3-Step Quotation Analysis: Prose Block Quote
First step: Introduce the quotation.
(Frame, write down and cite quotation)
After Gregor awakes, having been transformed into “a gigantic insect,” he uses his voice for the first time in response to his mother:
Gregor had a shock as he heard his own voice answering hers, unmistakably his own voice, it was true, but with a persistent horrible twittering squeak behind it like an undertone, which left the words in their clear shape only for the first moment and then rose up reverberating around them to destroy their sense, so that one could not be sure one had heard them rightly. (142)
Second step: Explain what the author is doing in the quotation.
(The author should agree with how you sum up the quotation -- this will help you establish credibility, by demonstrating that you do know what the author is saying.)
After Gregor awakes, having been transformed into “a gigantic insect,” he uses his voice for the first time in response to his mother:
Gregor had a shock as he heard his own voice answering hers, unmistakably his own voice, it was true, but with a persistent horrible twittering squeak behind it like an undertone, which left the words in their clear shape only for the first moment and then rose up reverberating around them to destroy their sense, so that one could not be sure one had heard them rightly. (142)
Language, an important indicator of identity, has begun to lose its meaning in this passage. Gregor’s voice, while “unmistakably his own,” is unfamiliar. It has been transformed in precisely the same way that his body has been transformed.
Third step: State the implications of the quotation for your own argument.
(What do you make of the author's words? How is the author doing what you think s/he's doing? )
After Gregor awakes, having been transformed into “a gigantic insect,” he uses his voice for the first time in response to his mother:
Gregor had a shock as he heard his own voice answering hers, unmistakably his own voice, it was true, but with a persistent horrible twittering squeak behind it like an undertone, which left the words in their clear shape only for the first moment and then rose up reverberating around them to destroy their sense, so that one could not be sure one had heard them rightly. (142)
Language, an important indicator of identity, has begun to lose its meaning in this passage. Gregor’s voice, while “unmistakably his own,” is unfamiliar, transformed in precisely the same way that his body has been transformed. By elaborating the way Gregor’s words have been transformed by his new body, Kafka introduces the key theme of self-alienation. We, like Gregor, “[cannot] be sure” of anything in this surreal tale of metamorphosis. Uncertainty soon cedes, however, to annihilation. By the end of the story, Gregor’s voice has become unrecognizable even to himself, and his body is swept out of his room by the broom-wielding Charwoman.
Examples of close reading
(found in the mailroom xerox machine, and added to)
Close Reading for Word Choice
In Gilbert and Sullivan's play Patience, the stage directions describe the character's creative process: "Bunthorne is seen in all the agonies of composition. The Ladies are watching him intently as he writhes. At last he hits on the word he wants and writes it down. A general sense of relief" (II.iii.sd). The pun on "writhes" for "writes" is important to this parody of aestheticism.
In the Wyoming Resolution dealing with Composition Instruction in Colleges, the term "post secondary" is used to describe teachers above the high school level. This term deliberately ignores the differences in level found among such teachers of writing—graduate students, part-time instructors, full time non-tenured instructors, and tenured professors are all included—the term is carefully selected to democratize the Resolution.
Close Reading for Mechanics
Most striking is Dickinson's characteristic use of dashes—a technique which slows the pace of her poems and adds emphasis to specific ideas. In her poem "I heard fly Buzz—when I died—" (#465), the final stanza begins with the description of the fly the dying woman hears: "With Blue—uncertain stumbling Buzz—" (13). This use of the dashes accentuates the "uncertain" and "stumbling" motion of the fly by adding a visual and audible pause after the first two syllables.
Anne Frank's final diary entry, written on August 1, 1944, ends introspectively, with a meditation on a struggle for moral transcendence set down in a mood of wistful gloom. It speaks of "turning my heart inside out. the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside," and of "trying to find a way to become what I'd like to be and what I could be if...if only there were no other people in the world" (342). Those curiously self-subduing ellipses are the diarist's own; more than merely a literary effect, they signify a child's muffled bleat against confinement, the last whimper of a prisoner in a cage.
