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• How to Quote | Citing Quotes in Harvard & APA

How to Quote | Citing Quotes in Harvard & APA

Published on 15 April 2022 by Shona McCombes and Jack Caulfield. Revised on 3 September 2022.

Quoting means copying a passage of someone else’s words and crediting the source. To quote a source, you must ensure:

• The quoted text is enclosed in quotation marks (usually single quotation marks in UK English, though double is acceptable as long as you’re consistent) or formatted as a block quote
• The original author is correctly cited
• The text is identical to the original

The exact format of a quote depends on its length and on which citation style you are using. Quoting and citing correctly is essential to avoid plagiarism , which is easy to detect with a good plagiarism checker .

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Table of contents

How to cite a quote in harvard and apa style, introducing quotes, quotes within quotes, shortening or altering a quote, block quotes, when should i use quotes, frequently asked questions about quoting sources.

Every time you quote, you must cite the source correctly . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style you’re using.

Citing a quote in Harvard style

When you include a quote in Harvard style, you must add a Harvard in-text citation giving the author’s last name, the year of publication, and a page number if available. Any full stop or comma appears after the citation, not within the quotation marks.

Citations can be parenthetical or narrative. In a parenthetical citation , you place all the information in brackets after the quote. In a narrative citation , you name the author in your sentence (followed by the year), and place the page number after the quote.

• Evolution is a gradual process that ‘can act only by very short and slow steps’ (Darwin, 1859, p. 510) . Darwin (1859) explains that evolution ‘can act only by very short and slow steps’ (p. 510) .

Complete guide to Harvard style

Citing a quote in APA Style

To cite a direct quote in APA , you must include the author’s last name, the year, and a page number, all separated by commas. If the quote appears on a single page, use ‘p.’; if it spans a page range, use ‘pp.’

An APA in-text citation can be parenthetical or narrative. In a parenthetical citation , you place all the information in parentheses after the quote. In a narrative citation , you name the author in your sentence (followed by the year), and place the page number after the quote.

Punctuation marks such as full stops and commas are placed after the citation, not within the quotation marks.

• Evolution is a gradual process that ‘can act only by very short and slow steps’ (Darwin, 1859, p. 510) .
• Darwin (1859) explains that evolution ‘can act only by very short and slow steps’ (p. 510) .

Complete guide to APA

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Make sure you integrate quotes properly into your text by introducing them in your own words, showing the reader why you’re including the quote and providing any context necessary to understand it.  Don’t  present quotations as stand-alone sentences.

There are three main strategies you can use to introduce quotes in a grammatically correct way:

• Add an introductory sentence
• Use an introductory signal phrase
• Integrate the quote into your own sentence

The following examples use APA Style citations, but these strategies can be used in all styles.

Introductory sentence

Introduce the quote with a full sentence ending in a colon . Don’t use a colon if the text before the quote isn’t a full sentence.

If you name the author in your sentence, you may use present-tense verbs, such as “states’, ‘argues’, ‘explains’, ‘writes’, or ‘reports’, to describe the content of the quote.

• In Denmark, a recent poll shows that: ‘A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters’ (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• In Denmark, a recent poll shows that support for the EU has grown since the Brexit vote: ‘A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters’ (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• Levring (2018) reports that support for the EU has grown since the Brexit vote: ‘A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters’ (p. 3).

Introductory signal phrase

You can also use a signal phrase that mentions the author or source but doesn’t form a full sentence. In this case, you follow the phrase with a comma instead of a colon.

• According to a recent poll, ‘A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters’ (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• As Levring (2018) explains, ‘A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters’ (p. 3).

Integrated into your own sentence

To quote a phrase that doesn’t form a full sentence, you can also integrate it as part of your sentence, without any extra punctuation.

• A recent poll suggests that EU membership ‘would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters’ in a referendum (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• Levring (2018) reports that EU membership ‘would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters’ in a referendum (p. 3).

