When using multiple sources in your writing, it becomes even more important to incorporate the quotations in a way that is both clear and interesting. You want the transition from your own voice to others’ words and ideas to be smooth and natural sounding. The most effective way to accomplish this is to integrate the quotations into your own sentences. This may be a bit challenging, but the benefit is seamless prose. When you integrate quotations in this way, the reader can follow your ideas and see the sources in the context of your argument. Be sure that the result is a grammatically correct and syntactically fluent sentence. For instance, suppose you want to use the ideas in these two sentences from David Kirp:
Cognitive and noncognitive, thinking and feeling; here, this line vanishes. The good teacher is always on the lookout for both kinds of lessons, always aiming to reach both head and heart.
In an effort to paraphrase and include some direct quotations, you might draft this sentence:
In Union City, the distinction between “cognitive and noncognitive, thinking and feeling” “vanishes” because of “aiming to reach both head and heart.”
This sentence has a couple of problems, starting with a heavy load of quoted phrases at the beginning: the writer’s own voice doesn’t have a chance to be heard. Then, the second part of the sentence veers off without a subject: Who is “aiming”? An improved sentence uses fewer quotations and syntax that allows for accurate quoting:
David Kirp explains that in Union City, the usual dichotomy of thought and feeling “vanishes” as teachers develop instruction “aiming to reach both head and heart.”