Quoting had always been an essential part of any good essay. In the book, “They Say, I Say”, written by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, they go into great detail about quoting and the importance it plays towards any type of essay you may be trying to write about. However, there is a particular way to quote that is more effective than just taking a passage from a book you’re reading or the resources that are available. What we care about in an essay is what you think, not exactly what “they” think about it, but their insight can play a role in the making of your essay. As the writers of “They Say, I Say” put it, “In a way, quotations are like orphans: words that have been taken from their original contexts and that need to be integrated into their new textual surroundings.” (pg. 48) Strange comparisons aside, what the two writers are trying to convey is this idea that quotes are basically kind of helpless unless you give them a place in your essay. If you just slap a quote into your essay, the readers will be so confused. You can’t expect everyone to be able to just understand what the quote means, you need to give it context, or it won’t stand on its own and will feel like you’re just trying to pass off the important part of having an opinion on a matter to someone else, someone who has already written a book about it. It is also important that you use the correct language to support a quote of a passage, and it matters both ways; when introducing the quote and whoever wrote it, and at the end when you want to explain the quote. Gerald and Cathy elaborate on this, stating “When offering such explanations, it is important to use language that accurately reflects the spirit of the quoted passage.” (pg. 52) To sum up what the mean by that, you can look at the previous ways I have already introduced my quotes and the way I like to expand on them and explain them to the readers. You want to add language that helps readers gauge what kind of feeling the original author was going for, and what you feel your interpretation of the quote represents in your greater essay. It’s a good idea to try to keep things connected like this, like a big spiderweb supported by quotes, but not carried by them.
After reading “The Art of Quoting” in Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s’ book They Say I Say, I have a better understanding on the importance of using direct textual evidence to strengthen writing and how to integrate quotes into my own. The use of quotes helps improves writing as it provides an added layer of credibility and allows the writer to build their arguments more effectively by putting it in conversations with others. Throughout the reading, I learned some helpful terminology such as a “dangling” quotation, a quote just thrown in a piece of writing without context or explanation, introduced on page 48 and the phrase “quotation sandwich,” a proper framework for implementing quotes, introduced on page 49. When highlighting the importance of properly integrating quotes, Gaff and Birkenstein write, “In a way, quotations are orphans: words that have been taken from their original contexts and that need to be integrated into their new textual surroundings” (p.48). This metaphor was interesting to me and made me more aware of the need to contextualize my quotes and explain their meaning. When diving deeper into the idea of quotation sandwiches, the authors brought up another interesting point about the importance of including a follow up sentence after placing a quote in your writing. According to the authors, it is essential to follow quotations with continued commentary because “readers need to see how you interpret the quotation” (p.55). I find myself frequently rolling my eyes when I am told that I need to follow a quote with explanation because I feel as though am just regurgitating exactly what the person said. However, I have since learned that this is a place where I can bring in my own thoughts and interpretations to make my writing much more of my own. It allows me to further build my argument because the reader can better understand exactly where I was coming from and why I included that quote in the first place. Quotations are powerful tools, and this reading not only revealed this power to me, but also taught me effective ways to use them for my own benefit when strengthening my writing and enhancing my arguments.
Something insightful in this reading is where it says that not quoting enough is as bad as quoting too much (page 47 paragraph 2). In AP lang I was taught to use as little quotation as possible for the interest of time, and that habit has followed me into my writing now. I find it more important to focus on my analysis rather than the words of somebody else, but now I am realizing that maybe the value that I have placed it in is unbalanced. On page 54, (how not to introduce quotations) I am confused about how those introductions are wrong. “Asserts and idea” and “asserts” seem the same to me, and I am wondering how that is misleading. The redundancy part makes a little more sense to me because I recognize that saying the author has an idea before directly quoting the idea is redundant, but I don’t agree with the misleading part. It also seems like this specific example is very nitpicky. The same applies for the “a quote by Shakespeare” example, because if the words in quotations were said or written by Shakespeare, doesn’t that make it a Shakespeare quote? On page 53 (Can you over analyze a quote) I am wondering if there are ways to check if you have overanalyzed a quote? Because there have been times when I am writing an essay and in my explanation of how my quote fits my thesis, I can sense that I am starting to go on a tangent. As I go back and revise that section of my body paragraph, I will start to delete things, but then realize that now my evidence doesn’t make as much sense, or that there is no connection to my thesis. This line is very hard to walk and I was wondering if there are any signs to look out for during revision for when evidence has been overanalyzed?
