Put a Quote in an Essay

Using direct quotes in essays is a great way to support your ideas with concrete evidence and to make your argument come alive. Also it helps to support your topic or your thesis.However, if you want your essay to look professional, then you have to know how to cite quotes correctly, whether you 're using MLA or APA style. And remember: if you use a quote but don't give credit to the original author, that is considered plagiarism. In addition to putting the quotes in the essay, you'll have to List References at the end of your essay. If you want to know how to put a quote in an essay, see Step 1 below to get started.

Steps

Sample Quotes

Doc:Short Quotes,Modified Quotes,Block Quotes

Citing Quotes Using MLA Style

The MLA (Modern Language Association) style of writing requires you to cite the name of the author and the page number when citing quotes in essays. If you're citing poetry, then you'll have to cite the lines of poetry instead of page numbers. Unlike in APA style, you do not have to provide the year the quote was written in the actual body of your essay, though you will need to do so in a detailed references page at the bottom of your essay.

  1. Cite short quotations. In MLA style, a short quote is considered anything that is fewer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of poetry. If you have a quote that meets this length requirement, then all you have to do is 1) enclose the quote with double quotation marks, 2) provide the author's last name, and 3) provide the page number. You can either introduce 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 "p" or anything else to signify the page number. [1]
    • Make sure to introduce a quote with some text; don't just start a quote without introducing it or the readers won't be oriented. Use a few words to introduce a quote and then begin it with quotation marks that hold the quote; after that, cite the author's last name and page number in parentheses and place a period (or whatever punctuation you're using) at the end of the sentence. Here is an example:
      • According to some critics, literary fiction, "is all but dead in the 21st century"(Smith 200).[1]
    • You can also introduce the author's name in the text instead of placing it in parentheses at the end. Here's another way to do it:
      • Jones states that, "People who read literary fiction are proven to be able to sympathize with others more easily"(85).
    • You can also introduce a quote, cite it, and then comment on it a bit like this:
      • Many people believe that "Sports has no meaning whatsoever,"(Lane 50), while others disagree completely.
    • If there's a punctuation mark in the original quote, then you'll have to include it in the citation:
      • Harry Harrison, the protagonist, always starts his day by saying, "What a beautiful morning!"(Granger 12).
    • If you're citing poetry, then you can do so by citing the lines that the poem is using, while using a "/" to separate the lines, like so:
      • As Miller states, "There is nothing cuter/than a cat sneezing" (11-12), and many cat lovers would attest to this fact.
  2. Cite long prose quotations. In MLA formatting, long quotations are known to be anything that has more than four lines of prose or three lines of poetry. If you come across one of these, then you'll have to put the quote in free-standing blocks of text, and not use quotation marks. You can introduce the quote with a line of text and a colon, only indenting the first line of the quote by one inch from the left, while sticking to double spacing. You can end the quote with punctuation, and then use the author's last name and page number in parentheses after the quote.[1]
    • Here is an example of an introduction of a basic one paragraph long block quote:
      • The short story, "The Things They Carried," lists the items carried by soldiers in the Vietnam war to both characterize them and burden the readers with the weight they are carrying:
        The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water. (O'Brien, 2)
    • When you're citing two or more paragraphs, you'll have to use block quotes, even if each passage from the paragraphs is less than four lines long. You should indent the first line of each of the paragraphs an extra quarter inch. Use ellipses (…) at the end of one paragraph to transition to the next.
  3. Cite a poem. If you want to cite a poem, or part of one, then you should keep the original formatting of the lines to convey the original meaning. Here's how you can do it:[2][3]
    • 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 quotations. This is also useful when you need to slightly change the meaning of the quote to help the context of your essay, or when you want to omit some information that isn't relevant to the points you want to make. Here are some examples of how to put the quote in your essay in both cases:
    • Use brackets ([ and ]) to "write in" your own information to help readers in the context of a quote:
      • Mary Hodges, a twentieth-century realist writer of short stories, once wrote, "Many women [who write stories] feel like they are somehow inferior to novelists, but that should not be the case"(88).
    • Use ellipses (…) to omit any parts of a quote that isn't necessary for your essay. Here's an example:
      • Smith believes that many Ivy League students "feel that teaching isn't as ambitious a profession…as banking"(90).
  5. Cite quotes with multiple authors. If you want to cite a quote that has more than one author, then you'll have to separate the names by commas and the word "and". Here's how it will look:
    • Many studies find that MFA programs "are the single biggest factor for helping first-time writers publish their work"(Clarke, Owen, and Kamoe 56).
  6. Cite quotes from the Internet. It can be tricky to cite quotes form the Internet because you won't be able to find page numbers. Still, you should try to find out as much information as you can, such as the author, the year, or the name of the essay or article. Here are two examples:
    • One online film critic said that Trust was "the single-most embarrassing film produced in Canada within the last decade"(Jenkins, "Blame Canada!").
    • Wedding guru Rachel Seaton stated in her well-regarded blog that "Every woman is a bridezilla at heart"(2012, "Godzilla in a Tux.").

