15d. Question or quotation

15dConsider adding an occasional question or quotation.

An occasional question can provide a change of pace, especially at the beginning of a paragraph, where it engages the reader’s interest.

Virginia Woolf, in her book A Room of One’s Own, wrote that in order for a woman to write fiction she must have two things, certainly: a room of her own (with key and lock) and enough money to support herself.

What then are we to make of Phillis Wheatley, a slave, who owned not even herself ? This sickly, frail black girl who required a servant of her own at times—her health was so precarious—and who, had she been white, would have been easily considered the intellectual superior of all the women and most of the men in the society of her day. [Italics added.]

—Alice Walker

Quotations can also provide variety by adding the voices of others to your own. These other voices might be bits of dialogue.

When we got back upstairs, Dr. Haney and Captain Shiller, the head nurse, were waiting for us by the elevator. As the nurse hurried off, pushing Todd, the doctor explained to us what would happen next.

“Mrs. Barrus,” he began, “this last test is one we do only when absolutely necessary. It is very painful and hard on the patient, but we have no other choice.” Apologetically, he went on. “I cannot give him an anesthetic.” He waited for the statement to sink in. —Celeste L. Barrus, student

Or they might be quotations from written sources.

Even when she enters the hospital on the brink of death, the anorexic will refuse help from anyone and will continue to deny needing help, especially from a doctor. At this point, reports Dr. Steven Levenkron, the anorexic is most likely “a frightened, cold, lonely, starved, and physically tortured, exhausted person—not unlike an actual concentration camp inmate” (29). In this condition she is ultimately force-fed through a tube inserted in the chest. —Jim Drew, student

Notice that the quotation from a written source is documented with a citation in parentheses. (See 56a.)