Respond to The Art of Quoting from “They say/ I say”
Through my academic writing career, I have been told a multitude of different things. From ways, you should be portraying your argument to proper MLA formatting. This, in turn, has made it hard to find a cohesive technique moving from teacher to teacher. One thing that has been especially unclear throughout this time is the proper integration of quotations. There are a few things that I know. Firstly, quotations help your argument and essentially increase the credibility of it. Secondly, they should be encompassed in quotation marks. That’s basically all that has been enforced through the many essays I’ve had to write. They say/ I say has opened my eyes to the proper rules and dos and don’ts of integrating quotes in a cohesive, clean way. To start, the authors Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff introduce the idea of introduction. They state, “the main problem with quoting arises when writers assume that quotations speak for themselves. Because the meaning of a quotation is obvious to them, many writers assume that this meaning will also be obvious to their readers, when often it is not.” (Birkenstein and Graff 43) I am especially guilty of this. Trying to reach a word count goal is easiest when you drop lengthy quotes that you personally understand, but might ultimately confuse the reader of what the purpose is. I think outlining is an important aspect of organizing quotations and making sure there are an introduction and explanation to follow to keep the reader in the loop. Although quotes do provide a substantial amount of credibility to your overall claim, being unable to explain them takes away from the cohesiveness of your essay and makes it difficult to follow. Birkenstein and Graff both give great templates on how to introduce a quote and make it as easy as a “blank states,” type of introduction. Not super difficult and very helpful for the reader. This being said, Birkenstein and Graff also write, “readers need to see how you interpret the quotation since words – especially those of controversial figures – can be interpreted in various ways and used to support different, sometimes opposing, agendas.” (Birkenstein and Graff 49) Being clean and clear and under control when it comes to explaining quotes is very important in portraying your overall argument. I found it interesting how there isn’t really a way to overanalyze a quote. It’s better to be over-analytical about a quotation than it is to leave the reader hanging with nothing.
