Why Students Struggle with Embedding Quotes—and What to Do About It

“When do we use the—, the—double high commas?” Double. High. Commas.

No matter how many times we cover it, the proper use of quotations eludes even the best of our students.

Whether it’s the wrong terminology, wild punctuation, or excessive use of “The author says . . . ,” it’s enough to drive any teacher mad.

And yet, perhaps, the worst quotation sin of all (just us?) is the standalone quotation. Instead of embedding quotes, students simply drop them in like bricks. You’re reading a paragraph, and then . . . all of a sudden, there it sits, completely disconnected from the surrounding text.

Embedding quotes is an essential writing skill, yet in our experience, it’s not one that’s often taught explicitly.

Every grammar curriculum we’ve used includes lessons on how to punctuate quotations correctly, and the proper use of citations is a primary focus when we assign research papers.

But embedding quotes receives less attention, and it shouldn’t. Learning how to embed quotations correctly—in multiple ways—transforms student writing. Their essays flow more naturally, their arguments sound more sophisticated, and the connection between their ideas and their evidence becomes crystal clear. Yet when we don’t explicitly teach the skill of integrating quotations, students don’t realize that it’s necessary or that there is more to it than a quick, “According to [insert author here], . . .”

This post isn’t about the mechanics (though we do show you our four favorite methods for embedding quotes). Instead, it’s about why this skill is so hard for students and what actually works to fix it.

Before we explore solutions, however, let’s take a moment to understand the real problem.

What Embedding Quotes Actually Looks Like (The Gap Students Don’t See)

Contrary to what our grammar worksheets might suggest, there’s more to embedding quotes than quotation marks and proper period placement.

It’s also not just providing students with a sentence frame they can fill in (though we do use that strategy, especially with students who are below grade level).

Instead, embedding quotes is about making the quote a grammatical part of your own sentence.

Take a look at these two examples:

Integrating the quotation into the sentence in the second example improves the students’ writing in four key ways:

1. The writing is more mature.
2. The writing is clearer. In the first example, it’s unclear how the quotation is meant to be related to the first sentence. In the second example, the connection is explicit.
3. The writing gives context. In the first example, we don’t know who said the quotation or what it refers to; in the second example, we know Juliet is the speaker and that she’s specifically using these words to describe her love for Romeo.
4. The writing begins to incorporate analysis. By adding the adjective “limitless,” the writer begins to help us understand what the quotation means. There’s certainly more to unpack, but the words around the quotation are actually doing something.

These four improvements are significant, and they improve content, not just grammar. Unfortunately, many students never learn to integrate quotes this way.

In our experience as both students and teachers, the idea that embedding quotes is necessary is often assumed rather than taught explicitly. It may be true that some students will pick up common writing structures as they read, but this isn’t true for all—or even most—students. And when we don’t teach our students why embedding quotes matters, it becomes one more nitpicky “English teacher” thing that students can take or leave.

The problem isn’t necessarily that students are careless; it’s that they literally don’t understand what we mean when we ask for “integration” in this context.

Why Students Struggle to Embed Quotes (The Real Reasons)

If carelessness isn’t the problem—or not the only problem—what is? Understanding the real barriers helps us choose effective solutions.

They’ve Only Seen the Most Basic Examples

If students have received any instruction on integrating quotations, they’ve likely been given a sentence starter like “According to the text, . . .” or “The author says . . .” If they’ve learned anything beyond these phrases, it’s that they must replace the word “says” with another word like “states,” “writes,” or “contends.”

These aren’t wrong ways to integrate a quotation (and we’re on board with the “said is dead” movement), but when students think this is the only way to integrate a quotation, it limits their writing.

Students need to learn that quotations are flexible: they can be a full sentence, a partial phrase, or single words woven throughout a sentence.

They’re Following Directions, Not Developing Proficiency

When students have only seen one model for embedding quotes, they copy that format exactly every time, regardless of whether it fits the sentence they’re trying to write. Instead of understanding the purpose of integrating quotations or developing writing mastery, they’re simply following directions.

This is why many students avoid the word “said” but replace it with rhetorical verbs that make no sense in context. They’ve merely internalized the rule that they can’t use “said” and learned to select any word from a list rather than thinking about how their sentence structure conveys meaning to a reader.

They Don’t See the Relationship Between Their Idea and the Quote

Many students treat evidence as “something necessary to include” in a response rather than as an integrated part of a larger whole. They’re often thinking about “what comes next” in the paragraph structure instead of how the entire paragraph works together to convey a single idea.

