URL OF VIDEO OF THIS PRESENTATION: https://vimeo.com/77981830 (please note that this is not a professional production but an informal video recorded for student and should be viewed as such) This lecture is intended for 3rd year students about to write a literature review or a dissertation. It is intended to remind them about the various ways that they can use quotations and the role they take in academic writing.

1. USING QUOTATIONS IN ACADEMIC WRITING
Dr Lance Dann

2. TWO USES
REFERENCE
EVIDENCE

3. REFERENCE
 Used for discussion of a text
 Used illustrating or
summarising an argument or
discussion
 Bringing attention to an idea
that is uniquely expressed in
text
 You can also summarise the
idea and write a precise of it.

4. EXAMPLE – OF A QUOTATION
The concept of Transmedial story telling is
born of the work in the early part of the 21st
Century by Henry Jenkin, who in his 2006
book Convergence Culture refers to a new
form of digital storytelling, one in which „all
media forms are created equal and together
share the narrative load‟ (Jenkins, 2006:
132).

5. EVIDENCE – PROOVE IT!
 Support for your ideas
 You can‟t make a broad
statement without backing it
up.
 You need someone, an
academic or person of
note, to be standing at your
shoulder when you assert
something.

6. EXAMPLE 1
Apocalypse Now is the most significant and
important film in the early history of sound
design
How does the examiner respond?
“SAYS WHO? LANCE DANN? Who the „F‟ are you
to say that ya limey mofo. Man you ain‟t no
acdemic, you ain‟t no one! No one I tell you and to
proove it I‟m going to wipe out your punk-ass grade!”

7. EXAMPLE II
William Whittington, in his 2007 text Science
Fiction and Sound Design, describes Apocalypse
Now as, „the most significant and important film the
history of sound design‟ (Whittington, 2007: 132).
How does the examiner respond?
“Oh yes of course, I am aware of Whittington‟s seminal work
on this subject and respect his views. This must be a, as you
say, very important film. Here have an extra higher grade for
your excellent citing of an academic reference.”

8. THIS IS ONE WHAT I WROTE
David Mamet praises Esslin for
helping to „re-create a national
theatre by enfranchising creative
talent.... By encouraging freedom of
thought – by hiring the writers and
letting them be free‟ (Mamet, 1986:
17).

9. PARAPHRASING
You can introduce
studies that agree with
you (Smith, 2001;
Jones and Chin, 2003)
and those that
disagree with you
(Mohan and
Corbett, 2007) without
interrupting your own
argument.

10. TRY TO PARAPHRASE WHENEVER
POSSIBLE
It makes you text
easier to read.
It demonstrates that
you have grasped
the core ideas.
It makes synthesis
of ideas easier.

11. EVIDENCE – PRIMARY RESEARCH
 Quotations can also be
drawn from your primary
research.
 If you interview someone you
reference their PoV or ideas
to illustrate a point.
 Use them as a vox-pop or a
way of showing movements
and trends in opinion.

12. AN EXAMPLE FROM MY BRILLIANT PHD
Katie Hims details how a single, poetic image
(for instance „a woman sitting at a train station in
a wedding dress‟) can speak to her imagination
and serve as the catalyst for her creative
process: „To begin creating a story with an
issue initially makes my heart sink. I can find an
issue working from a beautiful image much more
easily than I can find a beautiful image working
from an issue‟ (Hims, interview 2008).

13. OR YOU CAN SUMMARISE SOMEONE‟S
IDEAS
There is perhaps still a place for the intensely
personal monologue, the character-led play or a
piece of poetic musing, as long as it is felt to
resonate with the audience either through
personal issues or events and concerns covered
in the mass media (Dromgoole, interview 2009).

14. SOME RULES
 Do not use italics to indicate
quotes.
 If you include a long quotation
(of four lines or more) you
should indent it from the lefthand margin (in which case
you should drop the inverted
commas).
 In the main part of your
research you should avoid
using too many quotations –
leave room for your own ideas

15. USE QUOTES TO LAUNCH
DISCUSSION… NOT SILENCE IT.
Find ways of introducing quotes that go
against you ideas.
Find ways of interjecting quotes that you
can use to fire up discussion.
Find ways of doing more than just
answering questions with quotes.
Try and avoid
ending every
paragraph with
a quote.

16. TRY NOT TO DO
THIS…
Introduction to concept or idea X.
Summary and ideas from Source A.
Summary and ideas from Source B.
Summary and ideas from Source C.
Conclusion: “Therefore, this paper has shown
presented ideas A, B, and C help to prove
point X.”

17. THIS LEADS TO THIS RESPONSE FROM
THE EXAMINER…
Because you are not making an
argument you are just telling us
what books you have read.

18. THIS SORT OF THING WOULD BE
BETTERER!
 Introduction
 Point 1 (Sources A and B agree, but source C disagrees.)
 Point 2 (Sources A and C agree, but source B doesn‟t mention it
directly.)
 Point 2, continued. (Based on things that source B says about
related issues, suggest that source B would likely disagree with
sources A and C.)
 Point 3 (Sources B and C both disagree with A, but for different
reasons.)
 Conclusion

19. LEADING TO THIS RESPONSE FROM
THE EXAMINERS
 Because it is about
ideas.
 Because it is not a set
formula
 Because it shows you
taken the reading on
board, thought about
and then kind of
remixed it when you
give it back to us!

20. WORKING WITH THE SOURCE
MATERIAL
 You can add letters or even words by using these
<>
 So if the Guardian said in an article about me: „He
wears nice shirts but is an awful lectuer who
seems to think he is some kind of academic
genius‟.
 You can say: „<Lance Dann> wears nice shirts but
is an awful lectuer who seems to think he is some
kind of academic genius‟.

21. …
 You may want to omit words by using elipsis…
The Guardian said, „<Lance Dann> wears nice
shirts… but seems to think he is some kind of
academic genius‟.
 Be careful not to change the meaning of the source.
The Guardian said, „<Lance Dann>… is an…
academic genius‟.

22. BED IN YOUR QUOTES

23. Dr Dann writes, „pdfpdfpdpf‟ (Dann, 2012:
132).
There is evidence to contradict Dr Dann‟s idea
that, „pdfpdfpdpf‟ (Dann, 2012: 132).
Dr Dann, in his 2011 paper „I am bloody great‟
hypothesizes that, „pdfpdfpdpf‟ (Dann, 2012:
132).
The work of the UK academic Lance Dann
support this position, he attempts to
demonstrate the use of cheese in independent
film making is indicative of, „pdfpdfpdpf‟
(Dann, 2012: 132).
Dr Dann concludes that, „pdfpdfpdpf‟
(Dann, 2012: 132).

24. FINAL TIP - PUNCTUATION
 COMMA
 THEN SINGLE QUOTATION




MARK
THEN QUOTE
THEN SINGLE QUOTATION
MARK
THEN BRACKET AND
CITATION DETAIL THEN
CLOSE BRACKET
THEN FULL STOP – IF AT
END OF SENTENCE