Quotations from a literary work can lend vivid support to your argument, but keep most quotations fairly short. Excessive use of long quotations bores readers and interrupts the flow of your interpretation.
Integrating quotations smoothly into your own text can present a challenge. Because of the complexities of literature, do not be surprised to find yourself puzzling over the most graceful way to tuck in a short phrase or the clearest way to introduce a more extended passage from the work.
When you integrate quotations, pay particular attention to the following:
Creating a context for passages quoted from a literary work
Enclosing embedded quotations in single quotation marks
Using brackets and the ellipsis mark to indicate changes in a quotation
Avoiding shifts in tense when integrating quotations