Choose a Sign-in Option
There are many ways to include ideas from outside sources. In this section of the textbook, we will focus on quoting.
Sources are used to add credibility and emphasis to your essay. When you read about your topic to prepare to write, you will want to make notes of specific sources that influenced your position on the topic and the supporting details you chose for support. After you have decided that information from the original source would be best to include word-for-word, you will follow these steps.
The first step is to read about your topic in reputable sources. If you are unsure if a source is trustworthy, talk with either your writing or reading teacher.
While you are reading, create a system for saving the information that is helpful for creating your essay structure and developing your ideas. You may choose to do this with sticky notes, the copy/paste function in a word document, or highlighting. At this stage, you will find larger sections of text that you won't actually use directly in your writing.
Once you have created your essay outline, you can begin to connect these sources you identified as helpful to specific paragraphs.
For quoting, you will need to focus in a small section of the source (up to 40 words, but typically shorter) that will strengthen your main idea and supporting details. Quotes are best used when the original words from a source are:
You should not quote large blocks of text (more than 40 words), especially in a short essay. You want the majority of the writing in an essay to be your own words, not a quote of someone else.
Below is an example of an original paragraph-length source which was narrowed down to a relevant and precise quotation that could be added to a paragraph.
The enormous size, relatively steep submarine slopes, and rapid growth of Hawaiian volcanoes cause them to become gravitationally unstable and collapse. Dozens of giant landslides, some with debris extending more than 200 km from their source, have been recognized along the Hawaiian ridge and around other oceanic volcanoes. These landslides are thought to have produced colossal tsunamis. Thus, landslides from oceanic volcanoes pose a major risk to populations bordering Earth's oceans.
By Michael Garcia Hawaiian Volcanoes: From Source to Surface (published in 2013), page 13
"Dozens of giant landslides, some with debris extending more than 200 km from their source, have been recognized along the Hawaiian ridge and around other oceanic volcanoes" (Garcia, 2015, p. 13).
After you have chosen what part of the source to use for your quote, you will need to put those exact words in quotation marks " " and include the in-text citation in parentheses (Author, year, page/paragraph #). If you quote only a part of a sentence, you should use ellipses ... to show where there is information missing.
"Dozens of giant landslides ... have been recognized along the Hawaiian ridge and around other oceanic volcanoes" (Garcia, 2015, p. 13).
Even though the quotation uses someone else's words, the essay or written piece you are adding it to is still your writing. This means a quote should not just be dropped into the middle of a paragraph. There need to be transitions in and out of a quote to show that it is there for a specific purpose other than to meet the assignment rubric expectation of a certain number of sources. Good writing requires you to show that the source is used strategically to enhance your writing.
You will never just copy and paste a quote by itself. When you use a quote, it will be part of a sentence and will usually be followed by a sentence you wrote to explain its importance to the main idea in some way.
In recent years, "dozens of giant landslides, some with debris extending more than 200 km from their source, have been recognized along the Hawaiian ridge and around other oceanic volcanoes" (Garcia, 2015, p. 13). This situation provides excellent opportunities to study the cause of these landslides because they are so frequent.
The introduction you decide to use for the quote will vary depending on your purpose in using those words. Here are some possible reasons why an author may choose to include a direct quote for support:
The reason for including the quote can often decide how it would be best introduced. Here are some examples of how each of the above purposes could be introduced based on purpose:
The introduction you choose to write will be outside of the quotation marks " ". The exact words you are quoting will go inside the quotation marks " ". See the example below.
In recent years, "dozens of giant landslides, some with debris extending more than 200 km from their source, have been recognized along the Hawaiian ridge and around other oceanic volcanoes" (Garcia, 2015, p. 13).
These introductions preceed the quote to create a bridge between your own supporting ideas and the additional perspective of your source. By smoothy incorporating someone else's words into your own, you remain in control of the essay.
Just as you needed to create a bridge from your original thought into the direct quote using an introduction, you will need to transition back to your own words. The most effective way to do this is to elaborate on why this quote is relevant. Even if the reasons for including the source feel obvious to you as an author, the cohesion of the paragraph will be much stronger when you include a commentary or reaction to the source before moving into your next supporting thought.
Take a look at the the example quote in a complete context.
In recent years, "dozens of giant landslides, some with debris extending more than 200 km from their source, have been recognized along the Hawaiian ridge and around other oceanic volcanoes" (Garcia, 2015, p. 13). This situation provides excellent opportunities to study the cause of these landslides because they are so frequent.
Notice that the author does not simply summarize the quote or give an overly general "this is important" response. This quote is contextualized by showing that this fact focused on time and place fits into a larger discussion about causes. Even without seeing the topic sentence, this quote in context signals that the main idea of the pargraph (topic sentence) has to do with learning more about the causes of landslides.
At the beginning of this chapter about descriptive writing, you learned that academic descriptive writing is typically situated within a larger purpose. The use of descriptive supporting ideas and details is to add strength and interest to the thesis. This contextualized quote is an excellent example of how this can be done.
*It is possible to include longer direct quotations, but that is not covered in this textbook.
The following quotes come from an article about James Cook, a famous British sailor in the 1700s. Read the example topic sentences below and choose short quotes from these paragraphs that could be used to support each topic sentence.
Source:
"After the Endeavour was grounded on the nearby Queensland coast and repaired, Cook sailed it back to England. He stopped briefly at Batavia (modern Jakarta) for supplies, and, although the crew had been remarkably healthy until then, 30 died of fever and dysentery contracted while on land. None of the crew, however, died of scurvy (a dietary disease, caused by a lack of ascorbic acid, that notoriously decimated the crews of ships on lengthy voyages in the 18th century). This was because, in addition to ensuring cleanliness and ventilation in the crew's quarters, Cook insisted on an appropriate diet that included cress, sauerkraut, and a kind of orange extract. The health in which he maintained his sailors in consequence made his name a naval byword" (Villiers, 2018, "Voyages and Discoveries," para. 2).
"... he successfully completed the first west–east circumnavigation in high latitudes, charted Tonga and Easter Island during the winters, and discovered New Caledonia in the Pacific and the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia island in the Atlantic. He showed that a real Terra Australis existed only in the landmasses of Australia, New Zealand, and whatever land might remain frozen beyond the ice rim of Antarctica.
And, once again, not one of his crew died of scurvy. Back in England, he was promoted to captain at last, elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and awarded one of its highest honours, the gold Copley Medal, for a paper that he prepared on his work against scurvy" (Villiers, 2018, "Voyages and Discoveries," para. 4).
Choose one of the individuals below. After skimming the article, practice choosing and introducing a quote in each of the following ways:
The following quotes come from research about William Wilberforce. Add commentary for each of the quotes to connect them to the topic sentence. These quote commentaries should be independent of each other. You are not writing a paragraph.
TS: William Wilberforce worked during his political carreer to end slavery in Britain.
Imagine you are drafting a paragraph in an essay about the Black Death. Your paragraph lacks development, so you do additional research to add to the paragraph.
Read the quotes below and determine if there is any information that would support the topic sentence below. What information should probably not be used to support this topic sentence?
Topic sentence: The Black Plague was one of history's most deadly epidemics.
This content is provided to you freely by Ensign College.
Access it online or download it at https://ensign.edtechbooks.org/up_writing_fall/quoting.