When you quote text that itself contains another quote, this is called a nested quotation or a quote within a quote. It may occur, for example, when quoting dialogue from a novel.

To distinguish this quote from the surrounding quote, you enclose it in double (instead of single) quotation marks (even if this involves changing the punctuation from the original text). Make sure to close both sets of quotation marks at the appropriate moments.

Note that if you only quote the nested quotation itself, and not the surrounding text, you can just use single quotation marks.

• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: ‘ ‘ Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, ‘ he told me, ‘ just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had ‘ ‘ (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: ‘”Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had “  (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: ‘“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had”’ (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway begins by quoting his father’s invocation to ‘remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’ (Fitzgerald 1).

Note:  When the quoted text in the source comes from another source, it’s best to just find that original source in order to quote it directly. If you can’t find the original source, you can instead cite it indirectly .

Often, incorporating a quote smoothly into your text requires you to make some changes to the original text. It’s fine to do this, as long as you clearly mark the changes you’ve made to the quote.

Shortening a quote

If some parts of a passage are redundant or irrelevant, you can shorten the quote by removing words, phrases, or sentences and replacing them with an ellipsis (…). Put a space before and after the ellipsis.

Be careful that removing the words doesn’t change the meaning. The ellipsis indicates that some text has been removed, but the shortened quote should still accurately represent the author’s point.

Altering a quote

You can add or replace words in a quote when necessary. This might be because the original text doesn’t fit grammatically with your sentence (e.g., it’s in a different tense), or because extra information is needed to clarify the quote’s meaning.

Use brackets to distinguish words that you have added from words that were present in the original text.

The Latin term ‘ sic ‘ is used to indicate a (factual or grammatical) mistake in a quotation. It shows the reader that the mistake is from the quoted material, not a typo of your own.

In some cases, it can be useful to italicise part of a quotation to add emphasis, showing the reader that this is the key part to pay attention to. Use the phrase ’emphasis added’ to show that the italics were not part of the original text.

You usually don’t need to use brackets to indicate minor changes to punctuation or capitalisation made to ensure the quote fits the style of your text.

If you quote more than a few lines from a source, you must format it as a block quote . Instead of using quotation marks, you set the quote on a new line and indent it so that it forms a separate block of text.

Block quotes are cited just like regular quotes, except that if the quote ends with a full stop, the citation appears after the full stop.

To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, a walking-stick or any money, or anything that he usually took when he went out; leaving his second breakfast half-finished and quite unwashed-up, pushing his keys into Gandalf’s hands, and running as fast as his furry feet could carry him down the lane, past the great Mill, across The Water, and then on for a mile or more. (16)

Avoid relying too heavily on quotes in academic writing . To integrate a source , it’s often best to paraphrase , which means putting the passage into your own words. This helps you integrate information smoothly and keeps your own voice dominant.

However, there are some situations in which quotes are more appropriate.

When focusing on language

If you want to comment on how the author uses language (for example, in literary analysis ), it’s necessary to quote so that the reader can see the exact passage you are referring to.

When giving evidence

To convince the reader of your argument, interpretation or position on a topic, it’s often helpful to include quotes that support your point. Quotes from primary sources (for example, interview transcripts or historical documents) are especially credible as evidence.

When presenting an author’s position or definition

When you’re referring to secondary sources such as scholarly books and journal articles, try to put others’ ideas in your own words when possible.

But if a passage does a great job at expressing, explaining, or defining something, and it would be very difficult to paraphrase without changing the meaning or losing the weakening the idea’s impact, it’s worth quoting directly.

A quote is an exact copy of someone else’s words, usually enclosed in quotation marks and credited to the original author or speaker.

To present information from other sources in academic writing , it’s best to paraphrase in most cases. This shows that you’ve understood the ideas you’re discussing and incorporates them into your text smoothly.

It’s appropriate to quote when:

• Changing the phrasing would distort the meaning of the original text
• You want to discuss the author’s language choices (e.g., in literary analysis )
• You’re presenting a precise definition
• You’re looking in depth at a specific claim

Every time you quote a source , you must include a correctly formatted in-text citation . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style .

