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The Basics

Always integrate quotations into your text.

NEVER just “plop” a quotation in your writing!

In other words, don’t let a piece of textual evidence stand alone as its own sentence (unless it’s multiple sentences long).

Don’t overquote.

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How To Improve

Use only the most effective part of the quotation.

Use an ellipsis (…) if you are not using the entire quote. Example: “I wondered . . . how to start writing about something that was important to me” (180).

Maintain a smooth sentence style.

Use signal phrases which precede the quote.

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Example from To Kill a Mockingbird

Original example:

Mr. Radley is an unattractive man. “He was a thin leathery man with colorless eyes, so colorless they did not reflect light” (32).

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Example from To Kill a Mockingbird (cont’d)

Original — unblended:

Mr. Radley is an unattractive man. “He was a thin leathery man with colorless eyes, so colorless they did not reflect light” (32).

Smoother integration — well blended:

Mr. Radley is unattractive, a “...thin leathery man with colorless eyes” (32).

Even smoother integration:

Harper Lee describes Mr. Radley as “...a thin leathery man with colorless eyes…[that] did not reflect light” (32).

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Example from The Outsiders

Original:

Ponyboy realizes that perhaps the Socs and Greasers are not all that different. “Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different. We saw the same sunset” (41).

Smoothly blended into sentence:

After talking to Cherry, Ponyboy declares, “Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different” (41), recognizing that the Greasers and Socs have more in common than originally acknowledged.

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What is a signal phrase?

A clause or phrase that introduces a quote, paraphrase, or summary.

Ex. After talking to Cherry, Ponyboy declares, “Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren’t so different” (41), recognizing that the Greasers and Socs have more in common than originally acknowledged.

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Examples of Verbs to Use in Signal Phrases

acknowledges	comments	endorses	reasons	adds	compares
grants	refutes	admits	implies	rejects	agrees
contends	insists	reports	argues	declares	illustrates
responds	asserts	denies	notes	suggests	believes
disputes	claims	emphasizes	writes	thinks	observes

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Using Signal Phrases

Lacks signal phrase:

T.S. Eliot, in his “Talent and the Individual,” uses gender-specific language. “No poet, no artist of any art, has his meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists” (29).

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Using Signal Phrases

Use signal phrase to blend the quote into the sentence:

T.S. Eliot, in his “Talent and the Individual,” uses gender-specific language. He argues, for instance, that “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. [Indeed,] his significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists” (29).

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Student Example from To Kill a Mockingbird Writing

Original:

Scout and Jem realize their aunt’s beliefs differ from their father’s. “Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of the land the finer it was...there was indeed a caste system in Maycomb” (130-131).

Student’s revision:

The Finch children soon realize their aunt’s theories differ from their father’s as Scout comments “Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of the land the finer it was...there was indeed a caste system in Maycomb” (130-131).

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Which is better?

A. Scout explains that Miss Maudie loves everything in the world. “She loved everything that grew in God’s earth, even the weeds” (47). This shows the reader that while Miss Maudie likes to garden, she may also be more accepting of people that society considers “weeds” such as African Americans during this time period.

B. According to Scout, Miss Maudie “loved everything that grew in God’s earth, even the weeds” (47) which suggests that Miss Maudie may have been more accepting of people that society considers “weeds” such as African Americans and other outcasts.

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MLA : 8th Edition

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Rules

12 point Times New Roman/Arial Font
Double spaced
Last name and page number in the upper right hand corner of each page
Format for top left side of page:

Name

Teacher’s Name

Course Title (and your teacher may add any other info

such as period.

Date-ex. 21 September 2018

Title of essay/paper--do not put in bold or italics (unless the title of a book is in the title of your essay/paper)

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Sample Papers

OWL Purdue Sample MLA paper https://bit.ly/2oLfkn1

To Kill a Mockingbird Sample Paper

https://goo.gl/nkUFGU

Mrs. Hulse’s Sample Paper

https://goo.gl/5udQS3

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