Quote Sandwich

Hungry for a Quote? Make a Sandwich!

What should you put in your sandwich? How do you choose a useful and appropriate quote for a persuasive essay?

You want to support your argument with strong reasoning and factual evidence, so look for facts that support your position. (N.B. Facts from sources can also be paraphrased or summarized. You don’t always have to use a direct quote.)

If you use an opinion expressed in a source, be sure that the speaker is someone the reader is likely to respect and trust. A reader is much more likely to value the opinion of an expert than the opinion of a non-expert (Writers of newspaper and magazine articles are not necessarily experts!). If a speaker you are quoting has credentials as an expert, be sure to tell your reader about them so the reader will value the opinion.

If you are opposing an author’s argument, it’s a good idea to quote him or her to show your reader you are being fair by giving the author a fair hearing.

The Quote Sandwich Guidelines:

To ensure that your reader fully understands how the quote you are using supports your thesis, you must (1) introduce the source with context, (2) smoothly incorporate the quote into your paragraph, and (3) explain it. Otherwise, your reader may be left unsure of why you used the quote and how it relates to your argument. The “quote sandwich” is a method to aid you in effectively integrating quotes into your essay.

Introduce Your Source with Context!


Before adding in your quote, introduce your source and give it some context. Think of describing what the author does in the source (Does the author explain a process? Make an argument? Describe a situation? Give background on a problem?).

Ex: In his Time magazine article “Inside the Minds of Animals,” Jeffrey Kluger argues for humans to recognize that animals think.

Present the Quotation

After you have introduced your source with context, present your quote with a signal phrase and/or a signal phrase verb!

Ex: Kluger points out “The rook, a member of the crow family, [can] reason through how to drop stones into a pitcher partly filled with water in order to raise the level high enough to drink from it” (40).

Explain It!


Now that you’ve added in your quote, explain why the quote is important. What do you think it means? How does it connect with your thesis? (Your explanation should be at least as long, or longer that the quote itself.)

Ex: Clearly, the complex action the rook takes – to notice that the water level is too low and then to gather and drop stones into the pitcher to raise the water – demonstrates complex reasoning that many small children would not be capable of. The rook is definitely thinking.

Punctuating Quotes

In addition to incorporating quotes with the quote sandwich and introducing them with signal phrases and signal phrase verbs, there are a few punctuation rules to keep in mind.

The first time you reference an article (or other text) you need to give the name(s) of the author(s), the title of the article, and the name of the magazine or book.

Introduce the Author

The first time you use a quote from an article, you need to use the author’s first and last name. (The next time you use a quote from that author, only use the last name.)

How to Punctuate Titles

Put the names of articles, essays, poems, essays, and chapters in quotation marks:

“Fish Cheeks”                         “The Boston Bombing: Should Cameras Now Be Everywhere?”


“Gauging Crime Prevention as Surveillance Expands”                    “Do Not Go Gentle”

Italicize the titles of books, movies, magazines, newspapers, periodicals, and musical albums:

Ten Little Indians          
New York Times                        Iron Man
          The Godfather

The Quote Itself

Put quotation marks “ ” around the quote and use the author’s exact words.

The In-Text Citation

After the quote, put the page number in parentheses, and the period after the 
parentheses. 


Ex. Kluger points out “The rook, a member of the crow family, [can] reason through how to drop stones into a picture partly filled with water in order to raise the level high enough to drink from it” (40).

If you quote someone quoted in your source, indicate this in the in-text citation that follows your quote, as in the example below.

Ex: Representative Peter King (R-N.Y.) of the House Homeland Security and Intelligence committees believes having video surveillance in public locations “keeps us ahead of the terrorists who are constantly trying to kill us” (qtd. in Cohen).

If you paraphrase a fact or idea from a source and have not introduced the author or source, follow your paraphrase with the author’s last name and the page number (if available) in parentheses.

Ex: Chicago has more than 10,000 surveillance cameras (Crary).

Other Notes

Insert ellipses (...) wherever you delete any words from the original quotation

Use brackets ([ ]) to add words or substitute words in the original quotation. 


Prompt for Paper 4: The Watts Riots

The Watts Riots

In August 1965, the Watts area of Los Angeles exploded as Black Americans raged and rioted against their second-class status in America. The event that triggered the so-called Watts Riots was a simple traffic stop. A young man was pulled over by a Highway Patrol motorcycle officer for possible drunken driving. A crowd gathered, the driver’s mother was called to come witness the event, and within 24 hours the National Guard had been called in to patrol the streets of Los Angeles. A simple traffic stop turned into to an explosive release of frustration and anger. 

Your assignment is to research and write a paper exploring the underlying reasons for the Riots You must select one of two topics to investigate. When you’ve done your research, you will write a 1250-1600-word paper that will use your research to shed light on the fury that riveted America’s eyes on Watts on August 15, 1965. To write your paper, you must use information from at least five sources: three books or studies on the underlying causes; at least one in-depth article from a periodical; at least one video file. You will use MLA formatting and citation standards. You will type your paper, which is due Thursday, July 2, the last day of class. You will turn in a hard copy of your paper in class on that day. You will also email a copy of your paper to tomp99@earthlink.net. If you are unable to finish your paper by July 2, you can email the paper to me by Sunday, July 5 at noon. Five points will be deducted from late papers. Papers that arrive after noon will not be accepted.

