Blending Quotations

The BasicsAlways integrate quotations into your text.NEVER just “drop” a quotation in your

writing!In other words, don’t let a piece of textual

evidence stand alone as its own sentence (unless it’s multiple sentences long).

Use your own words to introduce a quotation.I should only recognize a quote because I see

the quotation marks!

How To Improve Blending Quotes

Use only the most effective part of the quotation.

Maintain a smooth sentence style.

Use ellipses (…) when necessary Remember to use brackets [ ] if

you add or change a word. Use signal phrases which

precede the quote.

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).

See how the quote is just “dropped in?”

Example from TKAM (cont’d)

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 reflecting light is omitted

as extraneous information, unimportant to the purpose.

Smoother integration – with a signal phrase:Harper Lee describes Mr. Radley as “a thin

leathery man with colorless eyes…[that] did not reflect light” (32).

Another Example

Original:This becomes apparent when 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:The danger of the approaching storm became apparent, as “the shadow of a cloud [moved] across the field of grain” (Hemingway 179).

Student Examples from a Night Timed WritingOriginal:

Now, as Rabbi Eliahu searches hopelessly for the son that had abandoned him, Elie renounces his faith completely. “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 searched hopelessly

for the son that had abandoned him, “a prayer formed inside [Elie]…to this God in whom [he] no longer believed,” and he renounced his faith completely (Wiesel 91).

More Student Examples

Original:Night also represents the fire that killed so many people. “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).

More Student Examples

Original:You start to see Elie’s disgust with himself

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 after his

father was beaten right “in front of [him], and [he] had not even blinked” (Wiesel 39). He begins in that moment to question his own values, as his concern for his father appears to decrease.

More Student Examples

Original:Throughout the book, most of the killings

or horrible events 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 “taken…away before daybreak… to the crematorium” (Wiesel 112).

Your Turn…