The Quote Sandwich.
A sandwich has three components: the top slice of bread, the filling, and the bottom slice of bread. The quote itself is the filling, or “meat” of the sandwich. You don’t eat handful of peanut butter and jelly by itself, so you can’t expect quotes to speak for themselves in academic papers, either.
Gets the reader ready for your quote. It sets up your evidence. Be sure to introduce the idea, speaker, context that the quote will illuminate.
This is the direct quoted evidence. Put quotation marks around it and use a parenthetical citation afterwards.
Now you show how the quote really develops the idea that you set forth. Be sure to focus on the specific ideas that the quote helps to show to the reader.