In the reading it starts out about how important it is to bring up others arguments while writing an argumentative essay. Bringing in other points of views, to both disprove their points or relate them to your own proving them accurate, is very important! The best way to share others’ opinions is to literally quote them! The reading explains how this simple task can actually be quite hard, and even misleading if the writer does it incorrectly. There is such a thing as over quoting and underquoting. Finding the happy medium is optimal. Sometimes, writers share quotes that they don’t even understand, it doesn’t relate to the text, they can’t explain them, etc. Being able to explain a quote is very important, especially when putting it into new writing. On page 48, paragraph 2, I think it’s funny that they referred to quotes as “orphans” that need to be “integrated into their new textual surroundings.” In the reading it discusses overexplaining a quote, and is it a bad thing. The reading says “…when in doubt, go for it. It is better to risk being overly explicit about what you take a quotation to mean than to leave the quotation dangling and your readers in doubt.” (page 55 paragraph 1) Although yes, that is true, I disagree with the point made in some ways. I think being overly explicit can definitely have negative effects on writing. Whether it’s an argumentative essay or a scientific paper, there are times when over-explanation can make a reader unmotivated to continue through the restatement of points. If the same point is being made with the same explanation, the writing can drag on and be unenjoyable or useless to readers. I found that the templates for introducing and explaining quotes were extremely helpful, found on pages 51 and 52, which I can see myself referring back to while writing essays. Another point brought up was the use of rearranging others words while using them in your own statements. Instead of repeatedly quoting someone else and explaining them, use their knowledge of the topic and make a “hybrid mix of material.” This can be helpful honestly when writing about something you don’t know anything about, without time to thoroughly research it, or if there isn’t a lot of information/research in general about the topic!
Two questions:
1. Do peoples upbringing correspond with their use of technology?
2. Do older generations believe that kids using technology at a young age actually actually affects their social skills?
I found it very insightful the explanation of the difference between quoting too little and too much. Some writers are too confident in their memory and feel that they don’t need to quote as much, if they do not want to go back to the original text. However some writers lack confidence and struggle elaborating on the quotation. I could relate to where the author talked about feeling like quotations speak for themselves so they do not provide enough information which will help my writing going forward. I found it interesting that they compared quotations with orphans. It helps us understand that quotations need to be integrated into their surroundings and not just put in the writing with no context. The idea of quotations being orphans goes along with not just leaving it there to demonstrate that you read the author’s work. I found it intriguing and a really good reference that the author compared it to a hit and run. After reading, we need to “take responsibility” for the quotes we chose and thoroughly explain them so it does not just seem like a hit and run. Overall comparing explaining too much or too little when we are doubting our quotes or if we explained too much to just go for it. At the end of the day more description is better than little. We cannot just leave it to be a hit and run or an orphan but to use quotes to our advantage and help create a more insightful text.
Journal 4 – Perkins
The book “They Say, I Say” by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein gives insight into what a good quote versus a bad quote may look like. When I was younger, I had problems quoting and over tie, I have progressively gotten better by practicing and quoting repeatedly. Since I have not taken an English class for a year, the authors were able to summarize what I needed to remember to be able to quote for this class. I found that the way that Graff and Birkenstein start this section is very interesting as they argue that “quotations are orphans: words that have been taken from their original contexts and that need to be integrated into their new textual surroundings” (48). This stood out to me because whenever people see that they must include a quote in their paper, they take a random quote and do not give any information leading into the quote and evidence for why it was put there. This idea leads me to something else that the authors said in which I found helpful, as well as interesting. Graff and Birkenstein propose the idea of a quotation sandwich which includes, “the statement introducing it serving as the top slice of bread and the explanation following it serving as the bottom slice” (51). The quotation sandwich can give meaning to the evidence provided by the quote so that it does not become an orphan, as mentioned before. Had I previously known about the quotation sandwich, then I would have done much better in my previous English classes. Some people find quoting much easier than others, but as long as you can remember something as easy as providing meaning to the quote by introducing it and then explaining it will give ease to everyone. I really enjoyed the way the chapter ended by introducing this idea of quote integration not being the same and varies from paper to paper. While there is no one specific way to quote, the authors remind readers that “not all quotations require the same amount of explanatory framing, and there are no hard-and-fast rules for knowing how much explanation any quotation needs” (54). Reading this chapter of “They Say, I Say” reminds me as a reader and a writer that every person is different and no one answer is the same, which allows me to feel like I am unique in my own way.
