Blending Quotations

Blending not Dropping

All writers know of importance of citing information and giving credit to the source of ideas not original to an author.  In-text parenthetical citation is prevalent in academic writing and must not be overlooked.  However, citing sources is only half the battle.  Blending quotes is the skillful application of cited information.

Integrating quotations requires writers (as in you) to skillfully blend small amounts of quoted information from an original source into sentences of your own creation.  (Of course, you can't forget your MLA parenthetical citation.)   

Of course, you want to make sure you are using the correct quotations for your idea.  Some simple rules to follow when choosing quotes can be found here.

Dropping quotations into writings is not evidence of a mature writer. 

For example:

WRONG: T.S. Eliot, in his "Talent and the Individual," uses gender-specific language. "No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists" (Eliot 29).

RIGHT: T.S. Eliot, in his "Talent and the Individual," uses gender-specific language. He argues, for instance, that "no poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists" (Eliot 29).

If you are just beginning to learn how to blend quotations, there are four simple ways to help you get started.

1. Begin with introductory phrase or Dialogue Tag: 
• In the words of author and activist Rick Bass, "…" (Source).
• As Flora Davis has noted, "…" (Source).
• The Gardners, experts in Colorado Plateau archaeology, point out that "…" (Source).
• Psychologist Sidney McMaynerberry offers an odd argument for this theory: "…" (Source).
2. Blend parts of the quote in your sentence:

• "It is curious,” Orwell notes, as the hanging party approaches the gallows and the prisoner steps slightly aside to 
• avoid a puddle, “but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man” (47).

• “She always felt the center of her heart go hard” demonstrates how Mrs. Wilmot appears a loving mother to the rest of the world, while inwardly feeling little for her children (120).
• Morrison points out that social context prevented the authors of slave narratives “from dwelling too long or too carefully on the more sordid details of the experience” (109).

     3. Add quote to your sentence with colon:

• Fitzgerald gives Nick a muted tribute to the hero: “Gatsby turned out all right at the end” (176). 
• Edith Hamilton describes Hera perfectly: "She was the protector of marriage, and married women were her particular care" (223 )
• Again the main character hears the words spoken by his grandfather: "I never told you, but our life is a war" (154).

     4. Paraphrase:

• Original: Her life spanned years of incredible change for women (source).
• Paraphrase:  Mary lived through an era of liberating reform for women (source).
• Original:  Giraffes like Acacia leaves and hay and they can consume 75 pounds of food a day (source).
• Paraphrase:   A giraffe can eat up to 75 pounds of Acacia leaves and hay everyday (source).