Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 2: Quoting quotes in the MLA style
• Part 2 of 2: Quoting quotes in the APA style
• Warnings

Using quotes in essays is a great way to support your ideas with concrete evidence and make your arguments come to life. It also helps you support your topic or thesis. However, if you want your essay to look professional, you will need to know how to post citations, whether using the MLA or APA style. Keep in mind that using a quote without citing the original author is considered plagiarism. In addition to using the correct spelling in your essay, you will need to include a list of references at the end of your essay.

To step

Part 1 of 2: Quoting quotes in the MLA style

The MLA (Modern Language Association) style of writing requires you to mention the author's name and page number when citing in an essay. When quoting poetry, write the line numbers instead of the page number. Unlike the APA style, you don't have to include the year the quote was written in the body of your essay. You do this in the list of references at the end of your essay.

1. Quote short quotes. In the MLA style, a short quote contains less than four typed lines of prose or three lines of poetry. If your quote meets these length requirements, all you need to do is 1) enclose the quote in double quotes, 2) include the author's last name, and 3) write the page number. You can introduce the author's name before the quote, or include it in parentheses after the quote. The page number is stated at the end, without "p" or any other character to indicate that it is a page number.
   • Introduce your quote. A quote without context disorientates the reader. So use a few introductory words and put the quote in quotation marks. Then state the author's last name and page number in parentheses and end the sentence with a period (or whatever punctuation mark you need). Here's an example:
     • According to some critics, literary fiction is "near death in the 21st century" (Smith 200).
   • You can also introduce the author's name in the text instead of stating it in parentheses after the quote. For example like this:
     • Jones claims that "people who read literary fiction have been proven to empathize with others more readily" (85).
   • You can also introduce and quote a quote, and then comment on it, as in the following example:
     • Many believe that "sport is meaningless" (Lane 50), while others completely disagree.
   • If the original text contains punctuation marks, you must include them in your quote:
     • Harry Harrison, the protagonist, always starts his day with the words "What a beautiful morning!" (Granger 12).
   • When quoting poetry, you can use a "/" to separate the lines, like this:
     • As Miller puts it, "There is nothing cuter than a sneezing cat" (11-12), and many cat lovers would agree.
2. Cite longer prose quotes. The MLA format defines a long quote as a text that has more than four lines of prose or three lines of poetry. If you come across such a quote, put the quote in a free-standing block of text and don't use quotation marks. Optionally, you can introduce the quote with a line of text and a colon, starting the first line of the quote an inch further to the right and continuing to use double spacing. End the quote with a punctuation mark, then add the author's last name and page number in parentheses after the quote.
   • Here is an example introducing a block quote with a length of one paragraph:
     • The short story "What They Wore" lists the things that soldiers in the Vietnam War carried with them, both to profile them and to burden the reader with the weight they carry:

       ’What they wore was mainly determined by necessity. The necessary or semi-necessary items included P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, watches, ID pendants, mosquito repellant, chewing gum, candy cigarettes, salt tablets, packs of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, military currency, C rations and two or three canteens of water. (O'Brien, 2)

   • When citing two or more paragraphs, you should also use block quotes, even if an individual passage from these paragraphs is less than four lines long. The first line of each of the paragraphs must be indented extra. Use an ellipsis (…) at the end of each paragraph to indicate the transition to the next.
3. Quote a poem. If you want to quote a poem or part of it, it is important that you keep the original line formatting in order to convey the original meaning. You do that like this:

   • Howard Nemerov describes his longing for a lost love in his poem "Storm Windows":

     This lonely afternoon of memories

     And missed desires, while the wintry rain

     (Unspeakable, the distance in the mind!)

