• Signal Phrase Exercise

One of the things students struggle most with when first working with text citation is knowing how to introduce source quotations. Too often, quotations are “dropped” into a draft and by doing so, there is a failure to connect the source to the claims they should be supporting.

Below are seven sources with all the information needed to create an in-text citation. Use each source, along with the information, to form seven complete sentences, one for each source. Include an in-text citation in each sentence. There is more than one right way to make these into sentences with signal phrases, creating an in-text citation. Refer to the chart on the next page for signal words you can use for creating a phrase to make a proper in-text citation.

Example:

Source: Mark Twain

Credit: author of Roughing It

Quote: “I was young and ignorant, and I envied my brother.”

Mark Twain reveals in Roughing It, “I was young and ignorant, and I envied my brother.”

  1. Source:

Credit: Thu-Huong Ha

Claim: Hong Kong is the best city in the world for book lovers

  1. Source: C. S. Lewis

Credit: author of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Fact: has credited the creation of the faun Mr. Tumnus to a dream he had in his teens

  1. Source:

Credit: great Internet site for the Panama Canal

Quote: “A ship traveling from New York to San Francisco can save 7,872 miles using the Panama Canal instead of going around South America.”

  1. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Credit: Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Quote: “I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.”

  1. Source: Mark Twain

Credit: author of Roughing It

Quote: “I was young and ignorant, and I envied my brother.”

  1. Source: President Barack Obama

Credit: Statement on the Orlando, Florida Shootings

Quote: “So this is a sobering reminder that attacks on any American—regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation—is an attack on all of us and on the fundamental values of equality and dignity that define us as a country.”

Verbs to Introduce Quotes
acknowledges / advises / agrees / argues / asserts / believes / charges / thinks
claims / concludes / criticizes / declares / describes / discusses / disputes / writes
emphasizes / expresses / interprets / lists / objects / observes / offers
opposes / remarks / replies / reports / reveals / states / suggests