On page fifty in the second or third paragraph of “The Art of Quoting”, the author addresses an example of poor presentation of a quotation or as they call it a “hit-and-run”, that was made by a student. The student gave no introduction and immediately gave us the quotation. The author says that this is the wrong way to integrate the quotation into the writing because the student “fails to introduce the quotation or explain why they find it worth quoting, readers will have a hard time reconstructing what Garcia argued.” While I agree that the student failed to introduce the quotation, I feel like it is not always necessary to do so. At the end of the quotation, there are a brief few words written by the student that appear to be explaining why they find it worth quoting. My point is, as long as the author explains why their quotation is worth quoting then there’s no problem. It shouldn’t matter if it is before or after so long as the point as to why the quotation was included and how it fits with the point of the text makes its way to the reader in an understandable way.
Now that I have read further I realize my entire statement from above was addressed and is pretty much obsolete, but I want to keep it as part of my journal entry as an example for what I read and dismissed earlier in the text. On page 49 in paragraph two the author talks about how “ you may sometimes think that you’ve found the perfect quotation to support your argument, only to discover later on, as your test develops, that your focus has changed and the quotation no longer works.” After dismissing this part of the text and undergoing the consequences, I now realize that it is a very helpful piece of information because it’s the very thing that happened to me while writing this.
While reading “They Say I Say”, I learned a lot of helpful tips for using quotes in my essays. Throughout the reading, it really emphasized the need for explanation of the quotes, as well as making sure to add just enough to the quotes. The book explained how sometimes, people will put too little of the quotes that they derived from their source, whether it is from a book or an article, whereas others will overquote. While reading, it showed how you cannot add to little of a quote, and you also cannot add too much, you must find a happy medium of the quote that will fit with the analysis and explanation of it. The book also explained a “quotation sandwich”. A quotation sandwich is a certain way to add a quote into an essay or piece of writing by introducing it first. First, it is introduced with a statement and is then followed by an explanation so that the reader can understand why the quote was chosen, and what it means. In a quotation sandwich, the quote is the filling, and the introduction for the quote and the explanation are the top and bottom slices of the bread. The top slice is only the introduction to the quote, it can be either a phrase or sentence for the quote, then the filling is the actual quote, with the bottom slice being either an explanation or analysis of the quote. The analysis or explanation helps the reader be able to connect the quote to the thesis or main argument of their essay. While writing an essay, it is imperative to explain the quote chosen for an essay, so you are not just a hit and run quoter. It is so important to explain the quote chosen so that the person reading the essay with the quote in it will know exactly what the person is saying and why they chose to put the quote in there in the first place.
I found this assigned reading of “They Say I Say” to be extremely insightful as historically the body paragraphs of my analytical pieces would oftentimes be mostly made up of the quote with little introduction or explanation to connect the quote to my topic and further my argument. I found it interesting that the authors stress that it is more important to be over explicit than not explicit enough (first line chapter 55). This was something that I had feared when writing as I did not want to sound like I was rambling or focusing too much on one quote, leading to an under analyzation of most of my quotes. Another part of this chapter intrigued me was when the authors touched on making a “quotation sandwich”. I find that the framework that they laid out is extremely helpful in ensuring that you can smoothly insert a quotation without noticeably breaking up the flow you had established. From their sandwich guidelines, I found that the quotation introductions that they provide readers is insightful and will definitely be a tool that I will use in my future pieces (starting on page 49). Including both what not to say and what to say I think allows the reader to grasp what they are trying to say easier and, at least for me, do minor analyzation of your past quotation introductions and think about how your common phrases compare to their list of “Do’s or Do not’s”. After reading this chapter, I was curious on the part where the authors discussed “Blending the Authors Words with Your Own”. Upon reading this section, I was able to understand the author’s reasoning behind the blending aspect but what I was curious about was their opinion on paraphrasing and if that abides by what they are discussing. In my English background I was taught to paraphrase more often that way you can eliminate the excess words that have no meaning, but the example provided in the book they used direct quotations. A clarification on their standpoint on paraphrasing and when to and not to use it would help ease this question.
