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Cite Your Sources: Quick! Quote it!

Why cite your sources? What does this mean? How do I do this? These questions will be addressed through the information provided on the pages of this guide.

Guide to Quoting

The Quote Sandwich

 

Guidelines for Quotations:

 

To ensure that your reader fully understands how the quote you are using supports your thesis, you must smoothly incorporate the quote into your paragraph; otherwise, your reader maybe left unsure of why you used the quote. The “quote sandwich” is a method that aides you in effectively adding quotes. See below for a further explanation.

 

To guarantee that your reader clearly follows your writing, you should introduce your quotes with a signal phrase, reporting verb, or both (as shown in the quote sandwich) rather than simply plopping the quote down. If you add in a quote without any sort of introduction, your reader may not understand how the quote connects to your paragraph, even if it makes sense to you (think of it as similar to a random thought in a conversation).

Below are examples of signal phrases and reporting verbs that you can use to introduce your quotes:

For Examples:

 

Dwight Bolinger notes that “in a society where women and farmers are regarded as inferior, sex differences and occupational differences become class differences” (99). 

 

Malcolm X writes, “I was so fascinated that I went on- I copied the dictionary’s next page. And the same experience came when I studied that. With every succeeding page, I also learned of people and places and events from history” (89). 

 

Elizabeth Wong comments “The language was a source of embarrassment. More times than not, I had tried to dissociate myself from the nagging, loud voice that followed me wherever I wandered in the nearby American supermarket outside Chinatown” (291).

Punctuating Quotes

In addition to incorporating quotes with the quote sandwich, and introducing them with signal phrases and reporting verbs, there are a few punctuation rules to keep in mind.

 

The first time you reference an article (or other text) you need to give the name(s) of the author(s),

Introduce the Author

 

The first time you use a quote from an article, you need to use the author’s first and last name. (The next time you use a quote from that author, only use the last name.)

How to Punctuate Titles

 

Put the names of articles, essays, poems, essays, and chapters in quotation marks:

     

“Talking Like a Lady”

“Dialect”

“Mother Tongue”

“Black Hair”

 

Underline or italicize the titles of books, movies, magazines, newspapers, periodicals, and musical albums:

Our America

San Francisco Chronicle

The Great Gatsby

The Godfather

The Quote Itself

  • Put quotation marks “ ” around the quote and use the author’s exact words
  • After the quote, put the page number in parentheses, and the period after the parentheses.

Other Notes

  • Insert ellipses (…) wherever you delete any words from the original quotation
  • Use brackets ([ ]) to add words or substitute words in the original quotation.

 

Lastly… ADD IN YOUR EXPLANATION!

 

 

Once you’ve made sure to punctuate your quotes correctly, explain them!! (The last part of the quote sandwich.)