Quotations

COMPETITION FOR THE CORRECT QUOTATION

Topic: Use of Quotations

Objective:   Students will be able to identify types and definitions of quotations during an identification game from guidelines previously set in a class handout.

Materials: A prize of some sort will be needed for the end of this activity; for example, fun size candy bars, fruit, extra credit points, etc. A bell will also be needed to conduct the game.

Steps:

1. Students will all receive a copy of the Using Quotations handout. There will be a class discussion of the types of quotations and different instances that quotations are used before the game is started.

2. Students will be divided up into two groups or teams.

3. A table with the bell sitting on it will split the two teams.

4. One person from each team will walk up to the table to answer the question asked by the teacher. Who ever rings the bell first and answers the questions correctly will receive a point for their team. Example question may be:

• This type of quote uses the exact words of an authority and must be identified in your paper with quotation marks and parenthetical documentations.

• What are three ways to incorporate quotes into a paper?

• If a quote is more than four lines long it is considered to be a ____________ and should be _____________.

5. Repeat step 4 for as many times as there are questions. Each team will also be given one “lifeline” for a question they are unable to answer. This “lifeline” is their fellow teammates.

6. After all of the questions have been asked, the team with the most points is the winner and they will receive some sort of a prize.

Results: A home work assignment will be given: Students will use quotations in their papers they are currently writing. They will hand in their papers the next day for quotations to be graded.

USING QUOTATIONS

What is a quotation?

A quotation is a reference to an authority or a citation of an authority. There are two types of quotations: direct and indirect.

1. A direct quotation uses the exact words of an authority and must be identified in your paper with quotation marks and parenthetical documentation.
2. An indirect quotation, or paraphrase, is a restatement of a thought expressed by someone else that is written in your own style that needs to be documented.

When do I use a quotation?

• Use quotations when the specific language of a quote is important.
• Use quotations when accuracy is essential — to indicate the writer’s exact position.
• Use quotations to support your argument, rather than relying upon someone else’s words.
• Keep quotes to a minimum. A short phrase or sentence is more easily understood than a long quotation.
• Look for the “kernel” or the most important part of the quotation and extract it.
• Paraphrase a quotation in your own words when possible.

How do I incorporate quotations into my paper?

• Combine a paraphrase with a quotation.

Original: Tania Modleski suggests that “if television is considered by some to be a vast wasteland, soap operas are thought to be the least nourishing  spot in the desert” (123).

Revised: In her critique of soap operas, Tania Modleski argues that some view television as “a vast wasteland” and soap operas as “the least nourishing spot in the desert” (123).

• Introduce a quotation by citing the name of the authority.

Example: Thoreau believed that “a true patriot would resist a tyrannical majority”

(23).

• Describe or identify the source of information if it is available.

Example: In The Coming of Age, Simone de Beavoir contends that the decrepitude accompanying old age is “in complete conflict with the manly or womanly ideal cherished by the young and fully grown” (65).

• Use key words from the quotation and make them a grammatical part of your sentence.

Example: As William Kneale suggests, some humans have a “moral deafness” which is never punctured no matter what the moral treatment (Acton 93).

Note: Overusing quotations can result in “patchwork” writing, a jumble of miscellaneous information from various sources that is merely pieced together. Quotations should fit logically into your text.

How do I use Short Quotations?

• If your quotations are less than four lines long (which is usually the case), place them in your text and enclose them with quotation marks.
• Remember to include a parenthetical citation for each quotation used. (The style of documentation used here is MLA.)

Example: Pearl, who is Hawthorne’s symbol of truth, reaches a proportionately happy conclusion, becoming “the richest heiress of her day, in the New World” (243).

Example: Edward Zigler laments, “One finds violence, hostility, and aggression everywhere, including TV, the movies, and in many of our everyday social relations” (40).

How do I use Long Quotations?

• If a quotation is more than four lines long, set it off from your text by indenting.
• Introduce the quotation with a complete sentence and a colon.
• Indent ten spaces, double space the lines, and do not use quotation marks.
• Do not indent the opening line unless the quote begins a new paragraph.

Example: Robert Hastrow sums up the process in the following passage, where he compares rays of light to a ball thrown up from the earth and returning because of the pull of gravity:

The tug of that enormous force prevents the ray of light from leaving the surface of the star; like the ball thrown upward from the earth, they are pulled back and cannot escape to space. All the light within the star is now trapped by gravity. From this moment on, the star is invisible. It is a black hole in space (65).

Final Reminders

• Do not quote when a paraphrase will do.
• Do not cite sources for information that is readily available in popular reference books:
  • well-known dates and events
  • identities of famous personalities and politicians
  • familiar sayings
• Always provide a context for your quotations — explain to the reader why and how the quote is relevant to the topic.

Katelyn Klute
September 16, 2009

Use of Quotations

Using Other People’s Words to Emphasize Your Own

Topic: Use of Quotations

Objective: The student will identify direct and indirect quotations in an article they are given by the teacher. The student will also properly cite quotations within their own speeches.

Materials: Highlighters, two different colors for each student
Copy of an article that uses both direct and indirect quotations for each student
Each student will need a copy of his or her speech

Steps:
1. Introduce the activity by saying, “American author Clarence Day once said that “Information’s pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.”” Explain that sometimes we are researching a topic that we have a lot of information about, but that we don’t have a lot of experience with ourselves. In these cases, we need to use outside sources from people who have had the experiences to back up our argument.
2. Explain that using quotations in your speech can give this credibility to your argument. Quotations can be used anywhere in the speech: Introductions: Quotations in introductions can urge listeners to think about something important and can capture the appropriate emotional tone. It can also add humor or give credibility to your speech, depending on how it is used.
Body of your speech: Quotations can be used as effective examples to back up your points. You need to be sure that you cite these quotes and any examples that you use in your speech so that your audience can find them if they need to.
Conclusions: Quotations are often an effective way to end speeches. Poetry can put your message into uplifting language, and credibly authored quoted prose can gain support for your central idea.
3. Discuss ways of including quotations in a speech. You can quote a passage of an article verbatim, where you read the passage aloud word for word. Or, you can paraphrase the author’s main ideas by summarizing them in your own words. You can also combine these two methods by quoting a brief passage, then explaining the rest of the author’s ideas in your own words. Remember to always say “quote” when you are quoting the authors words, and give credit to your sources even when you are paraphrasing.
4. Hand out the article. Instruct the students to highlight all of the direct quotations in the article in one color. Then highlight all of the indirect quotations and paraphrases in another color.
5. Have the students hold their articles up so that you can see the highlighting. Make sure that they are getting the idea. If you need to go through the article, you can do so as a class.
6. Tell the students to do the same highlighting exercise with their speeches.
7. Check to be sure that the students are properly citing their sources.
8. For homework, ask the students to add more quotations or to work on their citations, as is needed on an individual basis.

Results: Students should be able to effectively incorporate quotations into their speeches and should be able to recognize if a quotation is direct or indirect. Homework: Students will work to polish and perfect the use of quotations in their own speeches.

Elissa Martin
6-11-07