When reading this chapter there were multiple points that stood out to me. The first one being that you should always integrate and explain your quotes when putting them into your paper. This is important because your readers need context of where you found the quote and what the quote means and how it fits into your work. (pg. 47, 1st paragraph). You should choose your quotes wisely ensuring that they properly fit into what you are trying to convey in your paper. Sometimes after finding a quote your arguments may evolve to the point where the quote no longer fits into your paper. It may not fid due to you changing your topic or realizing the point you are trying to get across for your topic was incorrect so you would then require new quotes to fit with your topic. (pg. 48-49, “Quote Relevant Passages”). Always try to follow quotes by explaining what they mean. This is important to do because you should be assuming that the reader doesn’t think the same as you and won’t interpret the quote the say way you did. By helping convey what the quote means and how it fits into your paper can help aid in your argument. (pg. 52, paragraph 1). I like the idea of blending the author’s words with your own because I feel like it is an easy and different way to include quotes other from the; into, quote, explain format. With blending I feel that it is easier to explain to the reader what the quote is talking about by picking apart the quote and almost retell the quote in your own words. (pg. 54 paragraph 1).
After reading the passage “The Art of Quoting” in the book “They Say I Say” by Gerald Graff. They emphasize that a quote isn’t just something to throw into an essay for credibility it needs to be put into your argument. As they put it, quotes are like “orphans” that need a home in your writing, and without context or explanation, they can confuse the reader. This idea made me realize that simply dropping a quote into an essay doesn’t do much. Instead it’s important to introduce it properly and follow it up with commentary that reflects its meaning. For example, the authors introduce the concept of the “quotation sandwich” (pg 48) where you set up the quote, provide the quote, and then offer your interpretation to tie it all together. This approach helps the quote contribute to your argument rather than just filling space. I’ve learned that this process allows me to bring in my own thoughts and insights, making my writing more personal and engaging. Overall I feel like this chapter helped me see that quoting is a tool that, when used right, can benefit your writing.
The opening to this chapter was not very informative to me as I know how to quote things and overall it wasn’t helpful. I liked the part of the chapter where they spoke on the fact that quotes sometimes are useful but then as you write more you find that the quote is not as helpful to you as you once thought it was. “Sometimes quotes that were initially relevant to your work and become less as you write more” (49). This related to me because I have had many times where I have found a quote that fits my work but then later I find that it is in fact refuting my thoughts or just does not fit with my initial thesis I had. Overall in this chapter, I did not find much new information.
As a STEM student, writing research papers for both educational periods and also in the lab setting uses quotes from previous research papers almost religiously. I believe, and I think many colleagues and professors in the industry can agree, that having the correctly formatted quote from past research can be almost as impactful as original research. In research writing, quotes can be used as a verification or vetting process in the cross examination of information you are trying to present, or in the case of a thesis project, defending the credible evidence you have found. If a part of information you have does not match to a certain degree of accuracy, one, you might not have the appropriate sources of backing information. Or two, you might have found some new information to be processed under your research. The way we use quotes is for supporting evidence, and not necessarily redefining different information. Your argument should be mostly your own thoughts, observations, and conclusions, but having supporting arguments in the proposal will make your argument even stronger. I don’t believe I have ever heard a professor say that “overquoting” is bad thing, but there are definitely limits for the amount of others work should be there, compared to how much needs to be your own writing. Again, this is to help support your evidence, not just copy paste from an article you found from a google search.
I like the part on page 54 where it talks about writers taking too long to explain a position and readers don’t know when an argument is agreeing or disagreeing with a certain position. This is an interesting take on how readers digest the information and either apply it to what they are intending to use it for or otherwise just commonly interested in learning about the topic. Especially in research writing, the main goal is to explain the discovery, explain what, where, who, why, and how things happened in the most direct and positive way without diluting the information. If the need for quotes arise to help back that info, then it should be critical to appropriately give the credit where credit is due to past researchers.
