The Quote Sandwich

Chapter 5: Framing Every Quote

Your claim is just a small part of your final paper. Most of the actual words in

any academic paper go toward proving the claim. Relevant quotes and evidence

support academic arguments.

In a general sense, a good time to quote is when the author uses such exact

language that a paraphrase would lead to inaccuracies or when the writer wants to

focus on the specific words the author uses to make a nuanced point. Another good time

to quote is when the quote is composed of scholarly research or expert opinion that

helps you prove your claim. We may not be experts in the fields we are writing about,

but our sources are, so look to lean on their expertise in supporting your claims.

After some research, relevant support usually isn't the issue, but smoothly

incorporating those passages into their own writing can be a bigger challenge. One

common problem when incorporating quotes is not providing enough context. In most

cases, a lead-in is necessary or your readers may not know the source of the quote. This

is a jarring effect. Let's look at this quote for an example.

Unfortunately, voter disenfranchisement has existed in America for a very long

time. "The United States this great democracy, was founded as this experiment,

and it was a great experiment. But it was a very limited one as well.”

A reader of this quote might wonder who is being quoted and why?

Another quoting issue students often commit is known as the "hit and run"

quote, in which the student simply "drops" a quote into his or her writing and then

abruptly moves to a different point once the quote is over. This approach to quoting is

something to avoid because evidence should not "speak for itself." You cannot assume

that your readers will just "get" why the quote is included or what it has to do with your

claim. Remember, writers mainly use evidence to help illustrate or "prove" a

point/claim they are making, so it is up to you to make this connection between their

purpose and the content of the quote.

Thankfully, there is a simple approach to incorporating direct quotes into your

writing that can help you avoid these two problems: frame every quote. By "framing,"

we are referring to surrounding your direct quotes with content that helps you avoid

the two issues mentioned above:

• Include a short lead-in phrase or sentence that introduces where the quote is

coming from, who said it, and maybe even a bit about who the author is;

• and a sentence after the quote in which you explain the relevance or

importance of the passage in relation to the claim you are making.

Here is a wonderful example of the first "part" of framing a quote from Rebecca Perl's

"The Last Disenfranchised Class," one of our "They Say" articles from Week O ne:

The United States, this great democracy, was founded as this experiment, and it

was a great experiment. But it was a very limited one as well,” says Marc Mauer

of the Sentencing Project, a prison advocacy group in Washington, DC.

Even though the "lead-in" phrase is found at the end of the sentence, it "does"

exactly what is needed: we learn who the author of the quote is (Marc Mauer), the

author's credentials (the Sentencing Project), and even a bit of explanation as to what

the group Mauer is a part of is all about (prison advocacy). We could even take things a

bit further by thinking back to the Active Verb list from Week One/Discussion 4 and

replace Perl's rather general/neutral verb "says" with a more specific verb that better

"captures" or describes what is being said. In this case, perhaps "laments" would be a

more "accurate" verb.

Let's continue with the above-example from Perl's "They Say" article by

composing the second part of the frame, where we explain the quotes relevance or

importance (in bold). I have also added the claim I am making in a sentence before the

quote itself:

Unfortunately, voter disenfranchisement has existed in American for a very long

time. “The United States, this great democracy, was founded as this experiment,

and it was a great experiment. But it was a very limited one as well,” laments

Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project, a prison advocacy group in Washington,

DC. In other words, Mauer believes that the voting system in America was not

designed for all Americans, like minority voters, but a select few—namely

rich, white, and male.

In rephrasing what the quote says, I am not only able to direct the reader's

understanding about what Mauer is saying in the quote itself, but also to also connect it

to the claim I am making in the sentence at the start of the quote. The sentence also "sets

me up" to continue providing further examples of voter disenfranchisement in America,

to more fully prove my claim.

In Week One, we chose some quotes and responded to them as a means to help

generate ideas for what it is we eventually wanted to say. By now, however, you

probably have a much better sense of what your exact argument will be, and you will

need to find quotes to support your argument. When selecting quotes, you'll want to

consider how vital the quote is to your argument and whether the quote would be

better paraphrased instead. Completing the Annotated Bibliography for Discussion 1

this week will help you get a good start on locating this relevant evidence.

So, please revisit your "They Say" article(s) and re-highlight what quotes you

now think are vital to your argument. You have also chosen several quotes in

completing your annotated bibliography which you can use in this discussion as well.

Select three quotes and try to "frame" them in the manner discussed above—

don't forget to cite the quote in MLA style.