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MACBETH© Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Language deveLopment
Conventions and Style
Quotations Literary critics quote directly from the works they are analyzing
in order to orient readers, to emphasize specific points, and to add authority
to their arguments. There are two ways to set up quotations: inside
quotation marks or block quotation.
• Place quotation marks (“) before and after a short quotation.
• When a quotation is longer—usually two or more lines of a drama or
four or more lines of prose—use a block quotation. Do not place
quotation marks. Instead, indent the whole quotation, and introduce it
with a colon (:).
Literary critics may choose to quote the exact language, not only of the
works they are analyzing, but also of other critics or writers—for instance,
when that language makes a point uniquely or memorably. When they
do so, they must include clear attribution, or acknowledgment of the
original writer.EXAMPLE USE OF CONVENTIONAs Thomas de Quincey expressed it in his superb
essay “On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth,” the
knocking makes it known “that... the re-establishment
of the goings-on of the world in which we live makes us
profoundly sensible of the awful parenthesis that has
suspended them.”When Kermode uses this short quotation
from another writer’s work, he places it
in quotation marks and includes clear
attribution.Or one could cite Brutus’s soliloquy in Julius Caesar:
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like a phantasma or a hideous dream (II.i.63–65)When Kermode cites these three lines from
Julius Caesar, he uses a colon and a block
quotation, rather than quotation marks. He
also indicates which lines he is quoting.Read It- Reread the Brooks text, and find an example of attribution through
quotation marks and an example of block quotation. - Connect to Style Reread paragraph 4 of Brooks’s essay. Mark the word
that indicates Brooks’s motivation for quoting Yeats.
Write It
Notebook Write three sentences in which you make a point about the
mood or symbolism in The Tragedy of Macbeth. In one sentence, quote from
Shakespeare’s play; in another, quote from the writing of Brooks or Kermode;
and in the third, set up a block quotation from one of these three texts. STANDArDS
Language
• Demonstrate command of the
conventions of standard English
capitalization, punctuation, and
spelling when writing.
• Apply knowledge of language to
understand how language functions
in different contexts, to make
effective choices for meaning or style,
and to comprehend more fully when
reading or listening.398 UNIT 3 • FACING THE FUTURE, CONFRONTING THE PASTLIT17_SE12_U03_B2_SG_app.indd 398 3/21/16 9:09 PMFACILITATING
Conventions and Style
Quotations Remind students about indirect
quotations, which are much like paraphrases,
but usually closer to the words being quoted.
They repeat the meaning but not the exact words
of the original sentence. They do not require
quotation marks. Offer these simple examples:
direct: Macbeth uses a “false face” to
“hide what the false heart doth know.”
indirect: Macbeth claims that his face is
false in order to hide what his heart knows.
direct: Banquo asks, “What, can the devil
speak true?”
indirect: Banquo wonders if the devil can
speak the truth.
For more support, see Conventions and style:
Quotations.Read it
- Responses will vary. One example of attribution
through quotation marks is the reference
to Thomas de Quincey in paragraph 1. One
example of block quotation is the reference to
Brutus’s soliloquy in paragraph 1. - Students should mark the word unpredictable.
Write it
Responses will vary.FORMATiVE AssEss MENT
Conventions and style
if students struggle to understand the
conventions for quotations, then have them
locate other examples of quoted material in the
essays and identify the conventions used. For
Reteach and Practice, see Conventions and
style: Quotations (RP).How Language works
Quotations Warn students not to fall into the
“he wrote/she wrote” rut when using quotations
in their own writing. Offer this list of verbs that
they can use when attributing quoted words
to an author: add, announce, comment, argue,
declare, claim, question, reply, point out, think,
state, predict, propose, and note. These wordscan help lend variety to their writing, especially if
they, like Brooks and Kermode, reply heavily on
quoted material to support their arguments.
Challenge students to add three or four other
verbs to this list. Possible responses: observe,
remark, suggest, criticize, wonder398 UNIT 3 • FACING THE FUTURE, CONFRONTING THE PAST
LIT17_TE12_U03_B2_SG_app.indd 398 16-04-12 2:18 AM