For example, a direct quote in APA is cited like this: ‘This is a quote’ (Streefkerk, 2020, p. 5).

Every in-text citation should also correspond to a full reference at the end of your paper.

In scientific subjects, the information itself is more important than how it was expressed, so quoting should generally be kept to a minimum. In the arts and humanities, however, well-chosen quotes are often essential to a good paper.

In social sciences, it varies. If your research is mainly quantitative , you won’t include many quotes, but if it’s more qualitative , you may need to quote from the data you collected .

As a general guideline, quotes should take up no more than 5–10% of your paper. If in doubt, check with your instructor or supervisor how much quoting is appropriate in your field.

If you’re quoting from a text that paraphrases or summarises other sources and cites them in parentheses , APA  recommends retaining the citations as part of the quote:

• Smith states that ‘the literature on this topic (Jones, 2015; Sill, 2019; Paulson, 2020) shows no clear consensus’ (Smith, 2019, p. 4).

Footnote or endnote numbers that appear within quoted text should be omitted.

If you want to cite an indirect source (one you’ve only seen quoted in another source), either locate the original source or use the phrase ‘as cited in’ in your citation.

A block quote is a long quote formatted as a separate ‘block’ of text. Instead of using quotation marks , you place the quote on a new line, and indent the entire quote to mark it apart from your own words.

APA uses block quotes for quotes that are 40 words or longer.

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McCombes, S. & Caulfield, J. (2022, September 03). How to Quote | Citing Quotes in Harvard & APA. Scribbr. Retrieved 15 April 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/working-sources/quoting/

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In-Text Citation Basics

Author/Date Citation Method

APA publications use the author/date in text citation system to briefly identify sources to readers.  Each in-text citation is listed alphabetically in the reference list.  All in-text citations referenced in the body of work musr appear in the reference list and vice versa.

The author-date method includes the author's surname and the the publication year.  Do not include suffixes such as Jr., Esq., etc.

(Jones, 2009)

The author/date method is also used with direct quotes.  Another component is added in this format:

(Jones, 2009, p.19)

When multiple pages are referenced, use pp.

(Jones, 2009, pp.19-21)

Variations of author/date within a sentence

Here are some examples of how the author/date citation method are formatted within different parts of a sentence. Please note the author, publication date, and study are entirely fictional (see APA, p.174).

Beginning of a sentence:

Jones (2009) completed a study on the effects of dark chocolate on heart disease.

Middle of a sentence:

In 2009, Jones's study on the effects of dark chocolate and heart disease revealed...

End of a sentence:

The study revealed that participants who ate dark chocolate bars every day did not develop heart disease (Jones, 2009).

Citing a specific part of source (chapter, tables, figures, or equations)

When citing a particular part of a source, it is important to indicate the page, chapter, figure, table, or equation.  Remember to always give page numbers for direct quotations (see APA, section 6.19, p. 179). 

Correct abbreviations continue to be used (see APA, sections 4.22 - 4.30).

(National Chocolate Lovers Association, 2007, p.17)

(Jones, 2009, Chapter 8)

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is great because it allows you to use your own words and your own voice.  It demonstrates that you truly understand what the author is saying. Word of caution: Avoid changing the author's meaning and/or plagiarizing the author.  Looking up certain words within the thesaurus is not paraphrasing.  It is also important to cite the author while paraphrasing.

Here is an example of paraphrasing:

Original citation:

"With rates of childhood obesity climbing over the last decade, some parents and policy-makers have thought to consider whether the availability of endless soda and junk food in school vending machines might be contributing to the problem—and if banning those foods in schools might help solve it" (Price, 2012).

Paraphrase:

Price discusses the possibility that the availability of unhealthy, sugary snacks and drinks in school vending machines has contributed to the rising epidemic of obesity in children.  In an effort to eliminate the source of the problem, some of have proposed implementing a ban (2012).