14 thoughts on “JORUNAL # 4”
Quoting had always been an essential part of any good essay. In the book, “They Say, I Say”, written by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, they go into great detail about quoting and the importance it plays towards any type of essay you may be trying to write about. However, there is a particular way to quote that is more effective than just taking a passage from a book you’re reading or the resources that are available. What we care about in an essay is what you think, not exactly what “they” think about it, but their insight can play a role in the making of your essay. As the writers of “They Say, I Say” put it, “In a way, quotations are like orphans: words that have been taken from their original contexts and that need to be integrated into their new textual surroundings.” (pg. 48) Strange comparisons aside, what the two writers are trying to convey is this idea that quotes are basically kind of helpless unless you give them a place in your essay. If you just slap a quote into your essay, the readers will be so confused. You can’t expect everyone to be able to just understand what the quote means, you need to give it context, or it won’t stand on its own and will feel like you’re just trying to pass off the important part of having an opinion on a matter to someone else, someone who has already written a book about it. It is also important that you use the correct language to support a quote of a passage, and it matters both ways; when introducing the quote and whoever wrote it, and at the end when you want to explain the quote. Gerald and Cathy elaborate on this, stating “When offering such explanations, it is important to use language that accurately reflects the spirit of the quoted passage.” (pg. 52) To sum up what the mean by that, you can look at the previous ways I have already introduced my quotes and the way I like to expand on them and explain them to the readers. You want to add language that helps readers gauge what kind of feeling the original author was going for, and what you feel your interpretation of the quote represents in your greater essay. It’s a good idea to try to keep things connected like this, like a big spiderweb supported by quotes, but not carried by them.
After reading “The Art of Quoting” in Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s’ book They Say I Say, I have a better understanding on the importance of using direct textual evidence to strengthen writing and how to integrate quotes into my own. The use of quotes helps improves writing as it provides an added layer of credibility and allows the writer to build their arguments more effectively by putting it in conversations with others. Throughout the reading, I learned some helpful terminology such as a “dangling” quotation, a quote just thrown in a piece of writing without context or explanation, introduced on page 48 and the phrase “quotation sandwich,” a proper framework for implementing quotes, introduced on page 49. When highlighting the importance of properly integrating quotes, Gaff and Birkenstein write, “In a way, quotations are orphans: words that have been taken from their original contexts and that need to be integrated into their new textual surroundings” (p.48). This metaphor was interesting to me and made me more aware of the need to contextualize my quotes and explain their meaning. When diving deeper into the idea of quotation sandwiches, the authors brought up another interesting point about the importance of including a follow up sentence after placing a quote in your writing. According to the authors, it is essential to follow quotations with continued commentary because “readers need to see how you interpret the quotation” (p.55). I find myself frequently rolling my eyes when I am told that I need to follow a quote with explanation because I feel as though am just regurgitating exactly what the person said. However, I have since learned that this is a place where I can bring in my own thoughts and interpretations to make my writing much more of my own. It allows me to further build my argument because the reader can better understand exactly where I was coming from and why I included that quote in the first place. Quotations are powerful tools, and this reading not only revealed this power to me, but also taught me effective ways to use them for my own benefit when strengthening my writing and enhancing my arguments.
Something insightful in this reading is where it says that not quoting enough is as bad as quoting too much (page 47 paragraph 2). In AP lang I was taught to use as little quotation as possible for the interest of time, and that habit has followed me into my writing now. I find it more important to focus on my analysis rather than the words of somebody else, but now I am realizing that maybe the value that I have placed it in is unbalanced. On page 54, (how not to introduce quotations) I am confused about how those introductions are wrong. “Asserts and idea” and “asserts” seem the same to me, and I am wondering how that is misleading. The redundancy part makes a little more sense to me because I recognize that saying the author has an idea before directly quoting the idea is redundant, but I don’t agree with the misleading part. It also seems like this specific example is very nitpicky. The same applies for the “a quote by Shakespeare” example, because if the words in quotations were said or written by Shakespeare, doesn’t that make it a Shakespeare quote? On page 53 (Can you over analyze a quote) I am wondering if there are ways to check if you have overanalyzed a quote? Because there have been times when I am writing an essay and in my explanation of how my quote fits my thesis, I can sense that I am starting to go on a tangent. As I go back and revise that section of my body paragraph, I will start to delete things, but then realize that now my evidence doesn’t make as much sense, or that there is no connection to my thesis. This line is very hard to walk and I was wondering if there are any signs to look out for during revision for when evidence has been overanalyzed?
