Tutorama: Week Six: Using Quotation

Introduction
All 100 and 100R assignments require you to use quotations from the text to support your project. Providing support means more than choosing a relevant passage and inserting it into your essay. You must show how your project interacts with the ideas and terms in the passage you choose. This process is called analysis. Below are some common questions about using quotations and some strategies you can use to develop your analysis of a quote.

Why do I need to quote from the text?

First of all, you are entering into a conversation with the authors that you read. You won't be able to participate effectively in that conversation without directly addressing their ideas. Quoting from the text allows you to engage with their ideas as you put forward your own. Second, your job is to persuade your readers that your position is valid – in opposition to an author’s idea, in support of it, or somewhere in between. By providing direct quotes from the text, you insure your own integrity as you engage with someone else’s ideas. Your readers can look at the quote you provide and compare their own interpretations with your analysis. Such a comparison helps the reader to decide whether or not to agree with your position.

How do I choose a good quote?

A good quotation introduces an important term, idea, or position that is directly related to your project. We call these “idea” quotes, as opposed to “summary” quotes, which are far less useful. A summary quote may be an example or description that could just as easily be paraphrased in your own words. In other words, an “idea” quote gives you something more meaty to comment on. First, write down in your own words the idea you want to convey. What terms or assertions from the essay can you use to engage with that idea? These notes can help guide you as you re-read the essay. Look for passages that:

• Define a key concept or idea

• Pose a question or problem

• Demonstrate a contradiction in the author's argument

• Present an idea supports or challenges a second author's idea

These are all “idea” quotes that will be helpful to you.

How do I incorporate the quote into my paragraph?

Every quotation needs to be “introduced” formally into your own paragraphs. In other words, you cannot simply drop a quote into your paragraph without giving it some context. Usually that context will include identifying the author, the page number where the quote is found, and some claim that you are making about the quote. There are different ways to present this information, but it should always be included somewhere. For example, here’s a quotation from Francine Prose’s essay, “Voting Democracy Off the Island,” in which she extends Darwin’s ideas to include reality TV:

“The most obvious lesson to be drawn from reality TV, the single philosophical pole around which everything else revolves, is that the laws of natural selection are even more brutal, inflexible, and sensible, than one might suppose from reading Origin of Species” (Prose 63).

Wait just a minute! Did you notice how I introduced the quote above? I did exactly what you should do in your own paragraphs. Notice that in the sentence preceding the quote I formally introduce the author and the essay (here’s a quotation from Francine Prose’s essay, “Voting Democracy Off the Island”) and then I follow it with a claim about the quotation itself (in which she extends Darwin’s ideas to include reality TV). This is only one way to introduce a quote successfully, but you can see how it moves you as a reader from my words in the first paragraph to Francine Prose’s words in the quotation, and then back again. Another way to do this is simply make your claim, and include the author and essay information in the parenthetical citation following the quote. But either way, you need to provide a context that separates the author’s ideas from your ideas. That is the most important part of introducing your quotations.

Why do I need to analyze quotations?

Remember that you can keep your project engaged with the essays by citing them directly. When you quote an author, your job is to explain how the passage you cite relates to your idea. While the meaning of the passage may be obvious to you, it may not be obvious to the readers of your essay. You must interpret the evidence for your audience to show them why they should agree with your position.

How do I analyze my quote?

The most effective method is close reading. Close reading is paying attention to the words authors choose to express their ideas. It is called close reading because it relies on your ability to pay close attention to the text: word by word, sentence by sentence. Close reading separates a passage into smaller parts so that you can see how an author constructs her argument. You then can use the elements of the passage to make your own point. Close reading is the first step towards analyzing a quotation.

What is the difference between summary and analysis?

Summary is a re-statement of the author's idea in your own words. It is also called paraphrse. In summary or paraphrase, you do not add your own ideas to what the author says. The author's ideas are the focus. Analysis connects the author's idea to your own argument. Your ideas are the focus; you discuss how the author's words further your own point. The distinction between summary and analysis can be confusing because summary makes up a small part of analysis. Right after they present a quote, writers often summarize what the quote says in 1-2 sentences to clarify the meaning of a complex quote. The key to using summary is brevity (that means being concise, keeping it short and to the point). Most of your paragraph should be devoted to close reading and analysis: defining terms and relating them to your own ideas.

Practice

Choose a passage from an essay that seems particularly relevant to your project, or at least to your assignment question. Copy the passage at the top of a blank page. Then write down your responses to the following:

1. Use your own words to summarize the passage in 1-2 sentences.
2. What are the most important words or concepts?
3. How would you define those terms?
4. How do those terms relate to the author's position or claim in that passage?
5. How do those terms relate to any other essay you've read?
6. How do those terms relate to your position or project?

Now use your answers to the questions above to write a paragraph. Make sure that the largest part of the paragraph addresses questions 4-6.

Conclusion
Developing useful and strong analysis of a quotation takes practice. Remember that the passages you choose should serve your own project in a specific way. When you quote another text, you should have a clear idea of how that quote helps you to make your own point. At the same time, you need to quote every author with integrity, demonstrating that you understand that author’s position, especially when his position is at odds with yours. And remember, those kinds of quotations can often be the most interesting if you handle them well.

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