Integrating Quotes

craft-level synthesis

We are all in the business of honing our critical thinking skills around here, and there are two processes that are essential to critical thought. They are the inverse of each other, and every time we write, we must do both.

These two essential intellectual processes are analysis and synthesis.

Analysis is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it.

Look at the two photos above carefully. Someone carefully, maybe with tweezers and one of those eye magnifiers that jewelers use¹, has taken the pine branch apart so that we can see all the separate pieces individually.

When we look at the separate pieces, there are connections that are hidden when we look at the whole. How would we know, for example, that the twin branches have exactly the same number of needles on them? In the second photo, we can see visually the relationship between the numbers of pine needles and their place on the branch. And our understanding of the pine branch in deepened.

I feel very, very confident that you’ve been dancing around with the concept of analysis in your classes for awhile now, probably at least since 4th grade if you went to school in Texas. But it’s possible you’ve never been asked to consider the opposite process, the process of taking the disparate parts and making them into a cohesive whole. Moving from the separate pine needles and sticks back to one whole branch, so to speak. This process is synthesis.

Synthesis is the process of forming a complex whole from simpler parts or elements.

Analysis and Synthesis with Quotes

Both of these processes are front and center when we are dealing with sources in academic papers. First, we have to read the sources and find relevant information. This is analysis. We are approaching a large text, breaking it into to smaller parts, and selecting the parts that we need. High-level analysis, right there.

But we also must synthesize our sources into our paper and make our essay a “complex whole” in its own right. To do that, you need to develop your ideas so that your ideas are the driving engine of your paper. Your sources should only be present as support for your point of view and your ideas. Otherwise, you haven’t written a paper. You have just created a collage of disparate quotes all strung together.

Quick meta fact I want to point out about the structure of this post: I have been going down the ladder of abstraction. I began discussing the concepts of analysis and synthesis very broadly. Here, I’ve discussed them in relation to academic writing. But we are going to get even more concrete. I’m about to show you what strong sentence-level synthesis looks like in your essays.

Integrating Quotes

On a practical craft level, you synthesize the words, facts, and ideas from your sources with your ideas by integrating your quotes into your paper. Here are some general guidelines to help you do this as effectively as possible. I’m going to give you a list, but the underlying principle behind each of the guidelines is this:

Use as little of someone else’s words as possible.

If you can quote two words from a source, that’s better than quoting five. Never quote more than a sentence, and actually, always try to quote far less than a sentence. Never start any sentence in your essay with someone else’s words.

1. Choose Relevant Quotes

• Select quotes that directly support or challenge your thesis or the specific point you are making. Everything, including your quotes, should relate back to your thesis. Hopefully, we've all already done this for our outlines.

2. Introduce the Quote

• Provide context for the quote. Don’t just insert it abruptly into your text.

3. Integrate the Quote into Your Sentence Structure

• Blend the quote into your own sentence structure. This can mean leading into the quote with your own words or combining the quote with your commentary.

• Example: According to Doe, "the impact of climate change is increasingly visible in urban areas," which underscores the need for...

4. Use Signal Phrases

• Signal phrases help to smoothly introduce a quote into your paper. They often include the author’s name and a verb that sets up the quote.

• Examples of signal phrases: argues, states, explains, asserts, suggests, notes, claims, etc.

5. Comment on the Quote

• After presenting the quote, explain its significance. How does it support or contradict your argument?

• Don't assume the quote's relevance is self-evident. Make the connection clear to your reader.

6. Balance Quotes with Your Own Voice

• Your paper should not rely too heavily on quotes. The majority of the writing should be your own analysis and commentary.

• Use quotes to support your own ideas, not replace them.

To see these principles in action, here’s a video that shows how to revise a paragraph for quote integration with literary analysis.

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