Body Paragraphs and In-Text Citations

Body Paragraphs and In-Text Citations

The Main Idea Sentence

• Your body paragraph will begin with a sentence that introduces the topic of your paragraph

• This topic should be mentioned in your thesis statement

Anatomy of a body paragraph

• Main idea sentence: tells us what your paragraph will be about

• Textual evidence: quote that supports your main idea / thesis

• Analysis: an explanation of the quote you just introduced

QUOTE - ANALYSIS - TRANSITION

EXAMPLE:

The salient literary device in "Out, Out" is personification, which Frost uses to make the buzzsaw seem more human than the boy operating it. At the beginning of the poem, the reader sees the saw "snarl[ing] and rattl[ing] in the yard" (Frost 1). These verbs give the saw a personality, specifically a menacing one. This idea is reinforced through repetition, specifically in line 7, where the saw "snarl[s] and rattle[s], snarl[s] and rattle[s]." While this repetition reminds the reader that the saw is merely mechanical, a machine capable of nothing but repetitious actions, these repeated words also hammer home the saw's sinister nature.

In-text citations and quote formatting

• In this class, we are following MLA formatting

• Perdue University's Online Writing Lab is a great resource (look on Final Site for a link)

The poem describes hope as a bird who "sings the tune without the words - / And never stops - at all" (Dickinson 3-4).

• use a backslash to indicate line breaks

• Quotation marks go BEFORE parenthetical citations

• Period goes AFTER parenthetical citations

Dickinson describes hope as a bird who "sings the tune without the words - / And never stops - at all" (3-4).

• Why doesn't this citation include Dickinson's last name?

• Because it's already mentioned in the sentence.

• If the sentence began, "in line 3-4, Dickinson describes hope..." it wouldn't need an in-text citation at all. Why not?

• Because we've already mentioned the line numbers.

Why do some in-text citations have line numbers only?

The poem describes hope as a bird who "sings the tune without the words - / And never stops - at all" (Dickinson 3-4). This metaphorical bird "perches in the soul," where it provides support in tough times (2). Dickinson's metaphor is fairly straightforward -- she simply means that hope lives inside one's soul, and that its song is an inexhaustible resource. Even during tough times, or "in extremity," hope requires no maintenance; it simply is (11).

Multiple Choice

Heaney's poem contains several instances of alliteration, such as "When the spade sinks into gravelly ground."

This line is missing an in-text citation. What should it look like?

• (Heaney 4)

• (4)

• (Seamus Heaney 4)

• none needed

Multiple Choice

In line 2 of "Digging," Heaney describes the pen in his hand as "snug as a gun."

How should the in-text citation be formatted?

• ("Digging" 2)

• (2)

• (Heaney 2)

• none needed

Multiple Choice

Correct the underlined part of the sentence: Dickinson says "The Carriage held but just Ourselves -- / And Immortality." (3-4)

• Immortality."

• Immortality" (3-4).

• Immortality". (3-4)

• Correct as is

Make sure quotes are smoothly integrated into your writing

• Incorrect: "Yet - never - in Extremity, / It asked a crumb - of me" (Dickinson 11-12). Here, Dickinson is saying hope requires no effort -- one only has to listen for its song.

• Correct: In Dickinson's eyes, hope "never...ask[s] a crumb" of those who need it (11-12).

Brackets

• Brackets enable you to make quotes fit more smoothly into your writing

• Without brackets, sometimes the grammar in your quote will be incompatible with the grammar in your sentence

An example...

• Incorrect: At the beginning of the poem, the reader sees the saw "snarled and rattled in the yard" (Frost 1).

• Correct: At the beginning of the poem, the reader sees the saw "snarl[ing] and rattl[ing] in the yard" (Frost 1).

Multiple Choice

Correct the underlined part of the sentence: Death in the poem is so kind that the speaker "put[s] away / My labor and my leisure too, / For His Civility" (Dickinson 7-8).

• her labor and her leisure too

• my [her] labor and my [her] leisure too

• [Her] labor and [her] leisure too

• correct as is

Multiple Choice

Correct the underlined part of the sentence: The poem begins, "Because I could not stop for Death -- He kindly stopped for me" (Dickinson 1-2).

• Death -- / He kindly

• Death --

  He kindly

• Death -- [line break] He kindly

• Correct as is

Multiple Choice

"We passed the School, where Children strove" (Dickinson 9). This line suggests the speaker is looking back on childhood.

How should these lines be revised?

• The in-text citation should go before the quotation marks

• The sentences should be combined somehow so the quote doesn't stand alone

• the period after the in-text citation should be replaced with a comma

• Fine as is

Open Ended

Combine the sentence and the quote: "We passed the School, where Children strove" (Dickinson 9). This line suggests the speaker is looking back on childhood.