Including Support and Formatting Quotes
You’ve seen the information below in a previous module, but I am including it here again for you to use in your final
draft. One of the pieces of your final draft is to include proper formatting for your quotations. This document will
introduce you to how to use quotes, and the next document will go into a bit more detail on formatting these quotes.
Pay close attention to the punctuation and word choice influences how these quotes are introduced and included.
How to include support from a writing passage in your writing:
In the following prompt you will be given a short reading passage that will be the basis for writing your essay. You will
read the passage and then be asked to write your essay based on conclusions you are able to make about that passage.
Once you have decided what point you want to make as your answer to the writing prompt, you will write your essay to
try to prove your point. As you write your essay, you will use information from the text to help support your claims and
help prove your point. Each point you make will be strengthened by finding a related text to include with your answer.
Examples of what to do:
Consider, for a moment this famous poem:
Sonnet 116
by William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love ’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.
A short writing prompt concerning this poem might be as follows:
Explain how Shakespeare defines love in Sonnet 116. How does his definition of love follow your own beliefs about this
emotion? Include Shakespeare’s use of figurative language and imagery to help support your answer. Cite examples
from the text to support your response.
A simple answer to this writing prompt WITHOUT using text citation is:
In his Sonnet 116, Shakespeare explains the complexities of love by referring to love as something that cannot be
broken once it is present. He further goes on to explain that love is unmeasurable and never ending. We know that
Shakespeare fully believes what he says because he challenges his reader to prove him wrong at the end of his poem. In
order to fully convey his message about love, Shakespeare uses personification.
I tend to agree with Shakespeare’s definition of love. I believe that love cannot be real unless it is steadfast and
strong. Love will stand the test of time.
This answer isn’t terrible, because it does attempt to answer all parts of the writing prompt. However, it does not
include examples from the text as supporting evidence. An answer such as this one would earn the writer a failing grade
simply because it does not include the required supporting evidence and is not long enough to fully answer the writing
prompt with a well-constructed answer. Look at the answer below and notice how the essay is strengthened when it
includes supporting evidence from the text.
A better answer to this writing prompt that uses text citation is:
In his Sonnet 116, Shakespeare explains the complexities of love by referring to love as something that cannot be
broken once it is present. He states, “Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds or bends with the remover to
remove.” By including this remark, Shakespeare is stating that true love does not falter when faced with hard times or
temptation.
He further goes on to explain that love is unmeasurable and never ending. When Shakespeare states, “Love ’s
not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks, Within his bending sickle’s compass come; Love alters not with his brief
hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom,” he is telling the reader that time does not affect love. Even
though time passes and tries to tear love apart, it cannot affect true love. Love, in Shakespeare’s opinion, will always
stand the test of time.
We know that Shakespeare fully believes what he says because he challenges his reader to prove him wrong at
the end of his poem. By ending the poem with these words, “If this be error, and upon me prov’d, I never writ, nor no man
ever lov’d,” Shakespeare is daring the reader find mistakes in his definition. He applies it universally to all people stating
that if he is wrong, then no one has ever truly been in love.
In order to fully convey his message about love, Shakespeare uses personification. He depicts love as having
steadfast qualities by describing it as something that “looks on tempests and is never shaken.” By personifying love as
something that chooses to be unmovable, we can see that love truly is unbreakable.
I tend to agree with Shakespeare’s definition of love. I believe that love cannot be real unless it is steadfast and
strong. Like the definition of love in his poem, I believe that love is “the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s
unknown, although his height be taken.” Here Shakespeare is stating that love is the guiding light to every wanderer, the
thing which anchors men’s hearts and always brings them home in the end. I believe that love cannot be altered
although it is the anchor for all true emotions. Love will stand the test of time.
Notice how much more in depth this second answer is, and even how much longer it becomes just by including citations
and examples within its lines. This answer answers all part of the writing prompt but does not include an introduction or
conclusion. It would merit the writer a grade of B or C.
How do I punctuate these citations?
When including citations within your writing, you need to punctuate then as if you were writing dialogue. Utilize
commas and quotation marks to help the reader understand what is your writing and what writing you are copying from
the reading passage.
Please make a special note that if you utilize citations from a text or reading passage, YOU MUST PUT THE
INFORMATION IN QUOTES. Failure to use these quotes is considered plagiarism and will result in a zero and additional
consequences.
The next page in this module is a collection of documents that contains further examples of how to write these types of
essays with textual citations. Pay close attention to how the authors incorporate and punctuate these quotations.