As a result, the quotation often feels separate from the surrounding sentences, and the connection between evidence and claim remains unclear. This has ripple effects on students’ writing scores since they’re often evaluated on how well they support claims and the strength of their commentary.

These are not unfixable problems, however. Students of all levels can learn more sophisticated strategies for embedding quotes into their writing.

The Solution: Teaching Four Methods for Integrating Quotations

For the first few years of our careers, we were frustrated by our students’ inability to integrate quotations correctly. We assumed that, by high school, they should know what we meant when we told them to embed quotes into their writing.

When we realized that our students needed us to teach MLA quotation integration explicitly, it was a game-changer. We selected four methods for embedding quotations and created a guide filled with examples to show students exactly how to implement these methods.

By teaching students four methods instead of just one, we helped them begin to understand that they could make choices as writers and that their “evidence sentence” could do more than just present a quotation.

Method #1: Introduce the quotation with a complete sentence followed by a colon.

The rulers and elders in Mbanta were confronted with a situation they had not faced before, the deliberate killing of a sacred python: “No punishment was prescribed for a man who killed the python knowingly. Nobody thought such a thing could ever happen” (91).

This is a relatively easy method to introduce because it makes what students are already doing (drop-in quotes) grammatically correct with one simple punctuation switch.

It’s important to emphasize, however, that what precedes the colon must be a complete sentence. Students get overexcited to use colons but miss the first essential part of this rule. It’s also worth encouraging students to make that first sentence meaningful, though even a starter like “Shakespeare provides evidence to support this: [insert quote here]” is still an improvement.

Method #2: Introduce the quotation with an introductory or explanatory phrase, followed by a comma and then the quote.

Heck Tate stubbornly argued, “Let the dead bury the dead this time, Mr. Finch. Let the dead bury the dead” (317).

This is a good method to start with because it’s likely the “frame” students have been taught to use when presenting a quotation.

What’s helpful, however, is encouraging students to write more than a simple “character + verb + comma” construction.

When Troy returns from the hospital with his newborn baby, Rose agrees, “A motherless child has got a hard time. From right now . . . this child got a mother. But you a womanless man” (2.3.26–29).

In this example, the introductory phrase adds context, making the sentence more meaningful.

Method #3: Make the quotation a part of your own sentence without any punctuation between your own words and the words you are using. To do this, you often use a “signal phrase” like “that.”

When the narrator realizes the letter she is waiting for will never arrive, she also recognizes that “[t]here were women just waiting and waiting by mailboxes for one letter or another” (140).

This can also be a relatively easy method to teach students: its simplest implementation merely requires them to replace a comma with the word “that.” 

Students are, however, often tempted to use both a comma and a signal phrase, making their sentence grammatically incorrect. 

They also need to be reminded that they can do more than simply say some version of “The author says that . . .”

While it was initially important to establish leadership, by Part 4, it is clear that “[t]he question of leadership no longer concerned the gang” (123).

When the voice calls out asking the converts to step forward, Goodman Brown does so, while realizing he “felt a loathsome brotherhood by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart” (308).

In the first example, the basic construction varies; in the second, the “that” is omitted and an additional word is added before the quotation begins. Students don’t always realize that they have this flexibility when implementing the method.

Method #4: Use short quotations—only a few words—as part of your own sentence.

Mrs. Das, the daughter of Indian immigrants, returned to her parents’ homeland fully Americanized, flashing “shaved, largely bare legs” beneath a “red-and-white-checkered skirt” which did not touch her knees (141, 143).

This is the most challenging method for students to learn (we recommend teaching it last), but it pays the largest dividends in improving the quality of their writing. Integrating short words and phrases (we’ve heard other teachers refer to them as “quote nuggets”) makes for far more readable writing and forces students to focus on the most important parts of the evidence they want to include. Removing unnecessary words from their quotation helps them focus (and thus strengthen) their commentary.

By teaching students multiple methods for embedding quotes, we give them flexibility in their writing. Different methods work better for different quotations, and varying the method of integration leads to more mature writing. Skilled writers choose the method that flows best with their particular argument, so showing students that they can choose moves them from mechanical compliance to developing an actual writing skill.

