Using Quotations Effectively
to integrate them into your prose so that they read seamlessly. Here I'll offer you some basic methods for successfully handling quotations in courses in Humanities disciplines (English Literature and Writing Studies), but you should find most of this advice useful for papers in any academic context.
Use quotations as evidence for phenomena that you want to demonstrate in your analysis. They help show readers how something works, since simply telling them may not be enough to illustrate a particular point, inform them about some complex elements of research, or persuade that a phenomenon exists. Bottom line #2: Your essays should not contain what I sometimes call “floating” or "zombie" quotations—that is, quotations that you drop into your essay unceremoniously without introduction or commentary. They are "floating" in the sense that they aren't attached to your prose and so are at risk of flying away never to be seen again. Anchor them with your words and grammar! If you prefer the other metaphor: like zombies, we know these quotations used to be alive somewhere in some clean context, but we have no idea where they are coming from, and they have suddenly arrived in what looks like an altered state, and now you've made them your readers' problem instead of a source of knowledge. Don't let the undead visit your writing. Keep all quoted scholarship or other cited material fresh and healthy by ensuring its flesh stays connected to its original blood source and the blood of the new bodies you're allowing it to visit. JUST TO VISIT. Don't let a zombie eat or corrupt your prose! Clearly I've started to push this one too far--but you get the picture.
Even when you use free-standing quotations––those which grammatically stand on their own (i.e., are complete sentences)—you still need
to introduce the passage that you cite. Remember, quotations may be
interpreted in a number of ways; you must explain how you are interpreting them
for readers (without necessarily saying “I think this quotation means X, Y and
Z” explicitly).
Bottom line #3:Generally
speaking, you can follow this basic
formula as you write:
attributive tag + quotation+ citation + commentary/discussion analysis