“You Can Quote Me On It”

Basic rules to properly cite quotes in your papers

TRUE OR FALSE

A quote must be something a character in a story ACTUALLY says.

FALSE

A QUOTE IS…

Any piece of text that is directly BORROWED from a story…it does not have to only be when a person in the story speaks. There are two kinds of quotes.

1. When no one is specifically talking or a narrator describes a situation

2. When someone is actually talking

WHEN NO ONE IS TALKING…

A quote from “You Can’t…”:

They began to remember loudly how nice they’d been to him and argued about who had been the nicest.

What do I have to do to put this quote in a paper?

ADD QUOTATION MARKS

“They began to remember loudly how nice they’d been to him and argued about who had been the nicest.”

Since no one is talking, you simply add a set of quotation marks to show that the words aren’t yours; you borrowed them.

ADD BACKGROUND INFO

You can’t just throw that into the paragraph… you need to INTRODUCE THE QUOTE

“They began to remember loudly how nice they’d been to him and argued about who had been the

nicest.”

ADD BACKGROUND INFO

Tell WHEN and WHERE in the story this happened and WHO the quote will discuss.

After Uncle Basil died, his family members gathered together at the house. “They began to remember loudly how nice they’d been to him and argued about who had been the nicest.”

THEN WHAT?

PROVIDE THE PAGE NUMBER

After Uncle Basil died, his family members gathered together at the house. “They began to remember loudly how nice they’d been to him and argued about who had been the nicest.”

This happened on page 3. How do I show this? What piece of punctuation

leaves? What is added? Tell the person next to you.

PROVIDE THE PAGE NUMBER

After Uncle Basil died, his family members gathered together at the house, “They began to remember loudly how nice they’d been to him and argued about who had been the nicest” (3).

Note how the period from INSIDE the quotes is gone and is now OUTSIDE the parenthesis. There is no P or PG.

ARE WE DONE?

PROVIDE A LINK

Why is this quote important? How does it prove your main idea?

After Uncle Basil died, his family members gathered together at the house. “They began to remember loudly how nice they’d been to him and argued about who had been the nicest” (3). By remembering loudly, it shows that Basil’s relatives are putting on a show more than they are truly mourning their uncle’s death. They only care about the money.

IF SOMEONE IS SPEAKING

“He’s mingy, that’s what he is.”

What do we do if the quote – from page 1--is already in quotes?

IF SOMEONE IS SPEAKING

First, use SINGLE quotation mark where the DOUBLE marks exist in the text

‘He’s mingy, that’s what he is.’

IF SOMEONE IS SPEAKING

Then, place the speaking quote into quotation marks.

“‘He’s mingy, that’s what he is’” (1).

Then what?

IF SOMEONE IS SPEAKING

YOU MUST INTRODUCE THE SPEAKER. Tell me WHO is talking (also include WHERE and WHEN)

At the start of the story, Uncle Basil’s niece Leticia complains, “‘He’s mingy, that’s what he is’” (1).

AND SO FORTH…

Provide your own LINK to that example.

QUESTIONS?

YOUR TURN

NOW, Try it on your own with both kinds of quote from your T-Notes! Try one that shows someone talking and one without someone talking.

GOOD LUCK!