Readers should not have to guess why source material appears in your paper. A signal phrase can help you make the connection between your own ideas and those of another writer by clarifying how the source supports or challenges a point you are making.

If you use another writer’s words, you must explain how they contribute to your point. Since quotations don’t speak for themselves, you must create a context for readers by embedding each quotation between sentences of your own: First introduce the quotation with a signal phrase, and then follow it with interpretive comments that link the quotation to your paper’s argument.

QUOTATION WITH INSUFFICIENT CONTEXT

In response to critics who claim that laws aimed at stopping us from eating whatever we want to are an assault on our freedom of choice, Conly offers a persuasive counterargument:

[L]aws aren’t designed for each one of us individually. Some of us can drive safely at 90 miles per hour, but we’re bound by the same laws as the people who can’t, because individual speeding laws aren’t practical. Giving up a little liberty is something we agree to when we agree to live in a democratic society that is governed by laws. (A23)

QUOTATION WITH EFFECTIVE CONTEXT

In response to critics who claim that laws aimed at stopping us from eating whatever we want to are an assault on our freedom of choice, Conly offers a persuasive counterargument:

[L]aws aren’t designed for each one of us individually. Some of us can drive safely at 90 miles per hour, but we’re bound by the same laws as the people who can’t, because individual speeding laws aren’t practical. Giving up a little liberty is something we agree to when we agree to live in a democratic society that is governed by laws. (A23)

As Conly suggests, we need to change our either/or thinking (either we have complete freedom of choice or we have government regulations and lose our freedom) and instead see health as a matter of public good, not individual liberty.

For an explanation of when to use brackets around a letter in a quoted passage, see Using brackets to make quotations clear.