1. Relations between the police in Los Angeles and Black citizens were at best tense. Residents of Watts felt that so-called “police brutality” was business as usual for an overwhelmingly white police force who lack of respect for non-white citizens was driven by deep-seeded racism. Your research will explore these problems, identifying the people, the policies, the actions, and the events that shaped the state of affairs. Your research might examine the political forces in LA at the time of the Watts Riots, including Mayor Sam Yorty, Police Chief William Parker, the NAACP, and The LA Times. What was the racial makeup of the LAPD? How did the department define its role in policing non-white communities? Who were Black community leaders and what role did they play? 

2. It is relatively simple to pinpoint confrontations involving the police, but discrimination against Black citizens often played out in subtle if equally painful ways. Investigate the restrictive covenants that prevented Black people from buying houses beyond certain boundaries. How were these covenants enforced? How many residents of Watts owned their homes? Examine the role that banks played in enforcing segregation, including the so-called “red-lining?” Were banks willing to invest in the Black community? Were banks more willing to lend to white working class residents than Black?  Consider the impact such “ghettoization” had on Watts?

Reading Presentation Schedule

Here is the schedule of this week's reading presentations. The chapters noted below are all from Devil In A Blue Dress. Remember that you must hand in your written answers to the questions at the time of your presentation.  I will make some slight alterations to the presentation material in class on Monday (I'm going to further divide groups that have too many presenters).

Mon/15    
Chapters 1-3 (45-68)
Christine R
Munolo C
Crystal A
Christoper M

Chapters 4-7 (69-96)
Alex H
Carlos F
Lidia M
Ismael M
Luis M
Patricia G

Tues/16
Chapters 8-11 (97-128)
Laura
Lidia M
Ana D
Palash B
Jose T
Christine R
Ismael

Chapters 12-16 (129-154)
Ivan G
Alex H
Munolo
Crystal
Carlos
Luis

Weds/17
Chapters 17-19 (155-182)
Christine P
Christopher M
Enrique V
Mayra
Monet
Ana
Jose R

Chapters 20-22 (183-209)
Laura
Jose T
Jose R
Morgan
Ivan
Harry
Maria
Patricia G

Thurs/18 
Chapters 23-26
Christina
Maria
Enrique
Monet
Mayra
Palash
Morgan
Harry

Reading Presentation Questions (fiction)

Reading Analysis #2

Guidelines for Reading Analysis Presentation 1

Sign-up on the presentation calendar. Make a note of the article title and presentation date that you sign up for.

You will be presenting your analysis in class along with two to five of your classmates. The class will be counting on you to be on top of the chapters you are covering, so please be prepared!

This assignment is worth 50 of a possible 100 points (you'll do it twice) – to receive credit, you must participate in the presentation of your analysis. You will be graded primarily on your written analysis (breakdown of scoring below), but outstanding presentations will be rewarded.

Read the chapters that you will be analyzing carefully. If possible, read them twice. On your first reading, just try to identify the main idea(s) and get a feel for the writer’s approach and the flow of the chapter. On your second reading, go over the text more carefully; notice how the writer creates characters and tells the story. 

To prepare your written analysis:

Identify the author’s name and the title of the book. Answer the following questions. Put your answers in outline form.

1.     What is the central theme of the selection? Your answer should be a complete sentence in your own words (not a quote!). Be as specific as possible, but remember that your claim should cover the whole chapter(s). 

2.     Why is the subject of this story is a compelling theme for a writer to explore?

3.     Do you think this is a true story? In a certain way, could something like this happen?

4.     Is the central theme expressed explicitly or implicitly? The claim is explicit if the writer spells out what it is. The claim is implicit if the writer only implies the claim but does not state it outright. 

5.     What is the tone – the feel – of the story?

6.     What things in the story give the most insight into human nature?

7.     Does the writer leave the opinions and feelings to the readers? If so, why? Is this approach effective?

Prompt: Essay 3 (Devil With A Blue Dress)

Composition 3

Critical Reading

E 52

We have spent a number of classes discussing the forces that shape the actions and imaginations of the characters in Devil In A Blue Dress. For this assignment you will choose one of the prompts below, and share your thoughts on one of the questions asked. You are not being asked to summarize what happened in the book. Rather you are being asked to dig below the surface to consider why people act as they do. You must back up your thoughts with specific examples from the text. Your grade will be determined by your insights in the book as well as your ability to write clearly and persuasively.

1. Daphne, Desire and the Devil: Daphne Monet drove men crazy, and the search for her shaped the plot of the book. Still, very few people in Devil knew Daphne at all, because in the most basic way, she was a figment of the characters’ imaginations. With that in mind, what does all the craziness and upheaval Daphne cause teach us about the question of race in America. Explain your thoughts, using examples. 

