Integrating Quotations into Your Writing

What are Direct Quotes?

Direct quotes are portions of a text taken word for word and placed inside of a work. Readers know when an author is using a direct quote because it is denoted by the use of quotation marks and

The Basics of Directly Quoting

All quoted material should be enclosed in quotations marks to set it off from the rest of the text. The exception to this is block quotes (see final video on this page), which require different formatting.
Quoted material should be an accurate word-for-word reproduction from the author’s original text. You cannot alter any wording or any spelling. If you must do so, you must use a bracket or an ellipsis (see section below).
A clear signal phrase/attribution tag should precede each quotation.
A parenthetical citation normally follows a quotation.
An explanation of why the quoted material is important should follow the quote.

The Hard Part of of Directly Quoting: Integrating Quotes into Your Writing

Introduce a quote with a signal phrase. Do not just drop a quote into your paper without identifying the author or contextualizing the quote. See the examples below.

Sample Signal Phrases:

Dr. Jane Doe declares her belief in UFOs, which she says are “phenomena scientists cannot explain” (105).
Dr. Jane Doe argues that . . .
Dr. Jane Doe believes that . . .
The work of Dr. Jane Doe shows that . . .
As Dr. Jane Doe indicates. . .
As Dr. Jane Doe implies. . .
As Dr. Jane Doe suggests. . .
Dr. Jane Doe thinks that . . .
Dr. Jane Doe addresses. . .

2. Include necessary information so that your reader can figure out which source you used. In the cases above (in the box), the writer uses the author’s name in the sentence. An in-text citation follows the quote, indicating the page number on which the quote appeared. In this case, the quote appeared on page 105.

3. Explain why the material you have just quoted is interesting or important. Do not, however, merely restate what is said in the quote. You, as the author of your essay, should explain the significance of each quotation to your reader. This goes far beyond simply including a signal phrase. Explaining the significance means indicating how the quoted material supports the point you are making in that paragraph.

Remember: just because you add a quote does not mean that you have made your point. Quotes never speak for themselves. How and why does that quoted material make the point you think it does?

Here are some helpful phrases for explaining quoted materials. Take a look at the sentences that follow the quoted material in bold:

Dr. Jane Doe believes that humans “must attempt to befriend our extraterrestrial neighbors” (110). What Dr. Does’s point demonstrates is that . . .
Dr. Jane Doe believes that humans “must attempt to befriend our extraterrestrial neighbors” (110). Here, Dr. Doe is not simply stating _______, she is also demonstrating __________.
Dr. Jane Doe believes that humans “must attempt to befriend our extraterrestrial neighbors” (110). This is an example of _____ because _______.
Dr. Jane Doe believes that humans “must attempt to befriend our extraterrestrial neighbors” (110). This statement clearly shows ______ because _______.

Brackets and Ellipses

Sometimes, in order to smoothly integrate quoted material into your paper, you may need to remove a word or add a word to make the quote make sense. If you make any change to quoted material, it must be formatted correctly using an ellipsis or brackets

Use brackets [these are brackets] to change a word. In the example below, the verb “approach” has been added to the quote by the student writer:

At the beginning of David Lodge’s novel Changing Places, “two professors of English Literature [approach] each other at a combined velocity of 1200 miles per hour” (7).

Use an ellipsis (this is an ellipsis . . . ) to indicate omissions.

The MLA Handbook explains that you should “[i]dentify an omission within a sentence by using three periods with a space before each and a space after the last . . .” (81).

Examples taken from the MLA Handbook.

When in doubt, strive to allow your voice – not a quote from a source – to begin each paragraph, precede each quote, follow each quote, and end each paragraph. Quotes that are integrated well into a paper allow you to control the paper. That is what a reader wants to see: your ideas and the way that you engage sources to shape and discuss your ideas.

The Quote Sandwich

In high school, you may have had an instructor who used the following metaphor of a sandwich to describe how to integrate a quotation into your writing.

Credit: Super ELA!

Example Quote Sandwich

According to Albert Einstein, “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing” (3). In saying this, Einstein encourages people to embrace curiosity as a mindset. The importance of curiosity can be seen in such inventions as the light bulb or the telephone. Without curiosity, these discoveries would not exist, and humans would certainly not have the modern conveniences that make life more comfortable today.

Deconstructing the Sandwich

Top Piece of Bread (Introduction): According to Albert Einstein,

Introduction Breakdown: The introductory phrase before the quotation helps the reader understand your evidence by explaining who or where it comes from; in this case, the source is Albert Einstein.

Filling (Quotation): “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing” (3).

Quotation Breakdown: The quotation is placed immediately after the introductory phrase, and it is placed in quotation marks. The number three in parentheses (3) after the quotation tells the reader that this line came from page three of the text that the writer is citing. This style of documenting page numbers is particular to the Modern Language Association (MLA), which is a commonly used style guide.

Bottom Piece of Bread (Explanation): In saying this, Einstein encourages people to embrace curiosity as a mindset. The importance of curiosity can be seen in such inventions as the light bulb or the telephone. Without curiosity, these discoveries would not exist, and humans would certainly not have the modern conveniences that make life more comfortable today.

Explanation Breakdown: The explanation of the quotation should explain what the writer thinks it means and/or how it connects to the larger thesis (main idea). In this case, the explanation clarifies Einstein’s meaning and elaborates on how curiosity is important when it comes to creating inventions.

Credit: Super ELA!

Watch the video below about The Quote Sandwich metaphor:

What about long quotes? How do you format them?

First, it should be noted that most short essays, those under 5 pages, should likely NOT contain long quotations. This is because short essays are typically not research papers. If you do want to include a long quote—over 4 lines of prose or 3 lines of poetry—use block quotations. Take a look at this video to see how to format long quotes according to MLA 8 formatting:

[1] Attributions

This chapter contains material from “About Writing: A Guide” by Robin Jeffrey, OpenOregon Educational Resources, Higher Education Coordination Commission: Office of Community Colleges and Workforce Development is licensed under CC BY 4.0

It also contains an excerpt from David Bartholomae’s “Inventing the University.”

⬅️ Previous: Quotation Marks: An Overview

Next: Quotation Marks with In-Text (Parenthetical) Citations ➡️

Adapted from "Integrating Quotations into Your Writing" by Lumen Learning, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Page updated

Report abuse