Quote Smartly! EQ: How does one support an argument competently or, at least, look as if one is doing so? Welcome! Gather pen/cil, paper, wits! Quote Smartly! o Plagiarism o Prose o Verse o Shakespeare Quotations support an argument just as buttresses support a Gothic wall. ELACC12RL-RI1: Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis ELACC12RI6: Determine an author s point of view or purpose in a text ELACC12RI7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources to address a question or solve a problem ELACC12RL10: Read and comprehend complex literature independently and proficiently. ELACC12W1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts ELACC12W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas ELACC12W4: Produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience ELACC12W6: Use technology to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing ELACC12W8: Gather from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any source and following a standard format for citation. ELACC12L1: Demonstrate standard English grammar and usage in speaking and writing. ELACC12L2: Use standard English capitalization, punctuation, spelling in writing.
Avoiding Plagiarism In his excellent and rascally book William Shakespeare (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1986), literary critic Terry Eagleton wrote the following sentence, found on page 8: The Macbeths are torn apart in the contradiction between body and language, between the frozen bonds of traditional allegiance and the unassuageable dynamic of desire. An essay on Macbeth could benefit greatly from this insight, but problems arise when a writer fails properly to quote, cite and integrate borrowed material. The worst situation, plagiarism, occurs when a writer uses borrowed material in a way that hides the true author. Here are some ways a student using the Eagleton source material might commit plagiarism: Macbeth is a tragic play because the Macbeths are torn apart in the contradiction between body and language, between the frozen bonds of traditional allegiance and the unassuageable dynamic of desire. This is flagrant plagiarism. The student simply copied Eagleton's sentence onto the end of his own. The essay receives a zero; the student must rewrite the essay to earn any credit. It seems clear that Macbeth is a tragic play because the Macbeths are torn apart in the contradiction between body and language, between the frozen bonds of traditional allegiance and the unassuageable dynamic of desire (Eagleton, p. 8). This, too, is plagiarism. The student has cited Eagleton good but has copied Eagleton's wording without using quotation marks bad. Macbeth is tragic because Macbeth and his wife their bodies and their words seem to contradict each other, and by the fact that they want what they cannot legally have. This, too, is plagiarism. The student has used his own words and that s good but he still must cite Eagleton, since the idea was Eagleton s. Macbeth is a tragic play. "The Macbeths are torn apart in the contradiction between body and language, between the frozen bonds of traditional allegiance and the unassuageable dynamic of desire" (Eagleton, p. 8). This shows that the play is tragic. This is not plagiarism, but the essay loses points because although the student has attributed both words and ideas, he has not integrated the passage into his own text. The student has not shown that he has any idea of what Eagleton is writing about. It seems clear that Macbeth is a tragic play because Macbeth and his wife are separated by the fact that their life is a "contradiction between body and language," and by the fact that they want what they cannot legally have (Eagleton, p. 8). Hooray! This student has properly quoted, integrated and cited Eagleton. An "A" awaits!
Worksheet: Avoiding Plagiarism In his excellent and rascally book William Shakespeare (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1986), literary critic Terry Eagleton wrote the following sentence on page 8: The Macbeths are torn apart in a contradiction between body and language, between frozen bonds of allegiance and the dynamic of desire. Below are five different attempts to use Eagleton s idea and words in a paper; only one does so properly. Explain what is wrong with four of them, point out plagiarism where it exists, and explain why the best is the best. 1. Macbeth is a tragic play because they are torn between body and language, between the frozen bonds of traditional allegiance and the unassuageable dynamic of desire. 2. Macbeth is tragic because they are torn body and language, between frozen bonds of traditional allegiance and the unassuageable dynamic of desire (Eagleton, p. 8). 3. Macbeth is tragic because their bodies and their words seem to contradict each other; they want to be loyal, but also want to be free to do what they want to do. 4. Macbeth is tragic. The Macbeths are torn apart in a contradiction between body and language, between frozen bonds of allegiance and the dynamic of desire" (Eagleton 8). 5. It seems clear Macbeth is tragic because Macbeth and his wife are separated by the fact that their life is a "contradiction between body and language," and by the fact that they want to be loyal, but also want to do what they want (Eagleton, p. 8).
