Good Evidence

Uses the least amount of a quoted

passage you can to support your
answer.

Good Evidence
Has to be used in the context that it
is given in the book.

Good Evidence
Actually proves the claim that you
make
Ex. Aunt Polly reveals her conflicted
feelings about how to raise Tom
Every time I let him off, my conscious
does hurt me so, and every time I hit him
my old heart most breaks (Twain 74.)

Lead-ins for Direct

Quotations
The Research Process
American Literature

Most Important Rule

Never drop a quotation into a
sentence or paragraph without a
proper lead-in!

3 Types of Lead-Ins
1. Somebody says,
2. Sentence:
3. Blended

Sentence:
Lead-in and quotation are complete
sentences.
Quotation begins with a CAPITAL
letter.
Use a colon :

Sentence:
Agee insists that English instruction
on the college level will not improve
until educators become realistic:
Public school teachers need to sit
down and evaluate the situation (12).

Somebody says,
Punctuate as dialogue
Use synonyms of to say comment,
add, declare, remark, respond, state,
assert, suggest, etc.
Use a complete sentence
Use a comma

Somebody says,
Example:
Jane Agee comments, Many
students who would not have
attempted college seven years ago
are now coming into state universities
through junior colleges (10).

Blended
Quotation is a grammatical part of
sentence.
Do not use a comma or capital letter
unless needed.
Do not use ellipses () at the
beginning or end.

Blended
State universities are now providing
special remedial programs in which
students who do not meet the
entrance requirements are admitted
on probation (Agee 13).

Block Quotes
Use to set off a large portion of
quoted material.

Block Quotation Rules

Use when there are more than 4 lines of
typed lines of prose, 3 lines of poetry, or 3
lines of verse drama.
Indent 10 spaces from the left (2 tabs).
Do not add quotation marks unless they
appear in the original text.
Place the end punctuation BEFORE the
parenthetical documentation.

Educators express great concern regarding the

academic quality of students who are graduating from
Americas high school:
Perhaps the first reality that should
be examined is the decline of literacy.
Are college-bound students less
literate today? If one accepts
declining SAT scores as valid
indicators, the answer seems to be
yes. In 2000 the average national
verbal score one the SAT was 575. In
2005 it was 560. (Smith 127)

Lets Practice (sentence

lead-in
According to Douglass autobiography,
slavery is a humiliating experience.
He describes his first valuation in this
matter: We were all ranked together at
the valuation. Men and women, old and
young, married and single, were ranked
with horses, sheep, and swine (Douglass).

Lets Practice: Blended

Douglass discusses that one of the most

humiliating factors of slavery comes from the
idea that human beings lose their identity and
become seen as mere property.
Douglass explains, there were horses and men,
cattle and women, pigs and children, all holding
the same rank in the scale of being, and were all
subjected to the same narrow examination
(Douglass).

Lets Practice: Somebody

Says Lead-In
Douglass argues that the most humiliating
aspect of slavery comes from the understanding
that he is not valued as anything other than
property.
He remembers, I was immediately sent for, to
be valued with the other property. Here again
my feelings rose up in detestation of slavery. I
had now a new conception of my degraded
condition.