Ms. BilskemperEnglish 11

A quotation is anything you copy from a text- when referring to a quotation in literary analysis, it does not always mean dialogue

Quotations must be in quotation marks with a citation at the end of the sentence, which consists of the author’s last name and the page number of the quotation

A quotation CANNOT stand alone; it must be incorporated into a sentence. This means that every sentence in your paper will have at least some of your own words (unless you are doing a block quotation)

… a helium balloon! We all know what happens when you

let go of a helium balloon: it flies away. In a way, the same thing happens when you present a quotation that is standing all by itself in your writing, a quotation that is not "held down" by one of your own sentences. The quotation will seem disconnected from your own thoughts and from the flow of your sentences.

Piggy, the intellectual, is a boy whose “knees were plump” and who was “very fat” (Golding 7). These physical features contributed to his getting habitually teased by the stronger boys.

When Ralph says he “can’t decide what to do straight off” and that he has to “have time to think things out,” he demonstrates that he takes his leadership role seriously (Golding 23).

Jack Merridew proves himself to be a bully when he tells Piggy, who is the weakest in the group, to “shut up” and that he is “talking too much” (Golding 21).

The purpose of incorporating quotations is not only so that your paper “flows” better, but so you also are explaining the context surrounding the quotation and the analysis of it.

In the following examples, be aware of how context, analysis, and the quotation are brought together.

"[A] house made of gingerbread and candy, with sugar window panes," is where the witch lived, and in part because of its deceptive appearance, the forsaken children were deceived (Grimm 506).

The shoemaker's religious side was revealed when he "committed himself to heaven" after working on the leather for the shoes and before going to bed (Grimm 569).

The Brothers Grimm revealed the elves' happiness when "they hopped and danced about, jumping over chairs and tables, and at last they danced out the door" (559).

“There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did,” asserts Pip as he reminisces about the prestigious and elite Grove of the Finches, continuing, “To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one” (Dickens 333).

Estella is very adamant that she has not and cannot possibly love someone else: “’I have not bestowed my tenderness anywhere. I have never had any such thing’” (Dickens 254).

Finally realizing his intended great expectations do not match up with his aspirations of being with Estella, Pip states, “Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a sting for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practice on when no other practice was at hand; those were the first smarts I had” (Dickens 361).

With the re-introduction to the convict, now known as Magwitch, Pip fully realizes that “Miss Havisham’s intentions towards me, all a mere dream; Estella not designed for me; I only suffered in Satis House as a convenience, a sting for the greedy relations, a model with a mechanical heart to practice on when no other practice was at hand” (Dickens 361).

There are only two punctuation marks to introduce a quotations A comma (,) following verbs (states,

says, yells, commands, etc) A colon (:) following complete sentences

NO PUNCTUATION FOLLOWS ‘THAT’!

Try your hardest to pick the BEST bits of quotations for your paper. Just because a quotation is longer, doesn’t mean it makes it better.

BUT… if you must use it, and it MORE THAN FOUR LINES, you must use a block quotation

It must be introduced with a complete sentence followed by a colon (:)

Enter down one, indent one inch (two tabs), single space the entire quotation with every left margin indented the same.

You will not use quotation marks The parenthetical citation comes

AFTER the punctuation.

After one simple interaction with someone of a higher social

class, Pip begins a downward spiral into self-deprecating

thoughts:So, leaving word with the shopman on what

day I was wanted at Miss Havisham’s again, I set off on the four-mile walk to our forge; pondering, as I went along, on all I had seen, and deeply revolving that I was a common laboring-boy; that my hands were coarse; that my boots were thick; that I had fallen into a despicable habit of calling knaves Jacks; that I was much more ignorant than I had considered myself last night, and generally that I was in a low-lived bad way. (Dickens 429)