Citing Quotes Using APA Style

In APA (American Psychological Association) style quotations, you'll have to provide the author's last name and page number, just as you would in MLA formatting, except you'll also have to provide the year. In APA formatting, you'll also use a "p." before the page numbers in your citations.

  1. Cite short quotations. To cite a short quote (under 40 words) in APA formatting, you'll just have to make sure to include the author's last name, the year, and the page number (along with "p." to indicate it) somewhere in the quotation. Here are some examples of different ways to do this:[4]
    • According to McKinney (2012), "Yoga is the best method of stress relief for Americans over twenty today" (p.54).
    • McKinney found that, "100 adults who did yoga at least three times a week were found to have lower blood pressure, better sleeping patterns, and fewer everyday frustrations"(2012, p.55).
    • She also said, "Yoga is far superior to running or biking, in terms of stress relief"(McKinney, 2012, p.60).
  2. Cite a long quotations. To cite a long quote in APA formatting, you'll have to place the quote in a free-standing block. You should start the quote on a new line, indent it 1/2 of an inch from the left margin, and then type the whole quote using that same margin. If the quote has multiple paragraphs, then you can indent the first line of another paragraph an extra {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} from the new margin. Maintain double spacing throughout the quote, citing it afterwards in parentheses after the final punctuation. The same rule applies here as for shorter quotes -- you'll have to to cite the author, year, and page somewhere, whether it's in the introduction or in the body of the quote. Here's an example:[4]
    • McKinney's study (2011) found the following:
      High school English teachers who practiced 100 minutes of yoga per week over the course of a month were able to build better relationships with their students, feel more empathy towards their students and coworkers, feel less stress about grading and other daily tasks, and to even find new meaning in the same novels they had been teaching for many years. (57-59).
  3. Paraphrase quotes. If you're paraphrasing a quote in APA style, then you should refer to the author and the year of publication, as well as the page number that you are paraphrasing from. Here's what you can do:
    • McKinney believes that yoga is a form of therapy, both physical and mental (2012, p.99).
    • According to McKinney, yoga should be mandatory in all public schools (2012, p.55).
  4. Cite quotes with multiple authors. If you're putting a quote in an APA style essay that has more than one author, then you'll just have to use the ampersand (the "&" symbol) to combine the names of the two authors, in alphabetical order. Here is an example:[5]
    • In the end, it was found that "Students who watch television instead of reading develop much smaller vocabularies"(Hoffer & Grace, 2008, p.50).
  5. Cite quotes from the Internet. When you're citing from the Internet, you're just going to have to do the best you can to find the name of the author, the date, and the paragraph number instead of the page. Here is an example:[6]
    • In her article, Smith wrote that "The world does not need another blog"(2012, para.3).
    • When you don't have the name of the author, use the name of the article instead. If there is no date, write "n.d." instead of the date. Like this:
      • Another study found that extra help after school was invaluable in student success ("Students and Tutoring," n.d.).



Warnings

  • Always cite properly. If not, it is considered plagiarism.

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/
  2. ↑ http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171409
  3. ↑ http://www.uta.edu/english/rosenberg/mla_poetry
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/
  5. ↑ http://libguides.pstcc.edu/content.php?pid=24540&sid=517239
  6. ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/3/

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