Integrating quotes.
Ever received a comment from your teacher, reading something along the lines of, “Transition into quote needs to be smoother.”?
A lot of students tend to struggle with the punctuation rules that go into integrating quotes.
We’re gonna run through the fundamentals of quote integration, so by the end of this blog post, you’ll be able to put them into practice.
We like to call them ‘bunny ears’ for those who are just learning to start out on quotes.
Usually the rule with quotation marks, is that any quote more than three words should have double quotations marks, or ‘two bunny ears’ surrounding them.
Eg. According to Amanda, burritos are, “…the most glorious Mexican cuisine there is.”
Go ahead and count how many words there are.
Seven.
And because of this principle, double quotation marks must surround this quote.
This principle is the opposite of the first one we covered.
When it comes to single quotation marks, or ‘single bunny ears’, they are use around quotes that are three words or less.
These are commonly use to quote single words.
Eg. Marley claimed that the tear in her dress was a ‘major’ problem.
Another way we can use single quotation marks is for quotes that reach three words.
Eg. Amanda refers to single quotation marks as ‘single bunny ears’ to help students who have just started learning about quotes.
For quotes with single quotation marks, there is no need for ellipsis.
The use of ellipsis is what makes quotes look and sound seamless.
If you’ve received comments from your teachers about the way you integrate quotes being choppy, it’s probably because you didn’t include the ellipsis.
The ellipsis are the three fullstops ‘…’ that tell us that there is more to a sentence.
With quotes, we use ellipsis to show that we have used a snippet of a sentence, rather than the entire thing.
This is important, because it tells the reader that there is more to the quote than presented.
Use ellipsis at the beginning, end, or at both ends of a quote.
Eg. I went to Springvale to get groceries and there were people being tested for Covid-19 at entrances.
If we were to quote one section of this sentence, it was look like so:
Amanda told me that she, “…went to Springvale to get groceries and there were people being tested for Covid-19…” and she was lucky enough to receive a negative result.
Quoting can be a bit tricky if you’re just starting out.
But once you start applying these rules, it’ll come as second nature to you.
These are the fundamentals of integrating quotes smoothly into your essays, and they will make sure you won’t get comments about ‘choppy quotes’ again.
If you find that you’re still struggling with integrating quotes, or you need an expert eye to have a look at your work, drop it for some one on one tutoring or group lessons for personalized advice.