INTEGRATING QUOTES

 

Having trouble figuring out how to best introduce, contextualize, and integrate key quotes into your arguments? If so , you are not alone. This is a difficult thing to do. The activities that follow should help you with this.

PART I:

This first section offers a sample thesis and relevant quotation, then follows by introducing, contextualizing, and otherwise integrating the key quote  into the overall argument.

THESIS:  In order to get along with one another in today's diverse society, we must get to know one another.

 

QUOTE: "She thought Mormon was the same as Mennonite, and the only thing she knew about either religion was that Mennonites don't, in her opinion, 'dress normal'" (Schoenberger 108).

From Schoenberger, Chana: "Getting to Know About You and Me" Newsweek. (September 20, 1993): 12. Rpt. in Transitions: Writing, Researching, Reflecting. Donna Dunbar-Odom. Southlake, TX: Fountainhead P, 107-110.

INTRODUCE, CONTEXTUALIZE, AND INTEGRATE THE QUOTE INTO THE ARGUMENT AS REPRESENTED BY THE THESIS:

 In "Getting to Know About You and Me," Jewish high school student Chana Schoenberger reveals the important ways that diversity without knowledge can cause difficulties, which she illustrates via her experiences after leaving her hometown to spend five weeks at the University of Wisconsin at Superior with a National Science Foundation Young Scholars program. There, Schoenberger encountered eight different religions, but she ran into many more different sorts of ignorance and even prejudice. Early on she overheard one young lady ask another if she was Mormon, to which she replied with an emphatic "No, I dress normal!" This retort revealed he speaker's ignorance, but the comment was actually more than just ignorant. The comment, in fact, revealed a deep-seated prejudice against Mormons--a group she clearly does not understand and who, to her, are most certainly not "normal." As Schoenberger explains, this young lady "thought Mormon was the same as Mennonite, and the only thing she knew about either religion was that Mennonites don't, in her opinion, 'dress normal'" (108). Even worse than that misunderstanding, however is the fact that the young lady who asked this girl if she was Morman was herself a Morman, and she was probably hoping to bond with another of her faith. Instead she was insulted by someone who wasn't even aware she insulted her.

 

The same ignorance plays itself out in a more hateful (and certainly less innocent) way when Schoenberger's biology professor tells his students he wants them to get their money's worth because he "'wouldn't want them to get

Jewed' (108). . . .

 

_____

I hope you get the idea. What have I done here? I have tried to answer these questions for each and every quote I use: Who said this? In what context? What does it mean? How am I using this to support my thesis?

 

 

PART II:

Now you try. Take a look at the following thesis and see if you can integrate the Johnson's words into the overall argument made by the thesis writer.

THESIS:  A religious student can be a thinking student, despite Robert Johnson's provocative evidence that she cannot. 

 

QUOTE: "To doubt a word is to doubt an idea, which is to doubt the claim, which is to doubt everything" (Johnson 76).

From Johnson, Robert. "Teaching the Forbidden: Literature and the Religious Student."  Ade Bulletin 112, Winter 1995, pp. 37-39. Rpt. in Transitions: Writing, Researching, Reflecting. Donna Dunbar-Odom. Southlake, TX: Fountainhead P, 71-77.

INTRODUCE, CONTEXTUALIZE, AND INTEGRATE THE QUOTE INTO THE ARGUMENT AS REPRESENTED BY THE THESIS:

 

1. Answer the following questions:

                Who said this?

 

                In what context?

 

                What does it mean?

 

                How can we use this to support the thesis?

 

2. Create a passage that successfully integrates the quote (and contextualizes it and introduces it).

 

 

KEY PHRASES YOU CAN USE TO INTRODUCE QUOTES

According to ___, "____"                                                                                 ____cites ___ who claims that "___"

As ___ explains, . . . .                                                                                      ____ contends "___"
In fact, ___ asserts that "___"                                                                           ____ illustrates "___"

____ illustrates it this way: "___"                                                                      ____argues "___"

 

There are dozens of others, but you get the idea.

 

 

PART III

Grab a draft you have written and find a quote you feel you have not fully integrated into your argument. Then answer the following questions:

1. What is the thesis of this writing assignment?

 

 

2. What is the quote you are using?

 

3. How does this quote work to support your thesis?

 

4. Who said this?

 

5. In what context?

 

6. What purpose does it serve in the essay?

 

7. What doe sit mean?

 

After you have answered the above questions, write a passage that will successfully integrate (and introduce and contextualize) this quote into your draft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do this for all the remaining quotes in your essay. You will have lots to work with, and if you are struggling to meet the minimum page length requirements or to tie in all your quotes and evidence with your thesis, this is a very effective way to do so.

 

GOOD LUCK!

 

created by The Writing Center at Texas A&M-Commerce (shannon_carter@tamuc.edu) for use in any courses in our FYC or BW Program