A. Quotation Integration. All quotations should be integrated (attached/connected) to your own words. Unattached Quotations flaw essays by appearing without warning and thus not being subordinated to the author's voice. AVOID STAND-ALONE QUOTATIONS.

i. You may integrate quoted fragments directly into your own discourse:

ii. You may introduce full sentence quotations with phrases like "He said" or "He declared" or "He observed" or so forth:

iii. You may write a complete sentence of your own generalization or interpretation and follow it with a colon and one or more quoted complete sentences that support the generalization:

The first and third forms of integration are the more difficult, but more effective, for academic writing because each requires authors to know why one is quoting and what the quoted material really means.

iv. If your quotation is long (more than four lines of prose or three lines of poetry), set it off from your text as a block quotation, regardless of the method you use to introduce it. The block quotation takes special formatting (MLA Handbook, 2.7.2):

1. Indent entire passage 1" (use "increase indent" in Word or WordPerfect)

2. Use no quotation marks

3. Place the parenthetical citation outside of the final mark of punctuation

4. Double space the block quotation. (Everything is double-spaced.

As Laing describes it, the schizoid personality consists of a set of defenses which have been established as an attempt to preserve some semblance of coherent identity.

The self, in order to develop and sustain its identity and autonomy, and in order to be safe from the persistent threat and danger from the world, has cut itself off from direct relatedness with others, and has endeavored to become its own object; to become, in fact, related directly only to itself. Its cardinal functions become phantasy and observation. (137)

B. The Parenthetical Citation. The parenthetical citation comes discretely at the end of the sentence but before the final mark of punctuation. Material in the parenthetical citation is not separated by a comma; page numbers appear without additional identification (no p.'s or pp.'s). You may omit the author's name from the citation if it is clear from the sentence or its context. Examples are in the handbook section 5.4.

C.  Paraphrasing. Frequently a critic will articulate a position, argument, or observation, but for one reason or another you may wish only to summarize that position, argument, or observation. In these cases, even if you have the same idea yourself, you should paraphrase the position and cite parenthetically the "origin" of the idea. This accomplishes two things: you acknowledge that the idea is stated elsewhere (you are not claiming it to be your own), and you establish your own credibility as a researcher (because you have "done the leg work"). The introductory sentence under A.iv above is a paraphrased idea from a quoted source.

Quotations and citations above are taken from Cynthia Griffin Wolff’s "Thanatos & Eros: Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. The Awakening. By Kate Chopin. Ed. Nancy A. Walker. NY: St. Martins, 1993. 233-258.