Almost All you Need to Know About Quotations



Almost All you Need to Know About Quotations

1. Be careful what you “prove.” Rarely do quotes prove anything. What good quotations usually do is support a particular interpretation or understanding. Instead of using the word “prove,” use some of these suggestions:

suggests indicates demonstrates

implies argues (that, for) supports

testifies to shows underscores

emphasizes proposes puts forth

Instead of:

This quotation proves that Huck is mature: “ ‘All right, then, I’ll go to hell’-and tore it up” (Twain 214).

Try:

Huck’s decision to tear up the letter to Miss Watson and “go to hell” shows a new level of maturity (Twain 214).

2. Get the words right. Quote accurately.

3. There is no shortcut to good research. Find the best quotations for your argument.

4. Don’t assume the reader will know why you’re using a particular quotation. Make your reason for using the quote as clear as possible.

5. Explain the point or sense of the quotation.

Instead of:

Huck learned that, “You can’t pray a lie” (213).

Try:

Huck’s struggle with society’s moral law is evident when he tries to pray for Jim’s return and realizes “You can’t pray a lie” (213).

6. Integrating quotations requires some finesse. Properly integrated quotes can be the difference between a blah essay or a ta-dah essay. Quotations need to be worked into the writing, but some efforts to do this actually stop essays dead in their tracks. Students often feel they must announce that a quotation or paraphrase serves as an example. But such careful announcements can inhibit the flow of the piece – imagine a reader getting stuck in mud as he or she reads an essay – good integration of quotes will prevent this.

Instead of:

Huck’s reply to Aunt Sally’s question about whether anyone was killed during the cylinder head explosion on the ship is, “No’m. Killed a nigger” (221). This is an example of his lack of growth and maturity.

Try:

When Aunt Sally questions whether anyone was killed during the cylinder head explosion on the ship, Huck replies, “No’m. Killed a nigger,” illustrating an absence of growth and maturity within his character (221).

If the quotation is not in a complete sentence, then you need to weave it into your own sentence as you would any other word, phrase, or clause:

Huck felt “free and easy and comfortable on a raft” (116).

7. Use signal phrases and statements to introduce quotations to help readers make sense of them. The trick is to not use weak or vague signal phrases or statements.

Instead of:

Another example of mankind’s cruelty towards his fellow man in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is Colonel Sherburn’s cold-blooded killing of Boggs .The text reads, “Bang! Goes the first shot, and he staggers back, clawing at the air-bang! goes the second one, and he tumbles backward onto the ground…” (143).

Try:

Twain uses the cold-blooded murder of Boggs at the hand of Colonel Sherburn to demonstrate mankind’s cruelty towards his fellow man: “Bang! Goes the first shot, and he staggers back, clawing at the air-bang! goes the second one, and he tumbles backward onto the ground…” (143).

One common way to build signal phrases is with the According to x construction:

According to Huck, “Human beings can be awful cruel to one another” (231).

Another technique is to use phrases with the author + verb construction:

Twain illustrates examples of mankind’s cruelty towards his fellow man through the abuse Huck endures at the hand of his father.

8. Use set-off quotations properly. If the quotation you intend to use is longer than four sentences (or four lines on the page), you need to set off the quote. Left-indent the set-off quotation (half-inch or five spaces or tab) and prepare for it with a signal statement ending in a colon. Do not put quotations around the set-off quote. Place a period at the end of the last sentence in you quotation (unless the last sentence goes on, in which case you would use … ) then place the information you need to inside parenthesis with no period.

Huck’s decision to write the letter to Miss Watson illustrates a conflict between an individual’s higher moral values and the morality that dictates the laws of the society in which that individual lives:

I felt good and washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed [sic] I could pray now. But I didn’t do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking-thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. …And I see Jim before me all the time…But Somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. (214)

9. Punctuating quotations requires you to follow the rules. For in-text quotations, the rules of American usage are fairly simple: commas and periods go inside the quotation marks, and all other punctuation marks go outside. Here is a passage and versions of quotes showing different punctuation:

“The door ain’t going to be locked, Tom, and there’s the window and the rod; but you’ll be good, won’t you? And you won’t go? For my sake.”

Laws knows that I wanted to go bad enough to see about Tom, and was all intending to go; but after that I wouldn’t ‘a’ went, not for kingdoms.

Huck shows growth of conscience when he is softened by Aunt Sally’s request for him to be good: “Laws knows that I wanted to go bad enough to see about Tom, and was all intending to go; but after that I wouldn’t ‘a’ went, not for kingdoms” (283).

“But you’ll be good, won’t you?” and “And you won’t go?” are all the questions Huck’s conscience needs to surface once again (283).

Huck was “intending” to sneak out to look for Tom, but Aunt Sally guilted him into staying and being “good” (283).

10. When questions arise, consult the MLA Handbook or visit

Information compiled with help from Michael Harvey’s The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing on March 13, 2004

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