Direct Quotes: the Short and Long

Direct quotations are sometimes necessary to truly convey the author's meaning to the reader.  When directly quoting an author(s),  (a) the quote must be relevant to your argument, (b) it needs to smoothly transition between what comes first and move to what comes later, (c), it must fit logically and make grammatical sense, and (d) it should be no longer than absolutely necessary.

When reproducing an author's word directly, it is extremely important to quote and cite.  Direct quotations with citation prevents plagiarism and gives the author credit for his/her work. The parenthetical cite should always contain the author's surname, the publication year of the work, and the page citation or paragraph number (for nonpaginated material).

Direct quotations can vary in length.  Quotes fewer than 40 words should be incorporated into the text of the paragraph.  Quotes comprised of 40 or more words, need to be formatted in block quotes.  (see APA, section 6.03, pp.170 - 173; and APA Style Blog , "How to Cite Direct Quotations" or APA Style Blog , "You Can Quote Me on This").

Short, direct quotes (less than 40 words):

Author and quote separated

Bell and Shank (2007) identify that "[a]t least one survey identified library instruction as the type of collaboration mentioned most frequently by librarians" (p.67).

Article retrieved online (see APA, section 6.05, p.171-172)

Price (2012) notes "[t]he results aren't huge, but apparently these laws have a real—and positive—effect on students' health" (para.4).

Author and quote together

"Design is designed in many ways.  By one definition it is the conscious examination of objects and processes to determine how they can be made better" (Bell & Shank, 2007, p. 23).

" The books, sold in the United States, share a piece of a foreign culture, while profits are put back into the country the story came from" (Anthony, 2012, para. 2).

Long, block quotes (40 words or more):

Formatting rules:

• Indent the block quote five spaces or half an inch. • Do not use quotation marks. • Double space the quote unless your school has a rule about single spacing block quotes. • Do not include any additional lines or spaces before or after the block quote. • Notice that in block quotes, the period goes before the parentheses, not after.

Michelli (2007) uses the coffee chain, Starbucks, as example on how to become extraordinary.  He discusses in detail various principles he discovered during his research on the renowned company.  One of the principles focuses on "making it your own."  He writes,

Like most companies, Starbucks has wrestled with ways to invite its partners to fully engage their passions and talents everyday in every interaction at wor.  Simultaneously, the leadership has to ensure that individual partners' differences are blending into a generally uniform experience for customers.  Finding a balance between these two important, yet somtimes divergent, leadership responsibilities can be awkward.  Yet through its principle of Make It Your Own, Starbucks has succeeded in creating a unique model that encourages partners at all levels to pour their creative energy and dedication into everything they do. (p. 20)

This principle does not only apply to businesses; it can be part of anyone's personal beliefs.

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A detailed guide to quoting

Jessica Malnik

Quotations have the power to elevate your written work when used correctly. But in order to use a quote properly, you must give full credit to the original source.

Before you can learn how to properly include quoted material, you need to have a firm understanding of what a quotation is, the purpose for using one, and the difference between quoting and paraphrasing.

What is a quotation in writing?

Quotations serve multiple purposes in writing. Students and professionals alike can benefit from using quotations in their work. Whether you’re writing a research paper or a blog article, you’ll likely find yourself needing to use them at some point. Quoting can add perspective, validation, and evidence to your piece.

What do you mean by quoting?

Quoting is a technique that allows you to include an original passage from a source in your work as a direct quote. You do this by framing or surrounding the quote in quotation marks like this, “This is an example of a sentence framed by quotation marks.” 

However, you can’t just add quotation marks and call it a day. You also need proper attribution for your source. 

Keep in mind that there is a difference between direct quoting and indirect quoting. With direct quoting, you include the source’s exact words framed within quotation marks. 

With indirect quoting, you can paraphrase what the person or text said in your own words instead of copying it verbatim. Indirect quoting, also known as indirect speech or discourse, is mostly used to summarize what someone said in a talk or interview. Indirect quotations are never placed within quotation marks.

