Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 2: Cite Quotes Using MLA Style
• Part 2 of 2: Quoting Using APA Style
• Warnings

Using direct quotes in an essay is a great way to back up your ideas with concrete evidence and spice up your arguments. However, if you want your essay to look professional, then you must know how to quote correctly, no matter what style you are using - MLA or APA. And remember: if you use a quote, but do not mention the first author, it is considered plagiarism. In addition to the quotes provided in the essay, you will have to make a reference page at the end of your essay. If you want to know how to insert quotes into your essay, skip to step 1 to get started.

Steps

Part 1 of 2: Cite Quotes Using MLA Style

According to MLA (Modern Languages ​​Association) style, when using quotations in an essay, you must include the author's name and page number. If you are quoting verses, then you will have to refer to lines of verses instead of page numbers. Unlike APA style, you do not have to include the year in which the quote was written in the main body of your essay, although you will have to include it on the detailed reference page at the very end of the essay.

1. 1 Provide short quotes. According to MLA style, a short quote is anything less than four printed lines of prose or three lines of poetry. If your quotation meets these length requirements, then you just need to 1) put the quotation in double quotes, 2) indicate the author's surname, 3) indicate the page number. You can insert the author's name before the quote, or place it in parentheses after the quote. You can just write the page number at the end without using "page" and so on. to indicate the page.
   • The quote must necessarily begin with an introductory text; do not insert a quote without introductory text, otherwise readers may not understand what's what. Use a multi-word foreword to insert a quote, and then open the quotes and write the quote in them; then put the author's surname and page number in brackets and put a period (or other punctuation mark) at the end of the sentence. Here's an example:
     • Some critics say that literary texts “are almost dead in the 21st century” (Smith 200).
   • You can also mention the author's name in the text instead of putting it in parentheses at the end. There is another way to do this:
     • Jones argues: "It has been proven that people who read the writings have much more compassion for those around them" (85).
   • You can also quote a quote, accompanied by an introductory part, and then comment it out like this:
     • Many believe that “doing any sport is a waste of time” (Lane 50), while others totally disagree.
   • If the original quote has a punctuation mark, then you will have to put it in the quote:
     • The main character, Henry Harrison, always starts his day by saying, "What a wonderful morning!" (Granger 12).
   • If you are quoting verses, you can quote them by highlighting the lines of poetry that are used in the work, separating the lines with "/", like this:
     • As Miller says, "There is nothing cuter / cuter than a sneezing cat" (11-12), and many cat lovers will attest to this fact.
2. 2 Provide long quotations from prose. According to the MLA format, anything longer than four printed lines of prose or three lines of poetry is considered long quotation. If you come across one of them, you will have to write it out as a stand-alone piece of text, without using quotes. You can insert a quote in a text line by placing a colon in front of it, indenting the quote by 2.5 cm to the left, while maintaining double spacing. You can end the quote with a punctuation mark, and then indicate the author's surname and page number in parentheses after the quotation.
   • Here's an example of a paragraph containing a long block quote:
     • The short story "The Things They Carried" describes the things that the soldiers who fought in Vietnam carried in order to reveal their character and make the reader feel the weight of the burden they carried:

       Basically, they carried things determined by necessity. Among the essentials and almost essential items were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, solid fuel checkers, wristwatches, "dog tags", mosquito repellent, chewing gum, sweet cigarettes, salt tablets, instant powder packets, lighters, matches, kits of accessories for repairing uniforms, certificates of allowance, "rations C", as well as two or three flasks of water. (O'Brien, 2)

   • If you quote two or more paragraphs in length, you will need to use block quotes, even if each paragraph in the paragraph is less than four lines in length. You should indent one half centimeter on the first line of each paragraph. Use ellipsis (…) at the end of each paragraph to link to the next.
3. 3 Provide quotes from the poem. If you want to quote a poem or part of it, then you should stick to the original string format to convey the original meaning. Here's how you can do it:

   • Howard Nemerov describes his suffering from lost love in his poem Shutters:

     A day full of lonely memories

     And dreams washed away by the winter rain

     (An indescribable abyss that has settled in the mind!)

