To cite a quote in your text, you need three pieces of information: the author’s name, the year of publication, and a page number or other location marker that tells your reader exactly where the quote appears. How you arrange those pieces depends on which citation style your assignment requires, but the core idea is the same across all of them: give credit and make the original passage findable.
Short Quotes: The Standard Format
Most quotes you use in a paper will be short, just a sentence or a phrase woven into your own writing. For these, place the quoted words inside double quotation marks and include your citation information either within the sentence or in parentheses at the end.
In APA style (the most common format in social sciences, nursing, and business courses), a short quote is anything under 40 words. You include the author’s last name, the year of publication, and the page number. You can set this up two ways:
- Author named in your sentence: According to Miller (2019), “the learning curve flattens considerably after the first three weeks” (p. 47).
- Author in parentheses: Researchers observed that “the learning curve flattens considerably after the first three weeks” (Miller, 2019, p. 47).
In MLA style (common in English and humanities courses), you use the author’s last name and the page number, with no year and no “p.” before the number:
- Miller argues that “the learning curve flattens considerably after the first three weeks” (47).
- “The learning curve flattens considerably after the first three weeks” (Miller 47).
Notice that in both styles, the period goes after the closing parenthesis, not inside the quotation marks. That small detail is one of the most common formatting errors in student papers.
Long Quotes Need Block Formatting
When a quote gets long enough, you stop using quotation marks and instead set the passage apart as an indented block. In APA style, the threshold is 40 words or more. In MLA, it’s four or more lines of prose (or three or more lines of poetry).
For a block quote, start the quoted text on a new line and indent the entire passage half an inch from the left margin. Double-space the text just like the rest of your paper, and do not add quotation marks around it. The indentation itself signals that you’re quoting. Place your parenthetical citation after the final punctuation mark of the block quote, which is the opposite of how it works with short quotes.
A block quote in APA style looks like this:
Miller (2019) described the pattern observed across multiple cohorts:
The learning curve flattens considerably after the first three weeks. Students who persisted beyond that initial period reported higher confidence levels and were significantly more likely to complete the full program, regardless of their starting proficiency. (p. 47)
Use block quotes sparingly. If every other paragraph contains a long indented passage, your paper reads like a patchwork of other people’s writing rather than your own argument supported by evidence.
Sources Without Page Numbers
Websites, some ebooks, YouTube videos, and podcast episodes don’t have traditional page numbers. You still need to point your reader to the exact spot where the quote appears, so you substitute a different location marker. APA recommends several options depending on the source type:
- Paragraph number: Count paragraphs from the top of the page if they aren’t already numbered. Format it as “para. 1” or “paras. 4–5.”
- Section heading: Use the heading or section name closest to the quote. You can shorten a long heading. Example: (Gecht-Silver & Duncombe, 2015, Osteoarthritis section).
- Heading plus paragraph: Combine both when a section is long. Example: (DeAngelis, 2018, Musical Forays section, para. 4).
- Timestamp: For audiovisual sources like YouTube videos, TED Talks, or podcasts, give the time where the quote begins. Example: (Cuddy, 2012, 2:12).
One thing to avoid: Kindle location numbers. They vary by device and font size, so they’re unreliable. If your Kindle book displays page numbers (many do, especially editions based on a print version), use those instead. Otherwise, fall back on a chapter or section heading.
Quoting Two or More Authors
When your source has two authors, include both names every time you cite it. In APA, connect them with an ampersand inside parentheses: (Smith & Lee, 2021, p. 12). When the names appear in your sentence rather than in parentheses, spell out “and” instead: Smith and Lee (2021) argued that…
For sources with three or more authors, APA lets you shorten the citation to the first author’s name followed by “et al.” on every use: (Johnson et al., 2020, p. 88). MLA follows a similar pattern for works with three or more authors.
Citing Religious and Classical Works
Older texts like the Bible, the Quran, or classical plays use their own numbering systems that have stayed consistent across centuries of editions. Instead of a page number, cite the book, chapter, verse, line, or canto that applies.
For scripture: (King James Bible, 1769/2017, Song of Solomon 8:6). For a Shakespeare play: (Shakespeare, 1623/1995, 1.3.36–37), where the numbers refer to act, scene, and lines. These canonical identifiers let any reader find the passage in any edition, which is exactly the point of a citation.
Quoting a Source You Found in Another Source
Sometimes you’ll read a paper by Author A that quotes Author B, and you want to use Author B’s words. If you can’t track down Author B’s original work, you cite it as a secondary source. In APA, your in-text citation would say: (Author B, as cited in Author A, 2020, p. 34). Only Author A’s work goes on your reference list, because that’s the source you actually read.
This is called an indirect citation, and instructors generally prefer that you find the original source whenever possible. A quote that has passed through two writers may have been trimmed or taken out of context. If the original is accessible, go straight to it, cite it directly, and skip the middleman.
Changing Words Inside a Quote
You’re allowed to make small changes to a quote so it fits grammatically into your sentence, but you need to flag every change. Use square brackets to show words you’ve altered or added: “The participants [in the second cohort] showed marked improvement.” Use an ellipsis (three spaced periods) to show where you’ve cut words from the middle of a quote: “The learning curve flattens . . . regardless of starting proficiency.”
Never change a quote in a way that alters its meaning. If the original author was talking about one specific group and you cut the words that make that clear, you’ve misrepresented the source. Bracket and ellipsis edits should make a quote more readable, not more convenient for your argument.
Putting It All Together
The quickest way to cite a quote correctly is to ask yourself four questions before you type it into your paper. First, which citation style does your assignment require? That determines the order and punctuation of your citation elements. Second, is the quote under or over the word or line threshold for block formatting? Third, does your source have page numbers, and if not, what’s the best alternative locator? Fourth, did you read this source yourself, or are you pulling it from someone else’s work?
Answer those four questions, and you’ll know exactly how to format the citation every time. The specific punctuation marks and abbreviations may feel fussy, but they exist to do one simple job: let any reader trace your quote back to its source in seconds.