How do you properly quote? 

To properly quote someone, you’ll need to follow some general quoting rules along with properly citing your source using your preferred MLA, APA, or Chicago style guide. 

For example, many people incorrectly use punctuation with quotation marks. Do you know whether or not to include punctuation inside the quotation marks?

Here’s how to handle punctuation marks with quotes, as well as a few more rules to consider when including quotations in your work:

Punctuation

As a good rule of thumb, periods and commas should go inside quotation marks. On the other hand, colons, semicolons, and dashes go outside of the quotation marks. 

However, exclamation points and question marks aren’t set in stone. While these tend to go on the inside of quotation marks, in some instances, you might place them outside of the marks. 

Here are a few examples to illustrate how this would work in practice:

“ You should keep commas inside the quotation marks, ” he explained.

She wanted to help, so she said, “ I’m happy to explain it ” ; they needed a thorough explanation, and she loved to teach her students.

It gets a little trickier with exclamation marks and question marks when quoting. These can be either inside the quotation marks or outside of them, depending on the situation. Keep question and exclamation marks inside the quotations if they apply to the quoted passage. If they apply to your sentence instead of the quote, you’ll want to keep them outside. Here’s an example:

He asked the students, “ Do you know how to use quotation marks? ”

Did the students hear the teacher when he said, “ I will show you how to use quotation marks ”?

Closing quotations

Once you start using a quotation mark, you have to close it. This means that you can’t leave a quote open like the example below because the reader wouldn’t know when the quote is over.

Capitalization

The rule of capitalization changes depending on the context. 

For example, if you quote a complete sentence, then you should capitalize the first word in the sentence. However, if you are quoting a piece of a sentence or phrase, then you wouldn’t need to start with capitalization, like this:

She said, “ Here’s an example of a sentence that should start with a capital letter. ”

He said it was “ a good example of a sentence where capitalization isn’t necessary. ”

Sometimes, you’ll want to split a quote. You don’t need to capitalize the second half of the quote that’s divided by a parenthetical. Here’s an example to show you what that would look like:

“ Here is an example of a quote, ” she told her students, “ that doesn’t need capitalization in the second part . ”

What is the purpose of quoting? 

As stated above, quotations can serve multiple purposes in a written piece. Quotes can signify direct passages or titles of works. Here are a few of the reasons to include a quote within your written work:

These intentions can apply whether you’ve interviewed your source or are taking a quote from an existing, published piece. 

However, before you use a quote, you’ll want to understand how it can strengthen your work and when you should use one. We’ll discuss when you should use quotes and how to properly cite them using different style guides in the next section.

When you should use quotes

Quotations should be used strategically, no matter what type of writing you’re doing. For instance, if you’re a professional copywriter crafting a white paper or a student writing a research paper, you’ll likely want to include as much proof as possible in your work. However, stuffing your paper with a ton of quotations can do more harm than good because the piece needs to represent your ideas and interpretations of the source, not just good quotes.

That being said, quoting reputable sources in your work is an excellent way to prove your points and add credibility to the piece. Use quotations in your work when you want to share accurate ideas and passages from source materials.

You should also use quotes when you want to add emphasis to a source on the topic you’re covering. 

For example, if you’re writing a research paper, then it would be beneficial to add quotes from a professor involved in the study you’re referring to in your piece.

How to cite a quote in MLA, APA, and Chicago 

MLA, APA, and Chicago are three of the most common citation styles. It’s a standardized way of crediting the sources that you quote. Depending on your assignment, you may need to use a specific one when citing your sources.

This section shares how to cite your quotes in these three popular citation styles, along with several examples of each.

Modern Language Association (MLA) is most often associated with academics in English or philosophic fields. With this style of citation, you’ll need to include quotes word-for-word. It’s fine to use only phrases or pieces from a specific quote, but you’ll need to keep the spelling and punctuation the same.

Here are some other criteria to keep in mind when citing using MLA style:

• If the quote goes longer than four lines, you must use a blockquote. Do not indent at the start of the quote block.

