Signal Phrases
Many beginning writers make the mistake of quoting too much and end up losing their voices to their source material, so you want to be careful to keep your quotations to a minimum. As mentioned, paraphrasing and summarizing are good ways to integrate your research, allowing you to keep more of your voice in your writing. However, when you do need to share a quotation from a source, you'll want to do it smoothly and effectively.
In addition to thinking about the types of quotations you'll use, you should remember that it's not enough to put a good quotation into your paper. You'll want to anticipate questions your audience might have about two things:
- Your source’s credibility
- Your source’s relevance (Why is this quotation here?)
When you incorporate a quotation, at least the first time you use a source, you should provide some kind of signal phrase (set-up for your quote) that addresses the quote’s credibility. You should address issues of relevance either before or after the quotation.
The important thing is to make sure you don't leave your audience wondering why a quotation has been used and / or if the source for the quotation is trustworthy.
In the following activity, you'll be shown two options for integrating quotations and asked to choose which quotation is integrated most effectively.