Part of avoiding plagiarism is giving proper credit to the author. The top slice of the sandwich introduces the source. On first use, you lead in to the quote with the author’s name and credentials, so readers know whose words you are using and understand the source’s authority. For instance, you may write, "Jane Smith, Garden Club president, notes…," or "John Doe, author of…." After that, you continue to introduce sources throughout your paper with simple speaker’s tags, for example, "Smith insists…." Vary your verb choice and try to capture the source’s tone.
After the lead-in, comes the sandwich filler or the quote, exactly as written, framed by quotation marks or for long quotes, in block format. Using someone’s wording without quotations or blocking constitutes plagiarism. The only exceptions are common sayings, like "Crime doesn’t pay." If you must make changes so that the quote reads grammatically with your lead-in or provides essential information, indicate the change by inserting the needed words in brackets; to cut irrelevant material, show the omission with ellipses. Inaccurate quoting, while not plagiarism, damages your credibility as a writer and researcher.
The bottom slice is the lead-out. In academic work, it is essential to identifying your source and avoiding plagiarism. The lead-out begins with an in-text citation. What you put between the parentheses depends on the documentation style required, Modern Language Association or American Psychological Association. The remainder of the lead-out may interpret the quote if it is complex. Otherwise, simply connect the quote’s ideas to your paper’s point, so readers understand the quote’s relevance.
You can’t quote your way through an entire paper. Even if you glue those quotes together with your own words, it may look just like that, a string of somebody else’s words stuck together with very little of you involved. In your paper, your voice should be the strongest. Purdue University Online Writing Lab points out that you don’t want to sound “as though you have nothing to say yourself.” That’s where summarizing and paraphrasing come in.