Choose Quotes Carefully. They Should Be Powerful and Support Your Reasoning

Freshman English Mrs. Chausse

Choose quotes carefully. They should be powerful and support your reasoning.

● Do not drop quotes. Provide a lead to your quote. This helps your reader understand the context (who? what? when?) of the quote.

● Carefully select your quote. Use only the parts of the text necessary to illustrate your point.

Punctuating and Integrating Your Quotes

● If you have a sentence as an introduction to a quotation. Use a colon.

When Odysseus left the land of the Cyclops, his arrogance was apparent: “Cyclops if ever a mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of the cities, took your eye: Laertes’ son, whose home’s on Ithaca” (l. 457). In response, the Cyclops hurls a mountaintop at Odysseus, his men and ship threatening their safety.

● Use an introductory or explanatory phrase, but not a complete sentence, separated from the quotation with a comma.

When Odysseus is leaving the land of the Cyclops, his arrogance is apparent when he yells, “Cyclops if ever a mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of the cities, took your eye: Laertes’ son, whose home’s on Ithaca” (l. 457). Because Odysseus shouts these words to the Cyclops, he endangers the lives of his men and the safety of his ship. The boulder that the Cyclops hurls at Odysseus ship could have caused great harm.

● Make the quotation a part of your own sentence without any punctuation between your words and the words of the quotation.

When Odysseus is leaving the land of the Cyclops, Odysseus told the Cyclops that “Odysseus, raider of the cities, took your eye: Laertes’ son, whose home’s on Ithaca” (l. 457). When Odysseus taunts the Cyclops as he sails from his island, he risks the lives of his men. In response, the Cyclops hurls a mountaintop at Odysseus, his men and his ship.

● Use short phrases from the text within your sentence. Punctuate as you normally would. Place the quoted material in quotes.

When Odysseus is leaving the land of the Cyclops, he endangers the lives of his men when he tells the Cyclops that “Odysseus...took your eye” (l.457). His need to brag to the Cyclops causes the Cyclops to hurl a mountaintop at the ship. Freshman English Mrs. Chausse