We began looking at how to integrate quotes into concrete details. It’s not just a question of taking the quote from the source, throwing a “For example” at the beginning of the sentence, and calling it a day. The quote must integrate well, must flow smoothly.

The first step is to pick out the portion of the quote that is most significant so we can ditch the rest of it. I used the analogy of the effect changing the area of applied force has on the recipient of that force. If we apply 20 pounds of pressure with an entire hand, it will be of little effect. If we concentrate that 20 pounds of force into a fingertip, the effect is significantly altered: it will actually hurt because the same pressure is spread over a smaller area. In other words, the pounds per square inch increase despite the fact that the absolute force itself doesn’t change.

That’s how we need to think of our quotes: the less we quote, the more potent it can be, provided we have chosen our quotes wisely.

We did our first example together:

Upon reflection, we realized that this could in fact be two CDs with their resulting chunks:

• “bitten by remorse” suggests the regret
• “lust of battle died” suggests that the killing destroyed his willingness to fight at all

This would then result in an altered TS, something like, “The sniper regretted his actions so much that he lost the will to fight in the war at all.”

Next students worked with groups on a second example:

Topic 2: There are enemies everywhere. / Anyone can be an enemy.
Quote: Then round the corner of a side street came an old woman, her head covered by a tattered shawl. She began to talk to the man in the turret of the car. She was pointing to the roof where the sniper lay. An informer. (11)

For this, we determined the keywords are “an old woman ” and “head covered by a tattered shawl.” Our thinking was this:

• In a combat situation, people have to make assessments of danger constantly.
• These assessments will fall on a continuum, from least to most dangerous.
• Most people would assume that “an old lady” would fall on the “least dangerous” end of this continuum.
• The fact that this old lady is in fact a deadly risk shows that anyone at all could be an enemy.

The “tattered shawl” portion suggests she’s poor, which might make her even less of a risk as she might be unlikely to take sides since her life will not change much no matter who wins.

It was at this juncture that I pointed out that all our justification was in fact our commentary for the given quote.

Here’s a screencast from our lesson yesterday, which we repeated with today’s students.