Focus Lesson: Citing Quotations from a Book

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Focus Lesson: Citing Quotations

Our focus lesson is around academic integrity. In this essay, you should be using quite a few quotations from the science fiction novel you read. These quotations are the very best way to provide evidence for your ideas. In order to use them ethically, you’ll need to add a citation to the quotation, demonstrating to the reader where the quote came from. Thankfully, this is a fairly easy process.

Step 1: Find a quotation from your book in your draft.

Step 2: Find the page number for that quotation in the original text.

Step 3: After the quotation in your paper, add a parenthesis. Inside the parenthesis list the author’s last name and the page number.

Step 4: Repeat for every quotation in your paper.

Here’s an example of what a well-cited quote will look like:

In The Great Gatsby, Daisy describes her daughter by saying “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool…” (Fitzgerald 35).

Please double check your entire paper and make sure all your quotations have correct citations immediately after them.

You'll also want to check that you've USED quotations by explaining what each quotation reveals about your critical lens. Don't just pepper the quotation with quotes; include the analysis and explanation.

Then, at the end of the paper, add in a Works Cited page. To cite your book, use this format:

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.