Have you capitalized the first word of the quotation?. Does your signal phrase end with a comma?. Does your signal phrase include at least a subject and a verb (e.g., He suggests)?. You can use square brackets around the capital letter if the word in the source was in lowercase. In all such cases we use a comma between the signal phrase and the quotation.Īfter this type of signal phrase, the first word of the quotation is usually capitalized. However, at the core of these signal phrases we still have the author and the verb. It was George Fandangle, the nineteenth-century antiquarian, who famously wrote about the Greek philosopher Stroumboulopoulos, “Just like the popular culture he analyzed, he is now mostly forgotten” (117). John Connelly mentions the contrary opinion of Judge Gavel, who writes, “0 jury should convict on those grounds” (qtd. Here are some instances where the “short expression” is not all that short:Īs Imagen Randolph suggests, in a salacious memoir that caused quite a scandal, “There was always inappropriate behaviour at his parties.” Of course, your signal phrase can include more than the author and the verb. Note that many of these constructions are introduced by the conjunction as: There are plenty of other verbs that work equally well:Īrgues, believes, notes, states, implies, observes, etc. Jonathan Truculent writes, “The best part of the pizza is the crust” (314).Īs Iris Evans suggests, “Cell phones and tablets have increasingly overlapping capabilities” (58). One of the easiest ways to introduce a quotation is to announce who the speaker or author is and to add a verb that describes the way in which the idea is expressed: Quotations are categorized by the way they are introduced, and there are three main types of signal phrases. When a quotation is followed by parentheses, final punctuation is removed from the end of the quotation (with the exception of question marks and exclamation marks found in the source) and your own punctuation follows the citation. For example, titles are normally only mentioned if they are directly relevant, or if you are citing multiple works by the same author. Other details can be saved for the works cited page. Most of the time you need mention only the author and the page or line number. #Mla signal phrases full
Notice that this passage is not crammed full of bibliographic information. Most quotations share the following details: Now that we know the three basic parts of a quotation, we can zoom in a little. If it is quite long, then it may have to be formatted differently as a block quotation.Īs for the citation, in this guide we will be using parentheses, but you could use footnotes or endnotes if you are not following MLA conventions. The signal phrase consists of your own words that signal to the reader that a quotation is coming. In academic writing, nearly every quotation is made up of three parts: a signal phrase, the quote itself, and some kind of citation:Įxample: As Kurt Ramble argues, “Urban farming should be incorporated in the elementary school curriculum” (78). On this page we will cover the basics of integrating quotations.
Quoting is not just about referencing a few lines of text that seem vaguely relevant. That is why learning the rules is time well spent.īeing able to integrate quotations gives you the confidence to interact with the ideas of others, to be part of a larger discussion. Whereas in ordinary speech we easily introduce the words of others ( he said she was like), it somehow seems more difficult in writing. It is an area where many people struggle. If you want to see dramatic improvement in your writing, then focus on integrating quotations.
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