Example: In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin indicates that "a monstrous joy" overcomes Mrs. Mallard in her room (16).

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1 Using Quotations in the Literary Essay: Short Fiction When you write about a work of short fiction, one of the ways to illustrate, clarify, and prove your assertions is to base your analysis on quotations from the work. You will, however, want to use quotations judiciously. Rely on precise words and phrases or a specific revealing sentence rather than on lengthy passages (multiple sentences or paragraphs) whenever possible. The following guidelines should help you incorporate textual evidence into your essay and make your essay more effective. You should also review the information in our text on pp I. Ways to Integrate Quotations 1. Use brief quotations--usually only a few words or phrases--as part of your own sentence. Use MLA parenthetical format to indicate the page number of the quoted material. Place page numbers for the quoted material in parentheses (typically at the end of your sentence and always outside of the closing quotation marks). Place the period which ends your sentence after the parentheses. Example: In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin indicates that "a monstrous joy" overcomes Mrs. Mallard in her room (16). Example: Mrs. Mallard's "heart trouble" seems to be more than physical (13). Example: Chopin describes Mrs. Mallard as "young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression" (15). When you integrate quotations in this way, you do not use any special punctuation. Instead, you should punctuate the sentence just as you would if all of the words were your own (with the exception of placing quotation marks around the quoted words :-). DO NOT place ellipsis marks before and after such brief quoted phrases. Example of what not to do: Chopin indicates that "... a monstrous joy..." overcomes Mrs. Mallard in her room (16). This punctuation is unnecessary and makes for very awkward reading.

2 2. Use an introductory or explanatory phrase separated from the quotation with a comma. Example: Chopin writes, "Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble" (15). Example: In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin hints at the Mrs. Mallard's impending revelation when she writes, "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully" (15). Example: According to Chopin, "There was a feverish triumph in her [Mrs. Mallard's] eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory" (16). Note: If you add any material to a quote or change it to fit grammatically into your sentence (for example, by changing the tense of a verb), put the new or changed material in square brackets as in the above example. 3. Introduce a quoted sentence with a complete sentence of your own and a colon (:). Example: In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin suggests Mrs. Mallard's life had not been her own but would be now that her husband was dead: "There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself" (16). Example: Chopin ends her story with an ironic line: "When the doctors came they said she [Mrs. Mallard] had died of heart disease--of joy that kills" (16). This rule is easy to remember: if you use a complete sentence to introduce a quotation, you need a colon after the sentence. Using a comma in this situation typically creates a comma splice, the kind of sentence error that interferes with meaning and clarity for readers. Also, be sure you don't confuse the colon (:) with the semi-colon (;). A semicolon (;) is never used to introduce a quotation.

3 4. If the quotation is more than four of your typed lines long, indent the quotation one inch from the left margin and omit the quotation marks. Lead into the quotation as above (preferably with a complete sentence like #3). Indented quotations are double-spaced like the rest of your essay: Chopin clearly indicates that great care went into the way the news of Brently's death was relayed to Mrs. Mallard: It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of 'killed.' He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message. (15) NOTE: Note that material quoted within the quotation ("killed") becomes surrounded by single quotation marks. Such lengthy quotations should be used sparingly, especially in the brief essays we'll be writing. Note also the variation in the citation of the page number. With indented quotations, the period comes before the parenthetical reference rather than after. (Note: If the quotation displays oddly with some lines single-spaced and very uneven line lengths, it is most likely the result of differences in our browser settings or the size we are using to display text in Blackboard. The quotation should be doublespaced and indented one-inch from the left margin.) II. Proper Punctuation with Quotations Remembering just a few simple rules can help you use the correct punctuation as you introduce quotations. There are some exceptions to the rules below, but these three rules should help you use the correct punctuation with quotations most of the time. Rule 1: Complete sentence: "quotation." If you use a complete sentence to introduce a quotation, use a colon (:) just before the quotation.

4 Rule 2: Someone says, "quotation." If the word just before the quotation is a verb indicating someone uttering the quoted words, use a comma. Examples include the words "says," "states," "writes," and "asks." However, there is no punctuation if the word "that" comes just before the quotation, as in The narrator says that "quotation." Rule 3: If Rules 1 and 2 do not apply, you most likely will not use any punctuation between your words and the quoted words. These rules oversimplify the use of punctuation with quotations, but applying just these few rules should help you use the correct punctuation most of the time. Remember that a semicolon (;) is never used to introduce a quotation. III. Important Miscellaneous Information 1. Avoid using too many long quotations. When you use long quotations, you may be expecting the quotations to make points for you without providing adequate explanation of your own. In addition, long quotations often contain material that is not necessarily related to the point you wish to make. It's almost always more effective to use shorter quotations, which help highlight the exact words that you feel are most important, the same important words that can be obscured if they are presented as part of a long quotation. 2. Avoid beginning a paragraph with a quotation. Paragraphs usually begin with topic sentences, and beginning a paragraph with a quotation limits what the writer should talk about in the paragraph to only the quoted words. 3. Avoid ending a paragraph with a quotation. Quotations, especially when they are used as supporting evidence, often require you to provide some explanation of their significance. Ending a paragraph with a quotation does not allow for this explanation. 4. You should never change the words in a quotation without indicating the changes. The quotation marks you use around words indicate to readers that everything within those quotations marks appears in your writing exactly the same as it appears in the source you are quoting. If you make changes to quotations, you must indicate those changes. Use square brackets to indicate additions or changes as explained previously. Use ellipsis marks to show omissions within phrases or sentences or between sentences. Put a space before, after, and between each period. Example: While Mrs. Mallard ponders the scene through her window, "a distant song... reached her faintly" (15). 5. Always provide page references for quotations by placing the page number in parentheses at the end of your sentence. Do not use any abbreviation for page

5 with the number. Place the period which ends your sentence after the parentheses. 6. Quotations should work grammatically within your sentences. Reading aloud your sentences can sometimes help you identify quotations which have not been integrated or introduced grammatically. 7. If you are using quotations from more than one story, you may need to indicate the author's name in your parentheses with the page number. For example, if you were to write an essay comparing Godwin's "The Sorrowful Woman" and Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," it may be necessary to clarify which story is being quoted. Example: Before taking her life, the woman completes a flurry of domestic and creative tasks, leaving not only food and fresh laundry, but also "a tablet full of love sonnets addressed to the man" (Godwin 42).