Jacob Hickey
English 110-H4
Professor Miller
Learning Outcome 2
Over the course of the semester, I have learned how to integrate quotes into my essays using specific words and phrases that will nicely set up my point while making it clear both who is speaking and how they are saying it. I have found that using quotes requires presenting enough of your own ideas and explanations in the text that you, as the writer, understand the topic you are quoting. During this semester, we have read excerpts from the informative book, “They Say/I Say”. There is one particular chapter about integrating quotes called, “The Art of Quoting”. This has been an extremely helpful tool to use when writing essays. It not only tells the reader how to properly set up quotations and analyze the quotes being used, it gives examples that clearly indicate the correct way in which to complete these.
By continuously attempting to improve my writing through use of quotes, as well as adding analysis and transitions, I have found I have become more comfortable, since the first major writing assignment, introducing quotes and giving my own perspective on the piece being analyzed. In this example from my essay “Reconsidering the Lobster”, I identify the speaker and add adjectives to describe his tone. After the quote is complete, I add my own thoughts and analyze how the quote is relevant to my thesis and to the main topic in order to establish that I understand what is being quoted and have given it thorough consideration. I write, “Wallace calls into question the morality of cooking lobsters while still alive, pondering, ‘Is it alright to boil a sentient creature alive just for our gustatory pleasure?’ (503). While humans do kill animals for our own physical needs, people ignore the fact that a life has been taken. It is as if the execution never occurred because truthfully, we cannot bear to consider killing another being, thinking of ourselves as murderers. Perhaps this is why many cooks leave the kitchen after putting a lobster in boiling water. It is challenging for us psychologically to think of loss and death. The finality that is associated with this subject has us longing to never deal with it”.
In this example of my own essay, I introduce the quote and show how it is important in providing evidence to my thesis statement, “Death can leave people feeling very alone and abandoned. It can envelope you like a cloak, making you feel isolated and deserted. It is a painful subject to address, bringing many awful emotions to the table. This is why we avoid, rather than face. Doughty remarks in her interview that the “most shocking thing wasn’t so much the decomposing bodies or the strange bodies that I saw, it was that I was alone and I was sending all these people off to their final disposition” (Doughty). What makes losing someone incredibly tough is not the actual death, it is knowing that you will never be able to talk, see, or hear from these people again”. It is very important to thoroughly think through all of your sources and find which one will best support and enhance your thesis idea. Using a quotation creates more reader interest by painting a more vivid picture of the point one is trying to make and providing an example to bring one’s thesis statement to life.