     Leaves away through the open windows. (14-18)

4. 4 Add or omit words when quoting. This is also useful if you need to slightly change the meaning of a quote to fit the context of an essay, or when you want to omit information that is not relevant to what you would like to emphasize.Here are examples of how to insert quotes into your essay in both cases:
   • Use square brackets ([and]) to "insert" your information to help readers read the quote:
     • Mary Hodge, a twentieth century realist writer and short story writer, once wrote: “Many women [who write stories) feel like they are inferior to novelists, but they should not think so” (88).
   • Use ellipses (...) to omit parts of the quotation that are not relevant to the topic of your essay. Here's an example:
     • Smith believes that many Ivy League students “feel less prestigious to be a teacher ... than a banker” (90).
5. 5 Quote multiple authors. If you want to quote a quote that has more than one author, then you have to put commas and the word "and" between the names. This is how it will look:
   • Much research has found that MFA programs “are the single major driving force helping aspiring writers get their work published” (Clark, Owen, and Camus 56).
6. 6 Provide quotes from the Internet. Inserting quotes from the web is unreliable because you cannot find the page numbers. However, you should try to find as much information as possible: author, year, or title of the essay or article. Here are two examples:
   • One film critic wrote on the internet that faith was one of the most infamous films made in Canada in the past decade "(Jenkins," Shame on Canada! ").
   • Wedding guru Rachel Seaton said in her famous blog that “Every woman at heart is a moody bride” (2012, “Godzilla in a Tuxedo”).

Part 2 of 2: Quoting Using APA Style

APA (American Philological Association) style requires you to quote the author's name and page number when citing, just as you would in MLA format, but you also need to include the year. In APA format you will also have to use "page" before page numbers when quoting.

1. 1 Provide short quotes. To quote a short quote (less than 40 words) in APA format, you just have to make sure you include the author's last name, year, and page number (and "page" for them). You will find a couple of examples of different ways to do this here:
   • According to McKinney (2012), “yoga is the best stress reliever for Americans in their twenties” (p. 54).
   • McKinney found that "100 adults who practice yoga at least three times a week have lowered blood pressure, sleep better and feel less dissatisfied."(2012, p. 55).
   • She also said, “Yoga is much more stress relieving than running or cycling” (McKinney, 2012, p. 60).
2. 2 Provide long quotes. In order to quote a long APA quote, you will have to insert it in a free-standing chunk of text. You should start a quote on a new line, indented 1.2 cm from the left, and then write the quote in full, with the same indentation. If the quotation consists of several paragraphs, then you can insert the first line of another paragraph with an additional indent of 1.2 cm from the new margin. When quoting, stick to double line spacing by writing the quote in parentheses after the last punctuation mark. The same rule applies to shorter citations - you will need to include the author, year, and page somewhere at the beginning or in the body of the quote. Here's an example:

   • A study by McKinney (2011) found the following:

     School English teachers who did 100 minutes of yoga every week for a month were able to build relationships with students, become more empathetic towards students and colleagues, worry less about grading and day-to-day tasks, and even reimagined the novels they taught in for years. (57-59).

3. 3 Rephrase quotes. If you decide to paraphrase an APA-style quote, then you will have to mention the author, year of publication, and the page number you paraphrased. Here's how you can do it:
   • McKinney believes yoga is a form of physical and mental therapy (2012, p. 99).
   • According to McKinney, yoga should become a compulsory subject in all secondary schools (2012, p. 55).
4. 4 Quote multiple authors. If you are inserting a quote with more than one author in an APA style essay, then you will have to use the ampersand ("&" sign) to combine the names of two authors, in alphabetical order. Here's an example:
   • Ultimately, it was found that "Students who watch TV instead of reading develop a much smaller vocabulary" (Hoffer & Grace, 2008, p. 50).
5. 5 Provide quotes from the Internet. When grabbing quotes from the internet, you should do your best to find the author's name, date, and paragraph number instead of a page. Here's an example:
   • Smith wrote in her article that "the world does not need another blog" (2012, paragraph 3).
   • If you don't know the author's name, use the article title instead. If there is no date, write "n / a" instead of her. Like here:
     • Another study found that extracurricular activities after school make an invaluable contribution to student development (Students and Tutoring, n / a).

Warnings

• Always quote appropriately. Otherwise, it will be regarded as plagiarism.