In the reading it starts out about how important it is to bring up others arguments while writing an argumentative essay. Bringing in other points of views, to both disprove their points or relate them to your own proving them accurate, is very important! The best way to share others’ opinions is to literally quote them! The reading explains how this simple task can actually be quite hard, and even misleading if the writer does it incorrectly. There is such a thing as over quoting and underquoting. Finding the happy medium is optimal. Sometimes, writers share quotes that they don’t even understand, it doesn’t relate to the text, they can’t explain them, etc. Being able to explain a quote is very important, especially when putting it into new writing. On page 48, paragraph 2, I think it’s funny that they referred to quotes as “orphans” that need to be “integrated into their new textual surroundings.” In the reading it discusses overexplaining a quote, and is it a bad thing. The reading says “…when in doubt, go for it. It is better to risk being overly explicit about what you take a quotation to mean than to leave the quotation dangling and your readers in doubt.” (page 55 paragraph 1) Although yes, that is true, I disagree with the point made in some ways. I think being overly explicit can definitely have negative effects on writing. Whether it’s an argumentative essay or a scientific paper, there are times when over-explanation can make a reader unmotivated to continue through the restatement of points. If the same point is being made with the same explanation, the writing can drag on and be unenjoyable or useless to readers. I found that the templates for introducing and explaining quotes were extremely helpful, found on pages 51 and 52, which I can see myself referring back to while writing essays. Another point brought up was the use of rearranging others words while using them in your own statements. Instead of repeatedly quoting someone else and explaining them, use their knowledge of the topic and make a “hybrid mix of material.” This can be helpful honestly when writing about something you don’t know anything about, without time to thoroughly research it, or if there isn’t a lot of information/research in general about the topic!
Two questions:
1. Do peoples upbringing correspond with their use of technology?
2. Do older generations believe that kids using technology at a young age actually actually affects their social skills?
I found it very insightful the explanation of the difference between quoting too little and too much. Some writers are too confident in their memory and feel that they don’t need to quote as much, if they do not want to go back to the original text. However some writers lack confidence and struggle elaborating on the quotation. I could relate to where the author talked about feeling like quotations speak for themselves so they do not provide enough information which will help my writing going forward. I found it interesting that they compared quotations with orphans. It helps us understand that quotations need to be integrated into their surroundings and not just put in the writing with no context. The idea of quotations being orphans goes along with not just leaving it there to demonstrate that you read the author’s work. I found it intriguing and a really good reference that the author compared it to a hit and run. After reading, we need to “take responsibility” for the quotes we chose and thoroughly explain them so it does not just seem like a hit and run. Overall comparing explaining too much or too little when we are doubting our quotes or if we explained too much to just go for it. At the end of the day more description is better than little. We cannot just leave it to be a hit and run or an orphan but to use quotes to our advantage and help create a more insightful text.
Journal 4 – Perkins
The book “They Say, I Say” by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein gives insight into what a good quote versus a bad quote may look like. When I was younger, I had problems quoting and over tie, I have progressively gotten better by practicing and quoting repeatedly. Since I have not taken an English class for a year, the authors were able to summarize what I needed to remember to be able to quote for this class. I found that the way that Graff and Birkenstein start this section is very interesting as they argue that “quotations are orphans: words that have been taken from their original contexts and that need to be integrated into their new textual surroundings” (48). This stood out to me because whenever people see that they must include a quote in their paper, they take a random quote and do not give any information leading into the quote and evidence for why it was put there. This idea leads me to something else that the authors said in which I found helpful, as well as interesting. Graff and Birkenstein propose the idea of a quotation sandwich which includes, “the statement introducing it serving as the top slice of bread and the explanation following it serving as the bottom slice” (51). The quotation sandwich can give meaning to the evidence provided by the quote so that it does not become an orphan, as mentioned before. Had I previously known about the quotation sandwich, then I would have done much better in my previous English classes. Some people find quoting much easier than others, but as long as you can remember something as easy as providing meaning to the quote by introducing it and then explaining it will give ease to everyone. I really enjoyed the way the chapter ended by introducing this idea of quote integration not being the same and varies from paper to paper. While there is no one specific way to quote, the authors remind readers that “not all quotations require the same amount of explanatory framing, and there are no hard-and-fast rules for knowing how much explanation any quotation needs” (54). Reading this chapter of “They Say, I Say” reminds me as a reader and a writer that every person is different and no one answer is the same, which allows me to feel like I am unique in my own way.