The challenge, of course, is that teaching all four methods with sufficient examples and practice takes significant prep time. Our Student Scholar’s Guide to Quotations does this work for you: it includes explanations of each method, multiple model examples from a variety of texts, and a list of alternatives to “says” to enrich students’ writing. We’ve also bundled our guide with seven rules for punctuating quotations, multiple practice activities to reinforce learning, and a multiple-choice assessment. Get a sneak peek at the seven rules for punctuating quotations by signing up for our Free Resource Library.

How to Teach Quote Integration: Practical Tips to Implement

We’ve covered what students need to know, but we also wanted to share how we teach the skill of embedding quotes to our students.

Tip #1: Start with Punctuation Rules

Your students need to know how to punctuate and cite quotations before they learn varied methods of integration. We teach our students seven rules for punctuating and citing quotations, which you can get for free by joining our Free Resource Library!

This order matters because punctuation is foundational; integration builds on this foundation.

Tip #2: Introduce ONE Integration Method at a Time

Instead of teaching all four methods of integration at once, start with the simplest or most common method (probably #1 or #2, depending on your students’ habits). Give students 3–4 practice opportunities with just that method, and then introduce the next method. Build the complexity gradually, ending with Method #4. Give students multiple practice opportunities with each method before moving to the next one—this builds mastery rather than just awareness.

Once students have learned all four methods, require them to vary the methods they use in their own writing. We regularly required our 9th-grade honors students to respond to short-answer questions about their reading and directed them to use a specific method in each response (Question 1: Use Method 3, Question 2: Use Method 1, etc.). This allowed for regular practice (with feedback opportunities) and reminded students that they have more than one tool in their toolbox.

When students are first learning these four methods, we recommend only providing feedback on their use of the integration methods. If you try to comment on everything, you’ll go crazy. Look for grammatical correctness, natural flow, and preservation of the quotation’s original meaning.

Tip #3: Model, Model, Model

Because we’re trying to teach students to be flexible when embedding quotes, one or two examples isn’t enough—it’s essential that they see multiple examples of each method. This helps them understand how to adapt the basic method to fit the needs of their own quotation and reminds them that there is more than one way to integrate a quotation.

If you do thinkalouds or write paragraphs as a class, it may also be helpful to model your thinking for students when selecting an integration method. This reminds them that writing is an active process that they can control rather than a set of rules to follow mechanically.

Tip #4: Use Familiar Texts for Practice

It’s often helpful to reduce the cognitive load for students when they’re learning a new skill. This is why, as we mentioned above, we focus our feedback on only the integration when students are still learning.

But it can also be helpful to give students familiar quotations that aren’t tethered to a larger passage, like celebrity quotes or lines from texts they’ve already read and discussed in class. This allows students to focus purely on the skill of embedding quotes rather than also wrestling with comprehension.

Tip #5: Make It a Regular Practice, Not a One-Shot Lesson

For our students to improve at embedding quotes, this can’t just be a one-and-done lesson (we say from experience). When we taught AP Literature, we started introducing these methods mid-year as a form of course correction, and we didn’t have a lot of time. We provided students with the guide, spent 1–2 days practicing, and then hoped they would internalize the concepts.

Our approach in 9th-grade honors was far more effective: we built the skill focus into our curriculum, taking time to introduce the methods slowly and establishing varied use of the four methods as a regular part of our class routine. Their 10th-grade teacher later commented on the dramatic improvement in their quotation skills.

Tip #6: Meet Your Students Where They Are

Not all students will be ready to learn all four methods of embedding quotes. For our standard-level sophomores, many of whom were below grade level, we focused on only a couple of the punctuation rules and one of the integration methods (typically Method #2, since it built most naturally on what they already knew).

This was all our students were ready for, and helping them truly master those basics instead of racing through all four methods served them far better in the long run.

Be willing to only make it partway through the content without feeling like you’ve failed. Your students are better served by deep practice with fewer methods than superficial exposure to all four.

Teaching students to embed quotes effectively isn’t about giving them one formula—it’s about showing them the options, giving them lots of practice, and helping them see why integration matters for their writing. When students master the skill of embedding quotes, their writing transforms from mechanical to sophisticated. They sound like the scholars you’re teaching them to be. And even better, the skill transfers to other classes, building their academic credibility and helping them succeed across disciplines.

Embedding quotes is one of those skills that seems small but makes a massive difference in student writing quality. It’s worth the time to teach it systematically.

If you want all four methods with model examples ready to share with students, check out our Student Scholar’s Guide to Quotations. Want practice activities and assessment too? The complete bundle includes the guide plus seven punctuation rules, multiple practice activities, and a multiple-choice test.