How to blend quotes in an essay

In other words, don’t let a piece of textual evidence stand alone as its own sentence (unless it’s multiple sentences long).• Use your own words to introduce a quotation. 3. How To Improve Blending Quotes• Use only the most effective part of the quotation.•

Techniques for Blending Quotations Effectively: A. Set up the quotation (introduce it): Too many students just drop quota- tions into their text without leading into them. Use phrases such as: -- “This is demonstrated when [Scout] thinks,” -- “The reader can clearly see this when [Atticus] says,” -- “An example of this is when the reader is told,”

There are other ways to go about blending textual evidence into writing, but the TCS strategy is accessible for students across levels and helps them blend quotations easily and effectively. Check out the Bespoke ELA guide for Blending Quotes for ESSAY WRITING with TCS (Transition, Context, Speaker).

Long quotations comprise of more than one sentence – avoid using them as evidence. Your assessor will not mark you highly if the bulk of your paragraphs consists of long quotations. You should aim to keep your quotations to less than 2 lines on an A4 writing page. If you have a long quotation you wish to use, be selective.