On page fifty in the second or third paragraph of “The Art of Quoting”, the author addresses an example of poor presentation of a quotation or as they call it a “hit-and-run”, that was made by a student. The student gave no introduction and immediately gave us the quotation. The author says that this is the wrong way to integrate the quotation into the writing because the student “fails to introduce the quotation or explain why they find it worth quoting, readers will have a hard time reconstructing what Garcia argued.” While I agree that the student failed to introduce the quotation, I feel like it is not always necessary to do so. At the end of the quotation, there are a brief few words written by the student that appear to be explaining why they find it worth quoting. My point is, as long as the author explains why their quotation is worth quoting then there’s no problem. It shouldn’t matter if it is before or after so long as the point as to why the quotation was included and how it fits with the point of the text makes its way to the reader in an understandable way.
Now that I have read further I realize my entire statement from above was addressed and is pretty much obsolete, but I want to keep it as part of my journal entry as an example for what I read and dismissed earlier in the text. On page 49 in paragraph two the author talks about how “ you may sometimes think that you’ve found the perfect quotation to support your argument, only to discover later on, as your test develops, that your focus has changed and the quotation no longer works.” After dismissing this part of the text and undergoing the consequences, I now realize that it is a very helpful piece of information because it’s the very thing that happened to me while writing this.
While reading “They Say I Say”, I learned a lot of helpful tips for using quotes in my essays. Throughout the reading, it really emphasized the need for explanation of the quotes, as well as making sure to add just enough to the quotes. The book explained how sometimes, people will put too little of the quotes that they derived from their source, whether it is from a book or an article, whereas others will overquote. While reading, it showed how you cannot add to little of a quote, and you also cannot add too much, you must find a happy medium of the quote that will fit with the analysis and explanation of it. The book also explained a “quotation sandwich”. A quotation sandwich is a certain way to add a quote into an essay or piece of writing by introducing it first. First, it is introduced with a statement and is then followed by an explanation so that the reader can understand why the quote was chosen, and what it means. In a quotation sandwich, the quote is the filling, and the introduction for the quote and the explanation are the top and bottom slices of the bread. The top slice is only the introduction to the quote, it can be either a phrase or sentence for the quote, then the filling is the actual quote, with the bottom slice being either an explanation or analysis of the quote. The analysis or explanation helps the reader be able to connect the quote to the thesis or main argument of their essay. While writing an essay, it is imperative to explain the quote chosen for an essay, so you are not just a hit and run quoter. It is so important to explain the quote chosen so that the person reading the essay with the quote in it will know exactly what the person is saying and why they chose to put the quote in there in the first place.
I found this assigned reading of “They Say I Say” to be extremely insightful as historically the body paragraphs of my analytical pieces would oftentimes be mostly made up of the quote with little introduction or explanation to connect the quote to my topic and further my argument. I found it interesting that the authors stress that it is more important to be over explicit than not explicit enough (first line chapter 55). This was something that I had feared when writing as I did not want to sound like I was rambling or focusing too much on one quote, leading to an under analyzation of most of my quotes. Another part of this chapter intrigued me was when the authors touched on making a “quotation sandwich”. I find that the framework that they laid out is extremely helpful in ensuring that you can smoothly insert a quotation without noticeably breaking up the flow you had established. From their sandwich guidelines, I found that the quotation introductions that they provide readers is insightful and will definitely be a tool that I will use in my future pieces (starting on page 49). Including both what not to say and what to say I think allows the reader to grasp what they are trying to say easier and, at least for me, do minor analyzation of your past quotation introductions and think about how your common phrases compare to their list of “Do’s or Do not’s”. After reading this chapter, I was curious on the part where the authors discussed “Blending the Authors Words with Your Own”. Upon reading this section, I was able to understand the author’s reasoning behind the blending aspect but what I was curious about was their opinion on paraphrasing and if that abides by what they are discussing. In my English background I was taught to paraphrase more often that way you can eliminate the excess words that have no meaning, but the example provided in the book they used direct quotations. A clarification on their standpoint on paraphrasing and when to and not to use it would help ease this question.