• Start quotes on the next line, ½ inch from the left margin of the paper.

• Quotes must be double spaced like the rest of the paper.

• Only use quotations when quotation marks are a part of the source.

• Include in-text citations next to the blockquote.

• If a blockquote is longer than a paragraph, you must start the next paragraph with the same indent.

• Don’t include a number in the parenthetical quotation if the source doesn’t use page numbers.

Here’s an example of a short, direct quote with MLA using a website resource without page numbers:

She always wanted to be a writer. “ I knew from a young age that I wanted to write a novel . ” (Smith)

And an example of a blockquote from page 2 of the source:

John Doe shares his experience getting his book published in the prologue:

I never expected so many people to be willing to help me publish this book. I had a lot of support along the way. My friends and colleagues always encouraged me to keep going. Some helped me edit, and others reminded me why I started in the first place. One of my good friends even brought me dinner when she knew I was going to be working late. (2)

With MLA, the reader can reference the full sources at the end in the Work Cited section. For this example, it could look like this:

Works Cited

Smith, J. (2021). Example Blog Post. Retrieved 2021, from www.example.com

Doe, J. (2021). Book Title One (1st ed., Vol. 1). Example, TX: Example Publishing.

See this article for more information on MLA style citations.

American Psychological Association (APA) is used often in psychology, education, and criminal justice fields. It often requires a cover page and abstract.

Here are a few points to consider when using APA style to cite your sources:

• Citation pages should be double spaced.

• All citations in a paper must have a full reference in the reference list.

• All references must have a hanging indent.

• Sources must be listed in alphabetical order, typically by the last name.

Using the same source examples as we did with MLA above, here is how they would be cited in APA:

Doe, Jane. Example Blog Post . 2021, www.example.com. 

Doe, John. Book Title One . 1st ed., vol. 1, Example Publishing, 2021. 

See this article for more information on APA style citations.

Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) is commonly used in history and humanities fields. It was created to help researchers. Here are a few points to keep in mind for Chicago Style:

• There are 2 types of referencing styles:

    → Notes and Bibliography

    → Author-Date

• The list of bibliography must be single-spaced.

• The text should be double spaced, except for block quotations, tables, notes, and bibliographies.

• The second line should be indented for sources.

•Author last names must be arranged alphabetically.

Here’s how the same example sources used above would be cited using Chicago style:

Doe, Jane. “Example Blog Post,” 2021. www.example.com. 

Doe, John. Book Title One . 1. 1st ed. Vol. 1. Example, TX: Example Publishing, 2021.

See this article for more information on Chicago style citations.

Types of quotes and examples

There are two main types of quotes: direct and indirect.

Whenever you want to use someone’s statement word-for-word in your text, you’ll need to include properly cited, direct quotations. However, if you want to paraphrase someone’s words then indirect quotes could be more appropriate.

For example, say that you’re writing a press release for a company. You could interview different people within the company’s staff and paraphrase their quotes. This is particularly useful if the direct quote wouldn’t work well within your piece. For instance, you could change this direct quote example into an indirect quote that would more succinctly represent the speech:

Direct quote:

Indirect quote:

Keep in mind when using quotations that you should aim for using as few words as necessary. You don’t want to quote an entire paragraph when only one sentence contains the key information you want to share. If you need to add context, do so in your words. It’ll make for a much more interesting piece if you’re using quotes to support your stance alongside your interpretation instead of just repeating what’s already been said.

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MLA Formatting Quotations

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MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (8 th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

When you directly quote the works of others in your paper, you will format quotations differently depending on their length. Below are some basic guidelines for incorporating quotations into your paper. Please note that all pages in MLA should be double-spaced .

Short quotations

To indicate short quotations (four typed lines or fewer of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author and specific page number (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the in-text citation, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation.

Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage, but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.

For example, when quoting short passages of prose, use the following examples:

When using short (fewer than three lines of verse) quotations from poetry, mark breaks in verse with a slash, ( / ), at the end of each line of verse (a space should precede and follow the slash). If a stanza break occurs during the quotation, use a double slash ( // ).

