What is an attributive tag

Quotations and Paraphrases

1. Find a line to quote from the following paragraph. Write out your quotation. Include appropriate attributive tags and page numbers.

If the American dream is to come true and to abide with us, it will, at bottom, depend on the people themselves. If we are to achieve a richer and fuller life for all, they have got to know what such an achievement implies. In a modern industrial State, an economic base is essential for all. We point with pride to our “national income,” but the nation is only an aggregate of individual men and women, and when we turn from the single figure of total income to the incomes of individuals, we find a very marked injustice in its distribution. There is no reason why wealth, which is a social product, should not be more equitably controlled and distributed in the interests of society. (Adams 410)

Adams, James Truslow. The Epic of America. Boston: Little, Brown, 1931.

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2. Now find a line in the paragraph worth paraphrasing. Once again, include an attributive tag and a page number.

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4. If you do decide to use a quotation, it is often a good idea to follow the quotation with a paraphrase in which you explain the quotation. The following attributive tags are useful in explaining quotations.

EXAMPLES:

In other words, Fleming believes that _____________________.

In making this argument, Lee essentially argues that ________________________.

Basically, Johnson is claiming that ______________________________________.

Mason’s point is that _________________________________________________.

Re-read the quotation you wrote on the top of this page. Write a follow-up explanation of it on the lines below.

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5. Attributive tags can be placed at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence.

EXAMPLES:

According to Jim Cullen, “The American Dream would have no drama or mystique if it were a self-evident falsehood or a scientifically demonstrable principle” (7).

“The American Dream,” claims Jim Cullen, “would have no drama or mystique if it were a self-evident falsehood or a scientifically demonstrable principle” (7).

“The American Dream would have no drama or mystique if it were a self-evident falsehood or a scientifically demonstrable principle,” asserts Jim Cullen in his book The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation (7).

Write three sentences in which you quote the line below. Place an attributive tag at the beginning of the first sentence, in the middle of the second sentence, and at the end of the third sentence.

If America were truly a meritocracy, we would expect fairly equal amounts of both upward and downward mobility. (Stephen J. McNamee and Robert K. Miller, The Meritocracy Myth, page 58)

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Notes

· That. Do not use a capital letter after the word that. If the word following that is capitalized in the original text, lowercase the first letter and put square brackets around it.

Adams claims that “[i]f the American dream is to come true and to abide with us, it will, at bottom, depend on the people themselves” (410).

· Indirect quotation. If you decide to quote someone who has been quoted in your source, write qtd. in before the reference to your source.

Alexis de Tocqueville sensed a “strange melancholy” when in 1835 he observed Americans who by outward measures had full lives (qtd. in Jillson 271).

· Ellipsis points. Use three spaced ellipsis points to indicate that words have been omitted from the middle of a quotation. Use three spaced ellipsis points and a period to indicate that words have been omitted from the end of a quotation. No ellipsis points are needed for information deleted from the beginning of a sentence.

According to Adams, “If the American dream is to come true and to abide with us, it will . . . depend on the people themselves” (410).

Cullens asserts that “[t]he American Dream would have no drama or mystique if it were a self-evident falsehood . . .” (7).

· Square brackets. Use square brackets to modify words or to add clarifying words to a quotation.

Adams believes that the fulfillment of the American Dream “depend[s] on the people themselves” (410).

According to Adams, “It [the American Dream] is not a dream of motor cars and high wages . . .” (404).