Blending Quotations ________________________________________________________________

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Blending Quotations______________________________
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The Basics

• Always integrate quotations into your text.
• NEVER just drop a quotation in your writing!
• In other words, dont let a piece of textual
  evidence stand alone as its own sentence (unless
  its multiple sentences long).
• Use your own words to introduce a quotation.

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How To Improve Blending Quotes

• Use only the most effective part of the
  quotation.
• Maintain a smooth sentence style.
• Remember to use ellipses if necessary.
• Remember to use brackets if you add or
  change a word.
• Use signal phrases which precede the quote.

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Example from TKAM

• Original example
• Mr. Radley is an unattractive man. He was a
  thin leathery man with colorless eyes, so
  colorless they did not reflect light (Lee 32).
• Bad example!
• Why?
• The quote is just dropped in.

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Example from TKAM (contd)

• Original unblended
• Mr. Radley is an unattractive man. He was a
  thin leathery man with colorless eyes, so
  colorless they did not reflect light (Lee 32).
• Smoother integration well blended
• Mr. Radley is unattractive, a thin leathery man
  with colorless eyes (Lee 32).
• The part about his eyes is omitted.
• Even smoother integration
• Harper Lee describes Mr. Radley as a thin
  leathery man with colorless eyesthat did not
  reflect light (32).

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Another Example

• Original
• Hemingway hints of a storm on the move. The
  shadow of a cloud moved across the field of
  grain (Hemingway 179).
• Smoothly blended into sentence
• A storm approaches the town as the shadow of a
  cloud moves across the field of grain
  (Hemingway 179) and Maggie turns back to the
  forest.

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Using Signal Phrases

• Ineffective
• T.S. Eliot, in his Talent and the Individual,
  uses gender-specific language. No poet, no
  artist of any art, has his meaning alone. His
  significance, his appreciation is the
  appreciation of his relation to the dead poets
  and artists (Eliot 29).
• Why ineffective? the quote is dropped in.

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Using Signal Phrases

• Use signal phrases to blend the quote into the
  sentence, making it read smoothly
• T.S. Eliot, in his Talent and the Individual,
  uses gender-specific language. He argues, for
  instance, that no poet, no artist of any art,
  has his complete meaning alone. Indeed, his
  significance, his appreciation is the
  appreciation of his relation to the dead poets
  and artists (Eliot 29).
• See how the signal phrase makes the sentence read
  smoother?

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Student Examples from Night Timed Writing

• Original
• Now, as Rabbi Eliahu searches hopelessly for a
  son of his whom had abandoned him, Elie renounces
  his faith completely. And in spite of myself, a
  prayer formed inside of me, a prayer to this God
  in whom I no longer believed (Wiesel 91).
• A suggested revision
• Now, as Rabbi Eliahu searches hopelessly for a
  son of his whom had abandoned him, a prayer
  formed inside Elieto this Godhe no longer
  believed and he renounces his faith completely
  (Wiesel 91).

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Your Turn ?
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More Student Examples

• Original
• Night also represents the fire that killed so
  many people. And just as the train stopped,
  this time we saw flames rising from a chimney
  into a dark sky (Wiesel 28).
• A suggested revision
• Wiesel suggests night represents death by fire as
  he and other passengers witness flames rising
  from a chimney into a dark sky which are no
  doubt burning people alive (Wiesel 28).

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More Student Examples

• Original
• You start to see this fairly early in the book.
  What had happened to me? My father had been
  struck in front of me, and I had not even
  blinked (Wiesel 39).
• A suggested revision
• Elie is disgusted with himself when his father is
  beaten right in front of him, and he had not
  even blinked (Wiesel 39). He begins to question
  his own values as his concern for his father
  appears to decrease.

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More Student Examples

• Original
• Through out the book, most of the killings or
  horrible events, including Elie, occur during the
  night. They must of taken him away before
  daybreak and taken him to the crematorium
  (Wiesel 112).
• A suggested revision
• Throughout the book, many horrible events
  including the killings occur during the night.
  Indeed, Wiesel tells of a man takenaway before
  daybreak to the crematorium (Wiesel 112).