give the authors of those good ideas credit for their work. For these reasons, be careful to choose quotes that you really have a lot to say about and that are adding nuance to your own argument. Ask yourself: Is this quote merely descriptive? Could I saw what it says in my own words? If that is the case, consider paraphrasing the author instead.
Once you’ve decided something is worth quoting, think about the following three rules for integrating the quote into your essay.
Step One: Introduce the quotation. Who are you quoting? Use signal phrases to help integrate the quote into the grammar of your own sentence.
When Lady Macbeth kills herself, Macbeth states, "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more" (V.V.19-28).
Step Two: Explain what the author is arguing in the quotation. The author should agree with how you sum up the quotation – this will help you establish credibility, by demonstrating that you do know what the author is saying even if you don’t agree.
When Lady Macbeth kills herself, Macbeth states, "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more" (V.V.19-28). In other words, Macbeth compares his existence to the condition of being a mere ghost. He goes on to compare people to actors who worry about their brief moment in the spotlight only to cease to exist before they realize it is over.
Step Three: State the implications of the quotation for your own argument. What do you make of the author’s argument?
When Lady Macbeth kills herself, Macbeth states, "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more" (V.V.19-28). In other words, Macbeth compares his existence to the condition of being a mere ghost. He goes on to compare people to actors who worry about their brief moment in the spotlight only to cease to exist before they realize it is over. The metaphors Shakespeare uses, comparing life to a "walking shadow" and man to "a poor player" emphasize the fleeting nature of life. Shadows are gone as soon as they appear, and actors only assume their character: the people they represent have no true meaning. Here, Macbeth realizes that his pitiful existence, from the moment he decided to kill King Duncan to the moment when his beloved wife killed herself, has been destroyed by his reckless ambition. This directly shows the damaging power of ambition, a major theme of the play. If Macbeth had been content with his previous title, which was prestigious enough, a wealth of tragedy would have been avoided.
For a detailed guide on in-text documentation, see The Little Seagull Handbook, 122-128.