     Runs on the standing windows and away. (14-18)

4. Add or omit words in quotes. This can be useful when you need to change the meaning of the quote slightly to better fit the context of your essay or when you want to omit information that is not relevant to your essay. Here are some examples of how to include modified quotes in your essay:
   • Use brackets ([and]) to add your own information to help readers in the context of a quote
     • Mary Hodges, a twentieth-century realist short story writer, once wrote, "Many women [who write stories] feel inferior to novelists in some way, although they shouldn't be." (88).
   • Use the ellipsis to omit parts of a quote that are not relevant to your essay. For instance:
     • Smith believes many Ivy League students "don't feel that the teaching profession is as ambitious ... as a banker" (90).
5. Cite quotes from multiple authors. Separate names by commas and the word "and" if you want to quote a quote from more than one author. It looks like this:
   • Many studies conclude that MFA programs are "by far the biggest factor in getting the works of first-time writers published" (Clarke, Owen and Kamoe 56).
6. Get quotes from the internet. Quoting from the internet can be difficult because you don't find page numbers there. Still, try to find as much information as possible, such as the author, year, or name of the essay or article. Here are two examples:
   • An online movie critic finds Trust "the most embarrassing movie to have appeared in Canada in the last decade" (Jenkins, "Blame Canada!").
   • Wedding guru Rachel Seaton claimed in her well-regarded blog that "every woman at heart is a bridezilla" (2012, "Godzilla in a Tux.").

Part 2 of 2: Quoting quotes in the APA style

The APA (American Psychological Association) style requires you to include the author's last name and page number, just like when using the MLA style. With APA, however, you must also state the year and put your "p". for the page number in your quote.

1. Quote short quotes. If you quote a short quote (less than 40 words) in APA format, include the author's last name, year, and page number (indicated by "p.") Anywhere in the quote. Here are some examples of different ways you can do this:
   • According to McKinney (2012), “Yoga is the best de-stress method for Americans over 20 today” (p. 54).
   • McKinney found that "100 adults who practiced yoga at least three times a week had lower blood pressure, better sleep patterns, and less everyday frustration" (2012, p. 55).
   • She also claimed that, "yoga [is] better than running or cycling when it comes to stress relief" (McKinney, 2012, p. 60).
2. Cite longer quotes. To quote longer quotes in APA format, place the quote in a freestanding block.Start the quote on a new line, indent half an inch from the left margin, and type the entire quote in that same margin. If the citation has multiple paragraphs, indent the first line of each new paragraph an additional 1/2 inch from the new margin. Keep the double spacing and add the necessary information in parentheses at the end of the quote. The same rules apply here as for the shorter citations - you must include the author, year, and page number somewhere, whether in the introduction to the quote or in parentheses after the quote. Here's an example:

   • McKinney's research (2011) yielded the following findings:

     Secondary school English teachers who practiced yoga for 100 minutes a week for a month built better relationships with their students, felt more empathy with their students and colleagues, experienced less stress while grading tests and other daily tasks, and even found new ones. meaning in the novels that had been part of their curriculum for years. (57-59).

3. Paraphrase quotes. When paraphrasing a quote in APA style, always refer to the author and year of publication as well as the page number. Here's how you can do it:
   • McKinney believes that yoga is a form of therapy, both physical and mental (2012, p.99).
   • According to McKinney, yoga should be compulsory in all public schools (2012, p. 55).
4. Cite quotes from multiple authors. If you want to quote an APA style quote from more than one author, use the ampersand (the & symbol) to combine the names of the two authors in alphabetical order. Here's an example:
   • Ultimately, it was concluded that "students who watch a lot of television instead of reading develop a much smaller vocabulary" (Grace & Hoffer, 2008, p. 50).
5. Get quotes from the internet. When quoting a quote from the internet, try to get as much information as possible (the author's name, date, and paragraph number where there is no page number available). For instance:
   • In her article, Smith writes that "the world doesn't need another blog" (2012, para.3).
   • If you don't know the author's name, please include the name of the article instead. If the date is unknown, write "n.d." in place of the date, like this:
     • Another study found that additional after-school help was invaluable to students' success ("Students and Tutoring", undated).

Warnings

• Always quote correctly. If you don't, you are plagiarizing.