Quoting the Text
In the letter you write to a friend, you'll probably want to sprinkle in a few facts about the country you are visiting. This can be challenging, mostly because we're not allowed to copy the words of the text! (That would be plagiarism). Thus, we often find ourselves juggling words around, for no real purpose except to "avoid plagiarism." This can feel idiotic and frustrating.
The solution to this problem is to learn how to quote the text.
Quoting the text looks like this:
According to Ruth Foster, the author of a popular book on geography, "Algeria is second in size only to Sudan on the African continent." |
Let's take a closer look at how it's done.
How to Quote the Text
To quote the text, you need three things:
- Signal Phrase
- Appositive Phrase
- Direct Quote (Placed Within Quotation Marks)
Signal Phrase | Appositive Phrase | Direct Quote |
According to Ruth Foster, |
the author of a popular book on geography, |
"Algeria is second in size only to Sudan on the African continent." |
- The signal phrase tells the reader: "Hey, wake up! I'm about to use the words of someone else, and that person is called Ruth Foster."
- The appositive phrase tells the reader who Ruth Foster is. In this case, she's the author of a popular book on geography.
- The quote is a sentence or two taken directly from the text.
- Do not change the words written by Ruth Foster.
- Do put her words within quotation marks.
If this were a formal academic paper, we would add a 4th element: a parenthetical citation.
Signal Phrase | Appositive Phrase | Quote | Parenthetical Citation |
According to Ruth Foster, |
the author of a popular book on Geography, |
"Algeria is second in size only to Sudan on the African continent" |
(Foster 24) |
The purpose of the parenthetical citation is to:
- Allow the reader to find this book on the Works Cited page.
- Inform the reader of the page number on which the quoted sentence can be found. (In this example, the sentence is found on page 24).
In a formal academic paper, our properly cited quote would look like this:
According to Ruth Foster, the author of a popular book on geography, "Algeria is second in size only to Sudan on the African continent" (Foster 24). |
But wait! We've gotten ahead of ourselves. The good news is that you are not writing a formal academic paper; you're writing a letter to a friend—a very informal letter—so you can forget about the parenthetical citation, for now. (You'll learn all about parenthetical citations in the unit called MLA Tutorial). For now, you just need the first three elements:
- Signal Phrase
- Appositive Phrase
- Direct Quote (in quotation marks)
And, to keep it simple, all you really need to do is to memorize the following formula:
According to Ruth Foster, the author of a popular book on Geography, "_____________________________________________________." |
Easy, isn't it?
It's like a license to steal! You can fill in that blank with any sentence from the book that you want! And you're legally allowed to do it, because you've put Foster's words within quotation marks, and you've attributed those words to her in the signal phrase. The attribution and the quotation marks are the things that make it all perfectly legal and acceptable.
Instructions for the Quiz
Answer the questions.
Quiz