Mencken commented in the American Mercury in 1933, “Nero fiddled, but Coolidge only snored.” How do I set up and follow up a quotation? President Calvin Coolidge’s tendency to fall asleep became legendary. One example of a quotation that adds flair: Do not insert a quotation solely for its literary merits. All quotations, however, must closely relate to your topic and arguments. In order to lend variety to your prose, you may wish to quote a source with particularly vivid language. and the creation of a language of female empowermentĪ comparison of three British poets and their use of rhyme Spicing up your prose. Southern colloquial expressions in William Faulkner’s Light in August
If the use of language is your primary topic, then you will obviously need to quote users of that language.Įxamples of topics that might require the frequent use of quotations include:
This scenario is probably most common in literature and linguistics courses, but you might also find yourself writing about the use of language in history and social science classes. Jean Fagan Yellin (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987). Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, ed. Thus, her words deserve more exposure than a paraphrase could provide. In this particular example, Jacobs is providing a crucial first-hand perspective on slavery. She exposed the hardships of both male and female slaves but ultimately concluded that “slavery is terrible for men but it is far more terrible for women.” Harriet Jacobs, a former slave from North Carolina, published an autobiographical slave narrative in 1861. It would then be appropriate to quote some of Jacobs’s words: One of your most provocative sources is a narrative written by a former slave, Harriet Jacobs. For example, suppose you were writing an essay about the differences between the lives of male and female slaves in the U.S. There will be times when you want to highlight the words of a particularly important and authoritative source on your topic. Giving added emphasis to a particularly authoritative source on your topic. involvement, the wives and mothers of soldiers often noted in their diaries their fear that the war would drag on for years. Historian John Doe has argued that in 1941 “almost all Americans assumed the war would end quickly” (Doe 223). If it is especially important that you formulate a counterargument to this claim, then you might wish to quote the part of the statement that you find questionable and establish a dialogue between yourself and John Doe: “At the beginning of World War Two, almost all Americans assumed the war would end quickly.” Suppose you want to challenge the following statement made by John Doe, a well-known historian: Sometimes, in order to have a clear, accurate discussion of the ideas of others, you need to quote those ideas word for word.
For example, papers analyzing literature may rely heavily on direct quotations of the text, while papers in the social sciences may have more paraphrasing, data, and statistics than quotations. The types of evidence you use will depend in part on the conventions of the discipline or audience for which you are writing.
And quotations are only one type of evidence: well-balanced papers may also make use of paraphrases, data, and statistics. The majority of your paper should still be your original ideas in your own words (after all, it’s your paper). But packing your paper with quotations will not necessarily strengthen your argument. You have probably been told by teachers to provide as much evidence as possible in support of your thesis. Use quotations at strategically selected moments.
#How to introduce a quote in a rhetorical analysis how to#
This handout will help you decide when and how to quote like a pro. Used ineffectively, however, quotations can clutter your text and interrupt the flow of your argument. Used effectively, quotations can provide important pieces of evidence and lend fresh voices and perspectives to your narrative.
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