To cite a direct quote, place the exact words from your source inside quotation marks, include an in-text citation with the author and a locator like a page number, and add a full reference entry in your bibliography. The specific formatting depends on whether you’re using APA, MLA, or Chicago style, but the core mechanics are the same: signal where the quote starts, where it ends, and exactly where you found it.
Short Quotes in APA Style
In APA style, a short quote is anything under 40 words. Wrap it in double quotation marks and include the author’s last name, the publication year, and a page number in your parenthetical citation. The period goes after the closing parenthesis, not inside the quotation marks.
You have a few ways to structure this. If you mention the author’s name in your sentence, put the year right after the name and the page number at the end:
- Jones (1998) found “students often had difficulty using APA style” (p. 199).
If you don’t mention the author in the sentence, put everything in the parenthetical citation at the end:
- The study revealed that “students often had difficulty using APA style” (Jones, 1998, p. 199).
When the quote lands in the middle of your sentence rather than at the end, the citation follows the closing quotation mark immediately, and whatever punctuation your sentence needs comes after the parenthesis. For example: She stated, “students often had difficulty using APA style” (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not offer an explanation as to why.
Short Quotes in MLA Style
MLA follows a similar pattern but uses different information in the citation. Instead of a year, MLA uses the author’s last name and a page number with no comma between them and no “p.” abbreviation:
- The narrator describes the room as “heavy with the scent of dried lavender” (Morrison 12).
If you name the author in your sentence, only the page number goes in parentheses. As with APA, the period comes after the closing parenthesis for a quote that ends your sentence.
When to Use a Block Quote
Longer quotes get special formatting. In APA, any direct quote of 40 words or more becomes a block quote. In MLA, the threshold is lower: more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse.
For both styles, a block quote is indented half an inch from the left margin and does not use quotation marks. You introduce the quote with a signal phrase or sentence, then start the quoted text on a new line. The key punctuation difference from short quotes: in a block quote, you place the period at the end of the quoted text, and the parenthetical citation follows after that closing punctuation. This is the opposite of a short quote, where the period comes after the citation.
Block quotes should be used sparingly. If most of your paper is block-quoted material, it signals that you’re leaning on sources instead of analyzing them. Reserve block quotes for passages where the exact wording matters and can’t be effectively paraphrased.
Citing Sources Without Page Numbers
Many sources you’ll quote, especially websites, videos, and digital articles, don’t have traditional page numbers. APA provides several alternatives you can use as locators in your citation:
- Heading or section name: Use the section where the quote appears. You can abbreviate a long heading. Example: (Gecht-Silver & Duncombe, 2015, Osteoarthritis section).
- Paragraph number: Count paragraphs manually if they aren’t numbered. Example: (Chamberlin, 2014, para. 1).
- Heading plus paragraph number: Combine both for precision when a source has multiple sections. Example: (DeAngelis, 2018, Musical Forays section, para. 4).
- Timestamp: For videos, audiobooks, and TED Talks, provide the time where the quote begins. Example: (Cuddy, 2012, 2:12).
For plays, cite the act, scene, and line numbers rather than a page. Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, would look like (Shakespeare, 1623/1995, 1.3.36–37), referring to Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 36 and 37. Classical and religious works use their own canonical numbering systems, like book and verse.
One thing to avoid: Kindle location numbers. Even though they appear in e-readers, they aren’t stable across devices. Use the page number if the Kindle edition provides one, or fall back to the heading and paragraph method.
Modifying a Quote with Brackets and Ellipses
Sometimes you need to alter a quote slightly so it fits grammatically into your sentence or so you can trim irrelevant material. Two tools handle this: square brackets and ellipses.
Use square brackets to change or add a word for clarity. If the original says “They were unable to attend,” but your sentence needs a specific name, you could write: “[The researchers] were unable to attend.” The brackets signal to the reader that you’ve substituted a word. You can also use brackets to change verb tense or capitalization when integrating a quote into your sentence structure.
Use an ellipsis (three spaced periods) to show that you’ve left out part of the original text. This is useful when a passage contains material that isn’t relevant to your point. Place the ellipsis exactly where the omitted words were. You don’t typically need brackets around your ellipsis unless the original source itself contains an ellipsis and you need to distinguish yours from the author’s. In that case, you can either place brackets around your own ellipsis or add a note like “(ellipsis in original)” to clarify which is which.
The rule with both tools: never change the meaning of the original. Omitting a “not” or swapping a word that shifts the author’s argument is a misrepresentation, even if the brackets and ellipses are technically formatted correctly.
Integrating Quotes into Your Writing
A quote should never appear as a standalone sentence dropped into a paragraph without context. Always introduce it with a signal phrase that tells the reader who is speaking and why this quote matters. Common signal phrases include “According to,” “As [Author] argues,” “In [Author]’s analysis,” or simply “[Author] writes that.”
After the quote, add your own analysis or explanation. The pattern works best as a sandwich: your words introduce the quote, the quote provides the evidence, and your words explain what it means or how it supports your argument. A paper full of quotes strung together without commentary reads like a scrapbook, not an argument.
When you can say something in your own words just as effectively, paraphrase instead and skip the quotation marks. Direct quotes are most powerful when the author’s specific language matters: a memorable phrase, a technical definition, or a controversial claim you plan to analyze word by word. For everything else, paraphrasing with a citation is cleaner and shows stronger command of the material.
Punctuation Placement at a Glance
The placement of periods and commas relative to quotation marks trips up even experienced writers. In American English, commas and periods go inside quotation marks when there is no parenthetical citation. When a parenthetical citation follows the quote, the period moves to after the closing parenthesis.
Question marks and exclamation points follow a different rule. If the punctuation is part of the original quote, it stays inside the quotation marks. If you’re asking a question about a quote (but the quote itself isn’t a question), the question mark goes outside. For example: Did the author really claim that “the experiment was a complete success”?
Semicolons and colons always go outside quotation marks, regardless of whether the original contained them. These small details vary slightly across style guides, so when in doubt, check the specific manual your instructor or publisher requires.