Signal phrases and statements

Signalphrases and statements let you introduce quotations with a minimum of fuss but enough information to help the reader make sense of them. Often you'll want to specify the author and text; other times you'll want to provide some other background or context-setting information. No universal rule applies, except to ask yourself what your reader needs to know to understand a quotation and its connection to your argument.

　　The Founders understood the new Constitution as"a republican remedy for the diseases most incident to republican government" （Madison 343）.

　　In Federalist 51 Madison observes,"Different interests necessarily exist in different classes of citizens" （345）.

　　Students often use weak or vague signal phrases:

ORIGINAL
REVISION

Another point about sexual difference is made by Rubin. She says,"The human subject . . . is always either male or female" (171).
Rubin questions whether unbiased kinship diagrams are even possible:"The human subject . . . is always either male or female" (171).

　　The original opens with an unhelpful sentence that specifies a topic but not an argument. It follows with the choppy, rhythmless"She says" to introduce the quotation. The revision presents Rubin's argument in a nutshell, and the"even" explicitly ties the sentence back to an ongoing discussion, helping the reader keep the flow in mind. The revision also eschews"She says" in favor of an economical colon that moves speedily to the quotation.

　　One common way to build signal phrases is with the According to x construction:

　　According to W. C. Jordan, there were about 100,000 Jews in France in the middle of the 11th century （202）.

　　According to Rich, we need to be careful about the risk of"presentism," of projecting present meanings on past events （3）.

　　According to the Polish critic Jan Kott the play is best understood as a"great staircase," an endless procession of falling and rising kings （10）.

　　Another technique, and one in keeping with the Nuts and Bolts preference for action-oriented writing, is to use clauses with the cited scholar as subject and a signaling verb to orient the quotation. Indeed, signal phrases （or clauses） are a great place to get strong verbs into academic writing. Here are some variations on the basic signal phrase construction of author verb （ that）:

　　Rich warns us that we need to be careful about the risk of"presentism," of projecting present meanings on past events （3）.

　　Patterson reviews the legal limits placed on the murder of slaves （190-93）.

　　Depending on what you want your reader to know, you can provide all sorts of explanatory material in a signal phrase. Here, for instance, a writer identifies his sources' scholarly expertise in order to make the citation more persuasive:

　　The economic historians Nathan Rosenberg and L. E. Birdsell note that in the early capitalist period （from the late fifteenth century on） people had to outgrow firms based on kinship and separate their personal finances from their firm's finances. . . . [A long quotation follows]　　Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity （New York: Free Press, 1995）, 154.

　　Whether or not you need such explanations depends on your audience; in this case Fukuyama was writing for a general audience that would not be expected to be familiar with the names of the cited scholars.

　　One more comment about integrating quotations into an essay: pay attention to rhythm. Here's an in instance in which the writer elegantly integrates a quotation into her own prose. See if you can figure out what she did:

　　"Folktales," Calvino said,"are real." They catalog potential destinies, the trials of achieving maturity and a full humanity. They are psychologically apt, of course; but Italian folktales also owe a great deal to social realities, to history and to class. . . .　　Harrison, Italian Days, 436.

　　First, the writer breaks up the quotation with that inserted signal phrase Calvino said. That separates Calvino's subject, folktales, from the predicate, are real. The effect is to solemnize Calvino's judgment, giving it the rhetorical oomph of truth （this is a highly effective writer's trick）. Second, the writer uses the quotation's shortness and simplicity as a springboard to her own more complex sentences and diction. This balancing of long against short, complex against simple, detail against general, is something good writers do all the time—even with the quotations woven into their texts.

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