Mid-Sentence Quoting
Ideally, you should be able to quote from a source by using the most important short phrases from their writing in your own sentences. This way, you can blend quotation and your own analysis all in the same sentence. Instead of writing two boring sentences:
According to Ray Smuckles, "You want a steak charred and crispy." I disagree with Ray.
You can combine them into the same sentence:
Ray Smuckles couldn't be more wrong when he argues that steak should be "charred and crispy."
The sentence has to make sense grammatically, which is why you usually take a small phrase from the original quote. Imagine the sentence without quotation marks, and it should still make sense. The more of a quote you take, the harder it will be to write a sentence that uses it. However, make sure you're quoting enough to make the quote worthwhile. For instance, don't write a sentence like this:
PETA wants to protect "animals" and create safe places for them to "live."
Either use more of the quoted material, or don't use direct quotes at all:
PETA wants to "protect animals from humans" and provide them with safe habitats.
Sometimes you'll have to change the quote to fit into your own sentence. You are allowed to change quotes IF you keep the meaning the same, and you put [brackets] around the parts you change. This most often happens when a quoted author is talking about themselves. If the original source material reads something like:
I've been a lumberjack all my life, like my father before me, and his father, too.
It wouldn't make sense for you to write this into your essay:
Rod Burly's claim that "I've been a lumberjack all my life" gives weight to his arguments against deforestation.
That sounds like YOU, the writer of the essay, are a lumberjack. Change it with brackets:
Rod Burly's claim that "[he's] been a lumberjack all [his] life" gives weight to his arguments against deforestation.
Now it's clear that Rod Burly is the lumberjack, not you, the writer. Pronouns and verb tenses are the most common reasons to edit a quote to fit your sentence. Be sure the verb tense of the quote makes sense with the rest of your sentence!