Essay Formatting

Note that this is not a complete guide to formatting your essay. Consult your MLA Handbook or other common guide to style for complete details. The purpose of this web page is to draw your attention to and help you avoid the most common formatting errors I see in literary essays. Note that different style formats will vary slightly, but they should all agree on the points listed below. You are encouraged to download this page and use it for your other classes.


Quoting Dialogue, Authorial Voice, or the Wording of a Critic

The following principle applies to the quotation of any character's speech, the narrator's own narration, or a critic's commentary. You may quote in one of two ways, by stating that the character/narrator/critic is speaking, or by integrating the speech to the grammar of your sentence.

Here are some examples of stating that the character/narrator/critic is speaking. Observe the punctuation pattern: comma + quotation mark + capital letter.

The narrator's owm summing up is, indeed, a slightly tempered view of the absolute perfection put forward in 632-35. Hearing the Green Knight's challenge, Arthur responds, "Sir cortays knyght, / If thou crave batayl bare, / Here faylez thou not to fyght" (276-78).

He says, "This pure fyue / Were harder happed on that hathel then on any other" (645-55)...

According to Putter, "The great Ricardian poets bequeathed to modern criticism a suspicion about the literary serousness of Arthurian romance" (1).

Here are some examples with quotes integrated into grammar of a sentence. Observe the punctuation pattern: no comma + quotation mark + lower case letter.

The next step is his alliance with covetousness -- he identifies himself with a vice, forsaking his true nature to become "fawty and falce" (2382).

Gawain has very good reasons besides modesty to decline the Lady's offer to "take the toruayle to myself to trwluf expoun" (1540).

The Lady of the Castle appeals to Gawain's "manhod" when she reminds him that he is "stif innoghe to constrayne wyth strenkthe" (1497).

Putter argues that "the poet's commitment to ideals of courtoisie, the high standards of refinement and delicacy imperative at court, inevitably entails emphasis on coarseness and locus to which it is intrinsic" (47-48).

 

Citing Page Numbers and Line Numbers

If you end a sentence with a quote that does not need a citation, the sentence-ending punctuation mark (".", "!", or "?") goes inside the quotation mark. For example:

In response to the Green Knight's words, Arthur jumps up, as if to say, "I'm ready for a fight."

If there is a citation, follow the following pattern:

quotation mark + parenthetic citation + "."

You will find this pattern in the examples above. When the quote is an exclamation or question, you may use the following pattern: "!" or "?" + quotation mark + parenthetic citation + "." For instance:

The Green Knight asks, "What, is this Arthures hous?" (309).

 

Separating Quotations from Citations

ALWAYS put a space between the quotation mark and the parenthetic citation Compare the following examples.

a. The Green Knight asks, "What, is this Arthures hous?"(309).

b. The Green Knight asks, "What, is this Arthures hous?" (309).

Sentences like sentence (a) make me REALLY grumpy. Spend an extra ten minutes eliminating them entirely from your essay.

 

Quotes of Four or More Lines

If your quote consists of four or more lines or prose or poetry, follow the following principles.

Here are two examples. The essay is in green, and the quotation in black.

The arming scene calls our attention to the difficulties of judging Gawain's actions. Hollis nicely states the problem:

The poem itself prompts us to ask questions about the process involved in Gawain's action. The arming scene, in its interpretation of the pentangle symbol, presents us with an apparently perfect hero, one whose virtues are so preeminent and so tightly integrated that it appears impossible for evil to find entry (619-65, esp. 656-61). How, then, does it happen that, much as Gawain and the Green Knight differ in their judgement, Gawain acts in such a way that both agree he has fallen short of perfection? (1)

It is thus important to consider in what ways Gawain considers himself to have failed. Gawain makes four attempts to explain his failing, each quite distinct in kind. His initial reaction to the Green Knight's revelation is to regard his action in terms of specific vices causing the destruction of virtue:

"Corsed worth cowarddyse and couetyse bothe!
In yow is vylany and vyse that vertue disstryez."
Thenne he ka3t to the knot, and the kest lawsez,
Brayde brothely the belt to the burne seluen"
"Lo! ther the falssyng, foule mot his falle!" (2374-84)

Gawain's account of his behaviour here is reminiscent of the action of a morality play.

 

Quotes Shorter than Four Lines

If your quote is less than four lines, do not separate it from the main text of your essay. If the quote is poetry, indicate where the line breaks occur by using a "/". Here are some examples. Again, the essay is in green, and the quotes in black. Line breaks are in red to draw them to your attention.

Putter's point that "there is, however, a danger in calling the Gawain-poet's setting 'realistic' or 'naturalistic', if we understand by this that the descriptions correspond to concrete reality, to what an actual winter day in fourteenth-century England may have been like" (10) is well taken. The poet's statement that "werre wrathed hym not so much that wynter nas wors, / When the colde cler water fro the cloudez schadde, / And fres er hit falle myght to the erthe" (726-28) draws attention to the discomforts Gawain suffers when separated from civilisation rather than to the harshness of the English winter.

Remember to separate the "/" from any other text or punctuation with a spaces on either side.

 

These are the most common formatting errors. They are certainly not the only ones I see regularly, and the above pointers do not address the difficult task of smooth integration of quotes into your essay. Still, I hope this clears up any points of confusion.


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