Plagiarism 5.1.2b

5.1.2 Applying Strategies for Integrating Direct Quotations

Part II


In Part I of lesson 5.1.2, you were introduced to strategies for integrating direct quotations from prose, poetry, and drama in your texts.

The examples provided were from fiction texts, but the principles for prose apply to non-fiction texts as well.


In this lesson, you will learn to apply strategies for integrating direct quotations in your text when you need to alter the original text.


A direct quotation should always replicate exactly the text from your source, but it also needs to make sense grammatically and syntactically in your own text.

That means it should flow smoothly and make sense.


When you use a quotation from another source, it sometimes doesn’t flow smoothly in your text. The author might have used past tense, but your sentence is in the present tense.

Sometimes you can connect your words with the source by surrounding the quoted text with some carefully chosen words.


Other times, you will just have to make some changes to the original text.

You can do that, but you need to be sure the reader knows that you did.

Scholars use some simple shorthand to indicate where they changed the original.


When you leave words out of a quotation, use ellipsis (three or four periods – and, yes, it matters which). The MLA Handbook explains the difference in Section 3.7.5.

Most often, you only need three periods (spacing before and

after each one), but if your omission includes the end of a sentence, use four.

Technically, it also matters whether you space before and after each period, and some instructors really care. The spaces communicate specific information, and it can get complicated. If your instructor cares, look it up. (This instructor cares passionately, but you won’t fail a paper over it. Still, it never hurts to impress your instructor with your attention to detail.)


If you need to add something or change something to make a quote make sense in your sentence or to explain something, use square brackets to indicate where you made a change.


Example:

In the first paragraph of the novel, Stevenson provided an early clue that his interest was not just on Dr. Jekyll: “‘I incline to Cain’s heresy,’ [Utterson] used to say quaintly. ‘I let my brother go to the devil in his own way’” (1).

In the original text, Stevenson wrote, “he used to say . . .” If the writer has not already clarified that he is referring to Utterson, a bracketed insertion can indicate the change for clarity.


Remember to check the rules for single and double quotation marks and placement of punctuation marks.

You can find these details in Chapter 3 of the MLA Handbook. If you write enough papers, you will memorize these details after you look them up enough. We won’t take time to repeat all the conventions here. This lesson is already rather long, and this part is not difficult. You just have to slow down and take the time to check all the details.


You should learn just a few more general principles before we finish this lesson.

If your original source contains an error (a spelling or grammar mistake, for instance), quote the text exactly as it appeared in the original and follow the errer with sic in parentheses, which indicates that you recognize the error but are being faithful to the original text.

Sometimes, scholars need to know about that errer in the original, and your instructor will know that it wasn’t your mistake.


As I just explained, “If your original source contains an error (a spelling or grammar mistake, for instance), quote the text exactly as it appeared in the original and follow the errer (sic) with sic in parentheses, which indicates that you recognize the error but are being faithful to the original text.”


Finally, if you want to add emphasis, use italics to emphasize details and focus the reader’s attention on your main point.

Henry James’ odd juxtaposition of detail as he describes the respectability of “a cook, a housemaid, a dairywoman, an old pony, (emphasis added) and old gardener” provides a humorous clue as to the Victorian obsession with respectability that may have influenced the puzzling behavior of one of the key characters in The Turn of the Screw (13).


Remember to add “emphasis added” in parentheses to clarify that you altered the original text.

Henry James’ odd juxtaposition of detail as he describes the respectability of “a cook, a housemaid, a dairywoman, an old pony, (emphasis added) and old gardener” provides a humorous clue as to the Victorian obsession with respectability that may have influenced the puzzling behavior of one of the key characters in The Turn of the Screw (13).


Let’s practice:

Select one or more brief excerpts from this lesson that you might quote. Use a brief quotation and demonstrate how to alter the text in three different ways in order to:

Supply information that the part of the quote you chose leaves out

Add emphasis

Demonstrate that you noticed an error but left it as it was in the original


Sources:

Anson, Chris M., Robert A. Schwegler, and Marcia F. Muth. The Longman Concise Companion. New York: Pearson, 2007. Print.

Fowler, H. Ramsey, Jane E. Aaron, and Cynthia K. Marshall. The Little, Brown Handbook. New York, Longman, 2010.

James, Henry. The Turn of the Screw and Daisy Miller. New York: Dell, n.p. Print.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2009. Print.

Purdue Online Writing Lab. 1995-2011. Web. 21 June 2011. Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde. New York: Dover, 1991.

Plagiarism 5.1.2b

Education

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