Page 159 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

4. When he became terminally ill, my father begged for enough
pills to kill himself, but his physician refused to prescribe them.

The sentences should be arranged in the following order: ,

, , .

Quotation

A quotation adds sparkle to your introduction and spares you the

work of crafting just the right words for your opening—someone else

has already done it for you. You do not necessarily have to quote a
book, a play, or a famous person. You may quote your best friend,

your mother, or your great-aunt Sally. You may quote a commercial, a

bumper sticker, or a popular song. You may quote an expert on your

subject to lend authority to your words. For a ready-made source of

quotations, consult the reference section of your college library for
collections of quotations, such as Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations.

When opening with a quotation, you need to know how to use

quotation marks and how to paraphrase a quotation. (See Chapter

29 for more information on quotations.) It is also important to give
credit to the author or, if you do not know who originally said it, to

acknowledge that the quotation is not your own. In addition, a

quotation cannot just hang in space, unconnected to your essay. You

need a transition that shows your reader the connection between the

quotation and your thesis.

Examples of Quotation Openings