Incorporating Quotations and Citing Sources

Incorporating Quotations Correctly

1. Introduce your quotation so the readers understand the context.

a. make sure it is clear who is speaking and what is going on in that part of the text

b. use appropriate signal phrases such as states, explains, writes, argues, etc.

c. provide the author’s last name and page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence

Ex. In the first chapter of Charlotte’s Web, Fern stopped her father from killing the runt; she stood in front of him and exclaimed, “Please don’t kill it!” (White 2).

2. Smoothly and correctly incorporate the quotation into your sentence using the right punctuation and grammar. A quote should not be a separate sentence.

a. Use a colon after a complete sentence before the quote:

Ex. The word rain is repeated several times to emphasize the gloomy mood: “The next day was rainy and dark. Rain fell on the roof of the barn…. Rain fell in the barnyard and ran in crooked courses down into the lane…” (25).

b. Use a comma if quotation follows an incomplete sentence:

Ex. Because the rain kept him indoors, “Wilbur was crying again, for the second time in two days” (27).

c. Integrate the quotation with the rest of the sentence:

Ex. The rain is important because it “upset Wilbur’s plan” (25).

3. Indicate alterations with square brackets. For example, if you need to supply a character's name where a quotation has a personal pronoun, or a pronoun for a noun.
Ex. “The first time [Wilbur] woke, he heard Templeton gnawing a hole in the grain bin” (32).
4. Indicate breaks in quoting with ellipsis points.(See above)
5. Use single quotation marks to enclose quotes within another quotation.
Ex. Right before Wilbur meets Charlotte, he hears a voice: “In his dreams he heard again the voice saying, ‘I’ll be a friend to you. Go to sleep – you’ll see me in the morning’” (33).
6. Block quotation: For quotations more than four typed lines, indent 10 spaces (2 tabs) from left margin. You do not need quotation marks.
Ex.

Chapter Nine focuses on and illustrates how miraculous Charlotte’s web is:

A spider’s web is stronger than it looks. Although it is made of thin, delicate strands, the web is not easily broken. However, a web gets torn every day by the insects that kick around init, and a spider must rebuild it when it gets full of holes (55).

This shows that there are many aspects of a web to appreciate: it is strong yet delicate, practical and necessary in that it is the livelihood of a spider, and it requires constant care and attention.

Citing Sources Using MLA Format

I. In-text Citation - after you have summarized, paraphrased, or quoted a source, you must cite it by including author's last name and page number from which the information came from in parentheses.

Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as "symbol-using animals" (3). Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).

We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has “more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change . . . ” (“Impact of Global Warming” 6).

II. Works Cited Page - on a separate page, list the sources you incorporated in your foreword; follow what is called MLA format. Here is a sample page. What do you notice about the format?

Works Cited

An Inconvenient Truth. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Al Gore, Billy West. Paramount, 2006. DVD.

"Blueprint Lays Out Clear Path for Climate Action." Environmental Defense Fund. Environmental Defense Fund, 8 May 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.

Clinton, Bill. Interview by Andrew C. Revkin. “Clinton on Climate Change.” New York Times. New York Times, May 2007. Web. 25 May 2009.

Dean, Cornelia. "Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet." New York Times. New York Times, 22 May 2007. Web. 25 May 2009.

Ebert, Roger. "An Inconvenient Truth." Rev. of An Inconvenient Truth, dir. Davis Guggenheim. Rogerebert.com. Sun-Times News Group, 2 June 2006. Web. 24 May 2009.

GlobalWarming.org. Cooler Heads Coalition, 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.

Gowdy, John. "Avoiding Self-organized Extinction: Toward a Co-evolutionary Economics of Sustainability." International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 14.1 (2007): 27-36. Print.

Leroux, Marcel. Global Warming: Myth Or Reality?: The Erring Ways of Climatology. New York: Springer, 2005. Print.

* Note: Refer to http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/12/ for more information. Also, you may go to http://easybib.com/ to help you correctly format your Works Cited page.