Format, Integration, Citation: Prose FORMAT o short quotations (1-3 lines) use quotation marks. o long quotations (3+ lines) are indented; use NO quotation marks. INTEGRATE that writer s words smoothly into your own prose. CITE author/title in text, page number (usually) in parentheses after quotation. SAMPLE Hulk Hogan is supposed once to have said, When Hamlet dies, they don t call that fake. There are many misconceptions about what is called professional wrestling, one of the few endeavors in which that adjective is used dismissively; and perhaps the most pervasive is that it is fake because it is scripted. But as the French essayist Roland Barthes once pointed out, pro wrestling is not a sport; it is a spectacle, and a wrestled performance of Suffering is just as real as a Greek tragedy (15). In other words, those who dismiss pro wrestling believe that it is sport, and that sport is real, when in fact the only think about sport that can be called real (i.e., having validity in the real world, not just on the playing field) is pain; and if pain is what we want to see in sport, then we are sadists. So if anything, says Barthes, pro wrestling is civilized: What the public wants is the image of passion, not passion itself. There is no more a problem of truth in wrestling than in the theatre. In both, what is expected is the intelligible representation of moral situations which are usually private. This emptying out of interiority to the benefit of its exterior signs, this exhaustion of the content by the form, is the very principle of triumphant classical art (18). So if pro wrestling is fake, so is civilization itself; and surely no reader would wish to make so barbaric a claim. [Passages quoted from Roland Barthes, Mythologies, tr. Annette Lavers. New York: Hill and Wang, 1987]
Format, Integration, Citation: Verse FORMAT is similar to that for prose, except that line breaks must be indicated. o Short quotations (1-3 lines of verse): quotation marks ; slash ( / ) at line breaks. o Long quotations (3+ lines of poetry): NO quotation marks; NO slashes. Show line breaks by indenting so lines look EXACTLY as they do on source page. INTEGRATE poet s words smoothly into your own prose. CITE author/title in text, line number in parentheses after quotation. SAMPLE According to Geoffrey Chaucer, people need courage and integrity to confront s it the filthy stuff we d rather not see, hear or deal with in our lives. Some of the Canterbury pilgrims fear s it, and do all they can to avoid. The Prioresse, for instance, cannot comfort the suffering because she fears them: She was so charitably solicitous She used to weep if she but saw a mouse Caught in a trap, if it were dead or bleeding (ll. 198-201) [LONG]. Terrified of s it, she hides her loneliness by overeating, hide from mothering urges by feeding milk to her little dogs, and is always straining / To counterfeit a courtly kind of grace (ll. 188-189) [SHORT VERSE WITH LINE BREAK] in order to hide insecurities about class. Other pilgrims actually embrace s it, becoming cheerfully and even aggressively filthy. The Miller is like any sow or fox (ll. 352) [SHORT] in his greedy, sly life; the Pardoner brags of hypocrisy; and the Summoner mocks Jesus by wearing. a garland set upon his head Large as the holly-bush upon a stake Outside an ale-house. (ll. 402-404) [LONG] A few Pilgrims deal well with s it. The Plowman manures his good crops, the Parson washes it from the souls of his sheep, and the Knight gets the blood of God s wars on his armor but never his soul. But most hide from s it or wallow in it, making the world worse from fear of and/or fascination with filth.
Format, Integration, Citation: Shakespeare s Plays Shakespeare s plays tend mostly to be in verse, with passages of prose. FORMAT as verse or prose according to layout on page; if in doubt, ask instructor. Follow guidelines for long or short verse or prose found on Verse and Prose guides. INTEGRATE Shakespeare s words smoothly into your own prose. CITE author/title in text, act, scene, line in parentheses after quotation. SAMPLE William Shakespeare s Macbeth features witches, ghosts, devils, and blood and, scariest of all, a man who believes in nothing. Soldiers think he is a fearsome warrior, his wife thinks he is a sweet teddy bear; but Macbeth speaks of himself as a nihilist who believes that nothing is / But what is not (I iii 126-8) [SHORT PASSAGE OF VERSE]. Never happy with what he has, even things he wants, Macbeth is always working for, killing for, believing in, and even seeing and hearing things that do not actually exist. Nihilism literally, belief in nothing is central to the imagery and meaning of the play. Early on, a Porter drunkenly pretends to be a devil (which he is not) at Hell s Gate (where he is not), welcoming into Hell a farmer who gambled his future on riches he did not yet actually have: Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for't (II iii 1-3) ) [LONG PASSAGE OF PROSE]. The Porter finally snaps back to reality by realizing that, whereas Hell is famously hot, this place is too cold for Hell (II iii 12) ) [SHORT PASSAGE OF PROSE]. Like most of the play s characters, this Porter, drunk and stupid though he is, spends most of his life in sober confrontation with life as it really is. But Macbeth s focus on what does not exist things he wants, things he fears increases until he comes to believe that life itself is Nothing. In his most famous soliloquy, Macbeth contemplates his long life, which has been full of honor and bravery as well as horror and treachery, and decides that Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing (V v 24-28) [LONG PASSAGE OF VERSE]. Macbeth begins the play having everything admiring friends, great wealth and power, and the most perfect marriage in all of Shakespeare but proceeds to risk and lose it all for things he does not have and, in many cases, does not even want to have. He is perhaps Shakespeare s most profound treatment of nihilism, and of the terrible consequences of believing in nothing.