Open quotation marks, close quotation marks

There are times when our students don't really understand why we're praising them for some technical or interpretive achievement that strikes them as almost beneath contempt. Here's an instance from my own undergraduate experience. During a conference about a rough draft, my professor complimented me on...my ability to do run-in quotations. Surely, I thought, that can't be all that difficult?

Thirteen years later, I now know the answer to that question. In this last batch of sixty-odd papers, maybe ten featured correct run-in quotations. What are the most common problems?

• Introductory tags. No tag; grammatically incorrect tag; tag with an inappropriate verb (can we please ban the verb "to state"? Thanks!).

  
  

• Syntax mix-and-match. The quotation's syntax doesn't match the rest of the sentence.

  
  

• Quotation fragments. The writer quotes what appears to be a random chunk of the verse or sentence, often breaking off in mid-thought. (See also "syntax mix-and-match.")

  
  

• Punctuation with parenthetical citations. Misplaced punctuation; punctuation where there shouldn't be any; no punctuation where there should be some.

  
  

Don't even get me started on block quotations (quotations that shouldn't be blocked; quotations in cute fonts; quotations in italics; improperly indented quotations...).

I'm definitely going to have to do a day on quotations the next time I teach freshman comp. Come to think of it, I'm going to have to spend at least a few minutes on quotations before the next essays come due.

Comments

[Vera Tobin]

Somehow, even when I've decidicated substantial time to quotations in my freshman comp and intro lit classes, it hasn't had much effect on the students' ability to do things right. I don't know if I just haven't stumbled on the best way to teach it, or if I haven't managed to make it clear to them why it's something they need to be paying attention to (and it seems that so much of the art of teaching is the art of making one's students realize they need to know something right before you deign to tell it to them), or what. If you come up with a particularly successful method for teaching these concepts, I'd love to hear about it.

[Chun the Unavoidable]

There's nothing wrong with "to state." What brand of usage-prissiness is this?

[Miriam]

"To state" eo ipso is perfectly fine. It's not so fine when it's part of a tag for an anguished query, passionate declaration of love, howl of rage, etc. The speaker of "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point" sure as heck isn't "stating" anything.

[katje]

Thank you re. banning "to state." I don't know why so many students can think of no other verb to introduce quoted material. Give me "argues," "suggests," "maintains," "contends," "insists," or any number of others. But please, a moratorium on "states"!

[katje]

Thank you re. banning "to state." I don't know why so many students can think of no other verb to introduce quoted material. Give me "argues," "suggests," "maintains," "contends," "insists," or any number of others. But please, a moratorium on "states"!