When reading this chapter there were multiple points that stood out to me. The first one being that you should always integrate and explain your quotes when putting them into your paper. This is important because your readers need context of where you found the quote and what the quote means and how it fits into your work. (pg. 47, 1st paragraph). You should choose your quotes wisely ensuring that they properly fit into what you are trying to convey in your paper. Sometimes after finding a quote your arguments may evolve to the point where the quote no longer fits into your paper. It may not fid due to you changing your topic or realizing the point you are trying to get across for your topic was incorrect so you would then require new quotes to fit with your topic. (pg. 48-49, “Quote Relevant Passages”). Always try to follow quotes by explaining what they mean. This is important to do because you should be assuming that the reader doesn’t think the same as you and won’t interpret the quote the say way you did. By helping convey what the quote means and how it fits into your paper can help aid in your argument. (pg. 52, paragraph 1). I like the idea of blending the author’s words with your own because I feel like it is an easy and different way to include quotes other from the; into, quote, explain format. With blending I feel that it is easier to explain to the reader what the quote is talking about by picking apart the quote and almost retell the quote in your own words. (pg. 54 paragraph 1).
After reading the passage “The Art of Quoting” in the book “They Say I Say” by Gerald Graff. They emphasize that a quote isn’t just something to throw into an essay for credibility it needs to be put into your argument. As they put it, quotes are like “orphans” that need a home in your writing, and without context or explanation, they can confuse the reader. This idea made me realize that simply dropping a quote into an essay doesn’t do much. Instead it’s important to introduce it properly and follow it up with commentary that reflects its meaning. For example, the authors introduce the concept of the “quotation sandwich” (pg 48) where you set up the quote, provide the quote, and then offer your interpretation to tie it all together. This approach helps the quote contribute to your argument rather than just filling space. I’ve learned that this process allows me to bring in my own thoughts and insights, making my writing more personal and engaging. Overall I feel like this chapter helped me see that quoting is a tool that, when used right, can benefit your writing.
The opening to this chapter was not very informative to me as I know how to quote things and overall it wasn’t helpful. I liked the part of the chapter where they spoke on the fact that quotes sometimes are useful but then as you write more you find that the quote is not as helpful to you as you once thought it was. “Sometimes quotes that were initially relevant to your work and become less as you write more” (49). This related to me because I have had many times where I have found a quote that fits my work but then later I find that it is in fact refuting my thoughts or just does not fit with my initial thesis I had. Overall in this chapter, I did not find much new information.
As a STEM student, writing research papers for both educational periods and also in the lab setting uses quotes from previous research papers almost religiously. I believe, and I think many colleagues and professors in the industry can agree, that having the correctly formatted quote from past research can be almost as impactful as original research. In research writing, quotes can be used as a verification or vetting process in the cross examination of information you are trying to present, or in the case of a thesis project, defending the credible evidence you have found. If a part of information you have does not match to a certain degree of accuracy, one, you might not have the appropriate sources of backing information. Or two, you might have found some new information to be processed under your research. The way we use quotes is for supporting evidence, and not necessarily redefining different information. Your argument should be mostly your own thoughts, observations, and conclusions, but having supporting arguments in the proposal will make your argument even stronger. I don’t believe I have ever heard a professor say that “overquoting” is bad thing, but there are definitely limits for the amount of others work should be there, compared to how much needs to be your own writing. Again, this is to help support your evidence, not just copy paste from an article you found from a google search.
I like the part on page 54 where it talks about writers taking too long to explain a position and readers don’t know when an argument is agreeing or disagreeing with a certain position. This is an interesting take on how readers digest the information and either apply it to what they are intending to use it for or otherwise just commonly interested in learning about the topic. Especially in research writing, the main goal is to explain the discovery, explain what, where, who, why, and how things happened in the most direct and positive way without diluting the information. If the need for quotes arise to help back that info, then it should be critical to appropriately give the credit where credit is due to past researchers.