Signal Phrase
The introductory clause — 'as Orwell writes' — that flags a quotation and identifies its source in running prose.
A signal phrase is the short attributive clause a writer uses to introduce borrowed material: 'according to Arendt', 'as Baldwin puts it', 'Sontag argues that'. Its job is to make the transition from the writer's voice to the quoted voice explicit, so the reader is never in doubt about who is speaking.
Signal phrases do more than name a source. The choice of verb — 'notes', 'concedes', 'insists', 'complains', 'demonstrates' — quietly frames how the writer wants the quotation to be read. A source that 'observes' something is being treated as reliable; a source that 'claims' the same thing is being kept at arm's length. Skilled essayists tune these verbs the way musicians tune dynamics.
In academic writing, signal phrases interact with the citation system: MLA and Chicago author-date styles usually pair a named signal phrase with a parenthetical page number, while APA prefers to fold the date into the phrase itself ('as Arendt (1958) writes'). Using a signal phrase can also let a writer avoid a clunky parenthetical after every borrowed sentence in a long paragraph on a single source.
Common mistake: dropping quotations into prose without any signal at all. An unsignposted quotation forces the reader to stop, look at the citation, and reverse-engineer whose voice they were just reading. A one-clause signal phrase almost always repays its cost.
“As Joan Didion writes, 'We tell ourselves stories in order to live.'”
Keep reading the glossary
The act of naming the original speaker or writer of a quote.
An in-text source reference given in parentheses, keyed to a fuller entry in the bibliography.
A formal reference that lets a reader locate the source of a quote.
The em-dash convention for attributing a freestanding quote (— Author).