Tutorama: Week Four: Working With Quotations

Working With Quotations | Writing With a Text | Writing Against a Text
Complicating a Quotation | Making Connections

Working with Quotations
You have probably heard your 301 instructor talk about putting ideas from your readings "into conversation" with each other and about becoming a part of that conversation yourself. One of the best ways to start this conversation is to find a quotation that expresses a key idea and to use that quotation to help develop your own argument. You can define your ideas by reading with the text (agreeing with it), reading against the text (disagreeing with it), or, even better, by showing how your own ideas extend or complicate the ideas expressed in the quotation. This tutorial will show you examples of different ways successful 301 writers used quotations to build their arguments.

After you read the examples on the following pages, return to your most recent draft and evaluate your own use of quotation. If you find that you are only agreeing with the texts you use, look for ways in which you can complicate your use of the texts by reading against a passage, by questioning or extending an author's ideas, or by making a deeper connection between the ideas of two writers.

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