Long quotations

For quotations that are more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse, place quotations in a free-standing block of text and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented 1/2   inch  from the left margin while maintaining double-spacing. Your parenthetical citation should come  after the closing punctuation mark . When quoting verse, maintain original line breaks. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your essay.)

For example, when citing more than four lines of prose, use the following examples :

Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her narration: They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

When citing long sections of poetry (four lines of verse or more), keep formatting as close to the original as possible.

In his poem "My Papa's Waltz," Theodore Roethke explores his childhood with his father:

The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. We Romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself. (qtd. in Shrodes, Finestone, Shugrue 202)

When citing two or more paragraphs, use block quotation format, even if the passage from the paragraphs is less than four lines. If you cite more than one paragraph, the first line of the second paragraph should be indented an extra 1/4 inch to denote a new paragraph:

In "American Origins of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Movement," David Russell argues,

Writing has been an issue in American secondary and higher education since papers and examinations came into wide use in the 1870s, eventually driving out formal recitation and oral examination. . . .

From its birth in the late nineteenth century, progressive education has wrestled with the conflict within industrial society between pressure to increase specialization of knowledge and of professional work (upholding disciplinary standards) and pressure to integrate more fully an ever-widening number of citizens into intellectually meaningful activity within mass society (promoting social equity). . . . (3)

Adding or omitting words in quotations

If you add a word or words in a quotation, you should put brackets around the words to indicate that they are not part of the original text:

If you omit a word or words from a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word or words by using ellipses, which are three periods ( . . . ) preceded and followed by a space. For example:

Please note that brackets are not needed around ellipses unless they would add clarity.

When omitting words from poetry quotations, use a standard three-period ellipses; however, when omitting one or more full lines of poetry, space several periods to about the length of a complete line in the poem:

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Quoting – A Guide to Quoting in Academic Writing

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When you read or listen to ideas from others, it is essential to acknowledge their thoughts by citing them when we use them to avoid plagiarism . When working with sources , citing and referencing them correctly is vital. In some cases, you may want to quote something directly, which can be done in various ways and formats depending on the context, length, and how you opt to integrate it into your writing. This article will cover all you need to know about quoting.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• 1 Quoting – In a Nutshell
• 2 Definition: Quoting
• 3 What is the purpose of quoting?
• 4 Quoting in different citation styles
• 5 How to introduce quotes correctly
• 6 Quoting within a quote
• 7 Quoting – Shortening and changing
• 8 Block quoting

Quoting – In a Nutshell

A quotation is a way of bringing someone else’s work into your discussion. Quoting helps you in the following way:

• It enables you to avoid plagiarism
• It brings clarity to your work
• It redirects readers to more information about your topic
• It reinforces your arguments and provides authenticity
• It supports your claims

Definition: Quoting

Quoting is described as using the exact words said or written by another author in your academic paper. This external information is usually used in order to support your own arguments. When quoting, you enclose the words and sentences that are not initially yours with  quotation marks . There are several ways to integrate quotes in your academic work depending on how they are introduced, if it is a quote within a quote, or if it should be a block quote .

The President ordered, “All learning institutions to be closed due to COVID” in his speech.

In this example, “All learning institutions to be closed due to COVID” represents the quote that is included in the sentence. It illustrates the exact words that the President has used in his speech.

What is the purpose of quoting?

Quoting is used to emphasize language, present evidence , and express, define and explain your ideas .

Emphasis on language with quoting

Quoting is used very commonly to emphasize language.

In this case, quoting is relevant, as users of a certain language may give the strongest representation of that language:

Peter explains that “Schadenfreude” is a word that can’t be translated into English.

Presenting evidence with quoting

Quoting is often used when presenting evidence in order to support a claim . This may be relevant when you intend to convince your readers.

Firstly, account for your claim :

Julia Winter’s (2004) writings express that she believes there is no objective reality; instead, a person creates his or her own reality.

