The Art of Quoting [c/o Hancock High School webpage]

Quoting someone elses words gives a tremendous amount of credibility to your summary and
helps ensure that it is fair and accurate (Birkenstein & Graff).
Use quotes correctly in your writing by using the following guidelines:
1. Quote Relevant Passages

How will they support your text at the particular point where you plan to insert
them?
They must be relevant to your work.

2. Frame Every Quotation

Make the quotes relevance and meaning clear to your readers by framing them
with an explanation.
Introduce the quotation and explain why it is worth quoting.
Introduction: Explain who is speaking and
what the quotation says.
Quotation: . (citation).
Explanation: Explain why you consider the
quotation to be important and what you take it
to say.

Templates for Introducing Quotations:

X states, _________.
According to X, ___________.
In her/his book, ____________, X maintains that ____________.
X complicates matters further when she writes, ___________.
Templates for Explaining Quotations:
Basically, X is saying _______________.
In other words, X believes _______________.
In making this comment, X argues that ________________.
X is insisting that ________________.
Xs point is that ______________.
The essence of Xs argument is that _________________.

Example:
The feminist philosopher Susan Bordo disapproves of the hold that the Western obsession
with dieting has on women. Her basic argument is that increasing numbers of women across the
globe are being led to see themselves as fat and in need of a diet. Citing the island of Fiji as a
case in point, Bordo notes that until television was introduced in 1995, the islands had not
reported cases of eating disorders. In 1998, three years after programs from the United States and
Britain began broadcasting there, 62 percent of the girls surveyed reported dieting (149-50).
Bordos point is that the Wests obsession with dieting is spreading even to remote places across
the globe. UItimately, Bordo complains, the culture of dieting will find you, regardless of where you
live.
3. Cite the Source

Page numbers should be included in parenthesis in between the quotation mark

and period.
Example: insert quotation here (132-35).

Authors last name should be included if there are multiple sources.

Example: insert quotation here (Bordo 132-35).
insert quotation here (Bordo and Cruz 132-35).

from Birkenstein, C. & Graff, G. (2007). They say/ I say: Moves that matter in persuasive
writing. W. W. Norton and Company.