RESEARCH PAPERS:

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Eng l i sh 11

LEARNING QUESTIONS

How can we create an effective opening for

our papers?
How can we incorporate our research into our
papers correctly?
How do we show where we found our
research?

FORMATTING QUOTES CORRECTLY

QUOTE INTRODUCTION

Quotes must never stand on their own.

This is called a floating quotation, and is
incorrect.
Incorporate quoted phrases into your
own sentences.
These rules & structure apply to all of
your subjects when you quote.

QUOTATIONS NEED CONTEXT

Your quotes need context, or your reader

doesnt know what point you are trying to
make, or to what what it is related
Your reader also cant tell if you know
what you are talking about, or on what
you are basing your ideas

RULES

1.Provide a signal phrase

2.Ensure all quoting follows the rules of
grammar & sentence structure
3.Avoid floating or dropped quotations that
appear at either the beginning or end of a
paragraph.

READ HANDOUT PAGES 103-107

( ST O P W H E N YO U H IT SP E AKING & L IST E NING O N P G . 1 07 )

DEFINITIONS

Signal phrase: a phrase or word that signals you are

about to transition or provide more information
Introductory clause: a dependent clause that provides
background information or sets the stage for the
main part of the sentence (If Suzy leaves the mall ...)
Syntax: the arrangement of words and phrases to
create well-formed sentences in any language

4 DIFFERENT WAYS TO INTRODUCE QUOTES

Use an introductory clause followed by a

comma
Embed your quote into your own sentences
Use an introductory clause followed by a
colon. Use this only when your introductory
clause is a full sentence.
Fit it into your own sentence

AT YOUR TABLES, COMPLETE

THE SPEAKING & LISTENING
QUESTIONS USING THE TWO
QUOTES ON PAGE 107.

3 WAYS TO CONNECT AND/OR CONCLUDE YOUR QUOTE

State how a quote is relevant to what you are

writing in that paragraph
Show how the quotation relates to the overall
argument in your paragraph
Connect the quotation to your thesis
statement to reinforce your papers main
message.

COMPLETE THE PRACTICE

QUOTING PAGE
(USING MY STOMACH, MY CHOICE)

FORMATTING QUOTES
CORRECTLY

E XAMP L ES

TECHNICAL RULES FOR QUOTING

CHANGING QUOTES
1. Ellipses Points: If you want to make a long quote shorter in order
to present the reader with a more concise quotation, do so using
an ellipse, which is three periods, each period having a space
before and af ter it (example: . . . ).

However, be careful not to cut words that change the tone or meaning of a quote

2. Adding Text to Quotes: The quote you use should make

grammatical sense with the rest of your sentence. Therefore, you
may sometimes have to add words to a quote, or modify the verb
form in the quoted text. You do this by enclosing the added
material material in square brackets (like this: [ ] ).

MLA FORMATTING

CITING
Citations is the part of your paper where you show where you
found your information, and by doing that you avoid plagiarism
Plagiarism: taking credit for someone elses academic work.
This is the equivalent to stealing, and can get you kicked out
of college/university.
If you quote it, source it
If you source it, you are safe from plagiarism

BASIC FORMATTING
Davis, Barbara, Michael Scriven, and Susan Thomas. The
Authors, last name first.
Title (in
Evaluation of Composition Instruction. New York: Teachers
Italics for a book, for shor t stor y or ar ticle). Location:
College, 1987. Print.
Publishing house, year. Format
Last name, first name. Title. Location: Publishing house, year. Format.
Authors
(title in Italics for a book, for shor t story or ar ticle).

PRACTICE

Using your MLA formatting guide, practice

your formatting with the following 3 sources
Write a sentence with parenthetical citations
Write an entry for the Works Cited page

Source # 1

Source # 2

You have a copy of Indian

Horse on your desks. Cite that
book, please

Source # 3

Cite your silent reading book,

please (or the book of
someone whos at your table)