Integrating Quotations

INTEGRATING QUOTATIONS

INTRODUCTION: Here's a sample of an exercise I've had past students try so that they can get comfortable with integrating quotations in a variety of ways. It's based on a section of a chapter called "Using Sources" (chapter 6, p.693) from the St. Martin's Guide to Writing, 6th edition (SMGW).

The section describes how writers can integrate quotations at different points in their own sentences, and in different ways:

At the Beginning (of a sentence of your own)
In the Middle (of your own sentence)
At the End (of your own sentence)
Divided by Your Own Words

Then the section describes still other ways of introducing quotations:

Introducing a Statement with a Colon
Introducing a Statement with a Comma
Introducing a Statement Using "That"
Introducing a Statement Using "as . . . said":
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EXERCISE DIRECTIONS:
- Find one of the readings that you read recently for this class.
- Write sentences of your own in which you quote from the reading, as the student does in the sample below, quoting from various sources.
- Try them in the order listed above, which is the same as the order in the student sample.
- You can also see other samples in the SMGW textbook on pages 695-697, under the heading "Integrating Quotations."
- Read the samples below, and then experiment with using each of the forms listed. - Label each of them with labels from the list above, as the student does in the sample below.
- Post the results to the "First things" discussion forum titled "Integrating quotes."
- Your results should look like the student sample below, but of course, write sentences of your own, and use our recently assigned readings as the source of your own quotes.
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SAMPLE:
Below are examples of quotes integrated in the various forms listed above. This is based on the work of a student named Charity Zabel. She gave me permission to use her work as a sample, asking that I use her name if I did. I'm grateful to Charity for permission, and for her good work.

Notice that Charity labels each of her quotes in a way that corresponds to the different labels in the list. Charity is quoting from four sources: (1) Bruno Bettleheim's book, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales; (2) Lewis Hyde's book, The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property; (3) A few Grimm's Brother's tales, including "Hanzel and Gretel" and"The Shoemaker and the Elves"; and (4) a Japanese version of the shoemaker-elves story called The Farmer and Poor God.
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Integrated Quotations - Charity Zabel

At the Beginning:
"[A] house made of gingerbread and candy, with sugar window panes," is where the witch lived, and in part because of its deceptive appearance, the forsaken children were deceived (Grimm 276).

In the Middle:
The shoemaker's religious side was revealed when he "committed himself to heaven" after working on the leather for the shoes and before going to bed (558).

At the End:
The Brothers Grimm revealed the elves' happiness when "they hopped and danced about, jumping over chairs and tables, and at last they danced out the door" (559).

Divided by Your Own Words:
"[After] a while the family hardly ever saw him," author Wells writes of the Poor God's gradual disappearance, continuing, "It's not that he went somewhere else, it's just that after a while he wasn't there" (27).

Introducing a Statement with a Colon:
In the farmer's realization during "Shogatsu," Wells shows that being truly rich requires more than material things: "I thought I wanted to be truly rich. But there is singing in my house and laughter. I create beauty every day of my life. We are already truly rich" (25).

Introducing a Statement with a Comma:
Describing the shoemaker's optimistic personality, the author states,
"His conscience was clear
and his heart light amidst
all his troubles" (Grimm 557).

Introducing a Statement Using "That":
At midnight, the shoemaker and his wife discovered that "two naked little dwarfs" were the source of their blessings" (Grimm 557).

Introducing a Statement Using "as . . . said":
In fairy tales, supernatural events are often symbolic, for as John Silance has said, "When a character travels in a story and faces a supernatural figure (like a witch), it is sometimes a symbolic statement about a character seen earlier, or about some internal issue related to one or more of the earlier-mentioned characters". (179)