Close Reading for Tone/Voice
An angry and defiant spokesman for nature, Robinson Jeffers spews hatred that has arisen from his immense love of the violated earth. Each tributary poem flows into the same river of intensity, a river that seems to have been dammed by the plague of civilization. Instead of naturally branching into a fertile delta, Jeffers' resentment bursts from overflow ducts in a torrent of misanthropy. "But the breed of man / Has been queer from the start. It looks like a botched / experiment that has run wild and ought to be stopped" (3-5), he writes. Jeffers' polemic stance is clear in the description of mankind as a "queer" "breed" of creature--not human, but a "botched / experiment," a "wild" Frankenstein's monster that "ought to be stopped."
In "Tintern Abbey," Wordsworth claims not to be disheartened by the loss of his innocent exuberance because "other gifts / Have followed" (86-7). Among these "gifts" is a way of looking at nature "not as in the hour / Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes / The still, sad music of humanity" (89-91). Yet before we can become too secure in a more thoughtful viewing of nature, we are arrested by the resonance of "the still, sad music of humanity" (91). Although Wordsworth professes to be content with his maturation, this line betrays a loneliness that yearns for the past.
Close Reading for Theme
In his "Inscriptions," Walt Whitman addresses several poems to the topics of democracy, freedom, and war. Much of his writing is inspired by the Civil War and his commitment to democracy for all kinds of people. In "To Thee Old Cause," Whitman uses his poetry to wage war. He reformulates the idea of a "good old cause" throughout his work, and comes closest to defining it in I860 as "the progress and freedom of the race." This poetic repetition of the phrase allows Whitman to keep the idea fresh in his readers' minds.
Some Points on Quoting to Consider
Observe these rules and you will be well on your way to effective citation and interesting analysis. Your teachers will thank you, and your peers will be amazed!
1. Refer to events in works of fiction, poems, plays, movies, and television shows in the present tense. When quoting passages from novels or describing scenes from a movie, think about the actions as performances that occur over and over again.
In his last speech, Othello orders those around him to remember and retell his story. He
asks the remaining characters to “Speak of me as I am. Nothing extenuate, / nor set down
aught in malice” (V.ii.338-39).
2. Indent any prose quotation more than 4 typed lines long two tabs (or ten spaces). Indent any poetry quotation more than 3 lines long two tabs, as well. Please note that two tabs is one tab more you’re your simple paragraph indentation. This is called block quoting—it should be used sparingly and you should always frame it with precise critical commentary (see examples).
3. Modify your quotations so that they fit the grammatical needs of your own prose. You must always cite accurately and fairly; that is, you cannot leave out a word so that a source seems to support your arguments. Yet, you can use a variety of techniques to make quotations flow naturally; these techniques preserve the integrity of the quotation while giving you a high degree of flexibility. You should: 1.) tailor the language so that the quotations fit into the grammar of your sentence:
CLUMSY: The chemical capsaicin that makes chili hot: “it is so hot it is used to make anti-dog
and anti-mugger sprays” (Bork 184).
REVISED: Capsaicin, the chemical that makes chili hot, is so strong “it is used to make
anti-dog and anti-mugger sprays” (Bork 84).
CLUMSY: Computers have not succeeded as translators as language because, says Douglas
Hofstadter, “nor is the difficulty caused by a lack of knowledge of idiomatic phrases. The
fact is that translation involves having a mental model of the world being discussed and
manipulating symbols in the model” (603).
REVISED: “A lack of knowledge of idiomatic phrases” is not the reason computers have failed
as translators of languages. “The fact is,” says Douglas Hofstadter, “that translation involves
having a mental model of the world being discussed and manipulating symbols in the model” (603).
2.) use ellipses (. . .) to indicate where you have cut material from a passage; and 3.) use square bracket[s] to add necessary information to a quotation. Never use ellipses at the beginning or the end of a quote; your reader already knows you’re not citing the whole thing. Use brackets sparingly—they become very distracting very quickly.
4. Introduce all quotations, either direct or indirect, in some way; this is called framing your quotation (you can see a clear example on the front of this page). And most importantly, NEVER QUOTE AND RUN! This kind of “hit-and-run” quoting is highly obnoxious to informed readers because it doesn’t show your thoughts—it assumes that whatever you might say is obvious, when it either isn’t or shouldn’t be. Consider this: each time you do this, a tiny, deep-eyed, fuzzy, clumsy kitten becomes road kill.
5. Observe all the conventions of citation and punctuation. These conventions signify to your readers not only that you are in control of your material, but also that you acknowledge and respect the community of scholars by which your work is being read. Know how to punctuate inside the quotation marks, using block quotations, and when you introduce a quotation.
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