2. I believe that it’s what people do that determines who they are and what they believe in more than what they think. Most characters in Devil mean well, and yet often they do wrong. Examine the forces that shape their actions and ideas, and study in particular why so many things lead to violence.

3. In chapter 17, Easy calls Mr. Carter “the worst kind of racist.” Do you agree with this? Defend your position using examples from the book, what life was like in 1948, and what you know from the world we live in today.

Your paper will be 700-1000 words long. You must format it using MLA guidelines (see the “cheat sheet” that is posted)

Due dates:

Mon/15: discuss prompt

Tues/16: free write

Thurs/18: Outline

Mon/22: Esssay 3 due

What Is A Good Thesis Statement

English 100

Mr. Tompkins

THE THESIS STATEMENT

The thesis is the ONE sentence that contains

the foundation, the premise, the argument

you are presenting to your readers.

It is the core of the essay.

Strive to make it strong and clear.

ELEMENTS OF THESIS:

• It must be ARGUABLE.

This means it presents an opinion, an argument, or an illustration of a view or experience.  It is not a mere statement of fact. 

• It must ADDRESS the TOPIC.

While this element seems obvious too, writers often get going and one thought leads to another and another and the topic gets left behind. Re-read the prompt several times to make sure you haven’t gone off topic beyond the parameters of the assignment. 

• It must be specific enough to be covered in the paper.

What is the length of the assignment: two pages? ten pages? The length determines how broad or narrow the scope of your thesis will be. Adjust accordingly. 

• It must MAKE SENSE.

This is the catch-all element that asks you to re-consider your wording, syntax, diction, and grammar. Make changes as you see fit.

Final Prompt for Essay 2: Holy Land

English 52

Essay 2: Holy Land

Mr. Tompkins

Holy Land is a singular book. On the surface, it seems like a simple, personal history of growing up in Lakewood. But as we discussed in class, what energizes the Holy Land is often what isn’t there, or what DJ Waldie, the author, only hints at in the text. For instance, on page 96, when Waldie remembers the evening his father sat next to him and cried. A few lines later, he writes that he claimed the room during his years at college and stayed in it even when another, bigger room was available. What, if anything, is he trying to tell us? Does he stitch the two facts together in one paragraph for a particular reason? Is there a connection between a boyhood memory of his father and his allegiance to the tiny space? Essay 2 will ask you to read Holy Land carefully, to dig into the spaces between the lines for meaning and perhaps a glimpse of who this peculiar man is.

BACKGROUND: While you’re planning your essay, think about Waldie’s approach to writing. The book is extremely thin. Sometimes he’ll put five or six chapters on a two-page spread. Is the text as simple as it might appear? He sometimes comes back to a subject that he seems to have left behind (nuclear war, for instance; or the background of the developers; the people who battle City Hall) How carefully has he constructed the story? Is there a method to the way he weaves different threads of the story together? He seems to be drawn to the simple geometry of life in Lakewood, where each house mirrors the next, where people are supposed to behave as they're expected, and there’s seemingly little room for things to run off the rails. In fact, he’s spent his life working for the city government that keeps the orderly machine running. Does he do this kind of work to help keep that]

THE ASSIGNMENT: In this essay you will be asked to consider Waldie (and his family - although you have to remember that his parents don't get to tell their side of things) as his life plays out in the the "modern" and then aging city of Lakewood. Read the book for the story it tells; read the book for the feelings that it evokes when you read; and then read it to find each mention of the author and his relationship with his father. Then write an essay that discusses what you have learned about that relationship, and what you might guess at.

Remember that there are no right-and-wrong answers to the question. You must learn what you can about Waldie and his family based on what he writes in Holy Land. Then use what you know about families, about fathers and sons, and about people, and write your essay.

Your outline is worth 5%. Your rough draft is worth 5%. 

For this assignment, you’ll hand in your free-writing and your outline along with a final draft of 600-800 words. Use MLA format rules and MLA citation rules if you use quotes from the book in your paper.

The outline is due at the end of class on Monday, June 8. Your final draft must be submitted on Thursday, June 11.

Essay 1 Prompt

This is the prompt for your first essay of the semester. 

We’ve spent some of the past week reading DJ Waldie’s Holy Land and talking about the significance of “place” in our lives. That word can mean so many different things, and I want to leave room for difference when we talk about it. Still, I think we can agree that where we live today and where we come from plays a role in who we are. 

Write a 400-500 word essay that responds to the statement below. 

When we meet someone, one of the first questions we ask or are asked is “where do you live?” The question usually is just something to say as we try to figure out something better to say. But if we think of the question in the broadest sense, an answer that deals with where we live and where our family is from has real meaning. The population of Los Angeles County has mushroomed from 2,000,000 to over 10,000,000 in 60 years. Many of those 10,000,000 - myself included - were born somewhere else. We carry with us the personal and societal experiences of those places when we come to Los Angeles.

Consider the experiences that have marked your life - those things that make you and/or your family who you are - and write an essay that examines what place has meant in that process.