In our most recent class, we talked about using quotations more effectively. For homework, and to help you develop your next project, please use the method below to discuss one quotation you plan to use for Project #2. In your post, rather than writing this as a paragraph as you will in your project, break your work into each of the five steps, identifying each part so you can see what goes where, and so we can identify each part in each other’s responses.
Also include a response to using this method: what does it offer you that you didn’t already have in your writing tool-kit? What might it restrict you from doing?
Using Prof. Rebecca Devers’s IQIAA Method, with minor revisions, we’ll call this the five-step method for incorporating quotations:
Introduce: Use transitional phrases to inform your readers that you’re about to use someone else’s words.
Quote: When you quote someone, you are obligated to represent their words accurately. This means avoiding typos and mistakes, and it means providing accurate citations that tell your reader what source provided the words or images.
Interpret: If a quotation can stand on its own without interpretation, then your readers don’t need to read your project or essay. After including a quotation, explain it to your readers. Put that quotation into your own words, or into a language or discourse that your audience can better understand. To get comfortable doing this, consider starting sentences after quotations with phrases like, “In other words, . . . .”
Analyze: Interpretation translates the original author’s words into a language your audience will understand. Analysis tells your readers why that quotation is so important. It highlights the significance of an author’s word choice, argument, example, or logic. Analysis goes beyond the obvious, telling the reader what they may have missed if they didn’t read as carefully as you are.
Apply: Each time you use a quotation, make it clear to your reader how it supports your argument. You can do that by applying your analysis to your thesis statement. Remind your readers of your purpose for writing, and tell them how this quotation, and your analysis of it, helps you support your argument.
As you follow this method to construct a paragraph (or to write your broken-apart paragraph here), you may want to “quote the quote,” pointing to specific words or phrases within the quoted passage that carry meaning or deserve attention.
