“Some writers quote too little perhaps because they don’t want to bother going back to the original text and looking up the author’s exact words, or because they think they can reconstruct the author’s ideas from memory. At the opposite extreme are writers who so overquote that they end up with texts that are short on commentary of their own-maybe because they lack confidence in their ability to comment on the quotations, or because they don’t fully under­stand what they’ve quoted and therefore have trouble explain­ing what the quotations mean” (Page 42). It’s important that you quote the same exact words and that you give an explanation after. Quote something that you understand so you can explain it. 

“Writers who make this mistake think that their job is done when they’ve chosen a quotation and inserted it into their text. They draft an essay, slap in a few quotations, and whammo, they’re done” (Page 43.) You can’t just quote something without an explanation.

“Instead of simply repeating Bordo word for word, the follow-up sentences echo just enough of her language while still moving the discussion in the writer’s own direction. In effect, the framing creates a kind of hybrid mix of Bordo’s words and those of the writer” (Page 49). There should be a balance between your writing and the person you’re quoting.

“And yet, though the particular situation usually dictates when and how much to explain a quotation, we will still offer one piece of advice: 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 49). Sometimes I struggle at explaining because I don’t know when it’s enough. It’s better to give a longer and specific explanation rather than nothing or too little.Â