Transcript Evaluating Sources - Napa Valley College

Direct Quotes
Quote in these situations:
1. Wording is particularly memorable or vivid
2. Words of a reliable authority lend support to
your position
3. Citing an author that challenges other expert
opinions
4. When discussing the author’s choice of words
Direct Quotes
Change quotes for following purposes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
To emphasize particular words
To omit irrelevant information
To insert information for clarity
To make grammatically correct for your
sentence
Direct Quotes
Use Italics for Emphasis:
In her 2001 expose of the struggles of the working
class, Ehrenreich writes, “The wages Winn-Dixie is
offering -- $6 and a couple of dimes to start with --are
not enough, I decide, to compensate for this indignity”
(14; emphasis added).
Direct Quotes
Use Ellipsis Marks for Omissions:
Hermione Roddice is described in Lawrence’s Women
in Love as a “woman of the new school, full of
intellectuality and . . . Nerve-worn with consciousness”
(17).
Direct Quotes
Use Brackets for Insertions or Changes:
In the dark, cold streets during the “short days of
winter,” the boys must generate their own heat by
“play[ing] till [their] bodies glowed.” Music is “[shaken]
from the buckled harness” as if it were unnatural, and
the singers in the market chant nasally of “the troubles
in our native land” (30).
Direct Quotes
Use Brackets for Insertions or Changes:
Guterson notes that among Native Americans in
Florida, “education was in the home’ learning by doing
was reinforced by the myths and legends which
repeated the basic value system of their [the
Seminoles’] way of life” (159).
Direct Quotes
Quotes must be part of your sentence
–
–
–
Colon following an independent clause
Signal phrase and a comma
Integrated into the grammatical structure of
the sentence
Direct Quotes
Introducing a Quote with a Colon:
As George Williams notes, protection of white privilege
is critical to patterns of discrimination: “Whenever a
number . . .” (727).
Direct Quotes
Introducing a Quote with a Comma:
Signal phrase can appear at the beginning, middle, or
end.
Similarly, Duncan Turner asserts, “As matters now
stand . . .” (259).
Direct Quotes
Integrate quote into the grammatical
structure of the sentence
More specifically, Wharton’s imagery of suffusing
brightness transforms Undine before her glass into
“some fabled creature whose home was in a beam of
light” (21).
Direct Quotes
Integrate Sources:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Mark Boundaries
Establish Authority
Use present-tense verbs (argues)
Quote of 4 lines or less may appear anywhere in
your sentence
5 Lines or more must use block form
Direct Quotes
Integrate Sources:
1.
2.
Sandwich the quote: Place the quote between
interpretive comments that link the quotation to
your paper’s argument.
Vary the language and placement of your signal
phrases
Paraphrase
Paraphrase passages whose details you
wish to use but whose language is not
particularly striking.
Restate all relevant information without
any additional comments or suggestion of
agreement or disagreement
Paraphrase
It is often about the same length as the
original passage
Can use signal phrases at the start of the
paraphrase
Paraphrase
Must alter style and wording
Must not add ideas
Must not alter meaning
Summarize
Summarize any long passages whose
main points you wish to record as support
for a point you are making.
A condensed version of the writing in your
own words.
Include citation