Secondly, i ntroduce the quote:

In Societal psychology , Winter asserts,…

Finally, present the evidence :

…“if you tell a big enough lie and tell it often enough, it will be believed” (p. 23).

Quoting expressions, explanations, or definitions

In order to support your argument , you may quote expressions, explanations, or definitions by other authors:

We should focus on our creativity because, as Maya Angelou expressed, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have”.

Quoting in different citation styles

Citation styles are a s et of protocols for citing sources when writing an academic paper, and also function as tools to avoid plagiarism. There are a number of citation styles, which are useful in academic writing :

• Parenthetical citations or narrative citations like APA style and MLA style
• Footnotes in Chicago style

Let’s take a more in-depth look at these citation styles in relation to quoting below.

Quoting in APA style

When quoting in APA in-text citation style, the author’s last name, the year of publication, and page numbers must be included. If the quote is located on only one page, the abbreviation “p.” is used. If the quote reaches more than one page, the abbreviation “pp.” is used.

In APA in-text citation style, one may distinguish between a parenthetical citation and a narrative citation:

Regarding punctuation, it is essential to set commas , periods, exclamation points, question marks …etc. after the quotation marks.

Quoting in MLA style

When quoting in MLA in-text citation style, only the author’s last name and page numbers must be included. In the case of two authors, both names must be stated. If there are more than two authors, only name the first one and add “et al.” to refer to the rest. The information of the sources is not separated by commas, nor are page indicators used in MLA.

• One author: (Cenzo 23)
• Two Authors: (Cenzo and Melly 40-42)
• Three plus authors: (Cenzo et al. 43)

In MLA in-text citation style, one may distinguish between a parenthetical citation and a narrative citation:

Like in APA, it is essential to set commas, periods, exclamation points , question marks …etc. after the quotation marks .

Quoting in Chicago style

Footnotes are notes written at the bottom of the page in a paper. They are indicated by letters or symbols written in the form of a superscript and placed right after a quote. Citing a quote in Chicago style must include the author, title, and page numbers.

Cenzo stated that “APA style is one of the most commonly used citation styles in academic writing.” (Cenzo, Citation Styles, 234.)

How to introduce quotes correctly

When quoting in your paper, consider the following Dos and Don’ts :

• Make sure to present your quotes in your own words
• Convey the purpose of your quotes to the readers
• Use quotes that support your arguments and provide an additional understanding of the context
• Avoid redundancy and do not include unnecessary quotes
• Don’t look for a quote and then find the technique, start with the technique and incorporate a suiting quote
• Don’t write quotes as a sentence by itself

Find a detailed account of the 3 ways of introducing quotes correctly below:

1. Introductory sentences

Introductory sentences present the quote. They serve to open paragraphs and precede the idea sentence. The common tense used is present simple. They require a comma mostly after an introductory clause, prepositional phrase, verbal phrase, or distinct pause. If the introductory sentence is a full sentence, a colon must be placed at the end of it.

Unlike APA and MLA parenthetical citations, punctuations like period, comma, question mark, and exclamation point are placed inside the quotation marks in Chicago.

Introductory signal phrases

Using signal phrases when quoting can be done in various ways. If the signal phrase does not shape a full sentence, it should be ended with a comma. In the case of a full sentence, the signal phrase should be ended with a colon.

• According to a recent study, “Children from higher-income families, perform better in school” (Brown, 2019, p. 21).
• As Brown (2019) reports, “Children from higher-income families, perform better in school” (p. 21).

Quoting in own sentences

Quoting in your own sentences is relevant when the quote is not a full sentence. In most cases, additional punctuation is not needed.

• A recent study shows that children from higher-income families “perform better in school” (Brown, 2019, p. 21).
• Brown (2019) suggests that children from higher-income families “perform better in school” (p. 21).

Quoting within a quote

A nested quotation is understood as a quoted text within another quote. To avoid confusion, the internal quote can be distinguished by single quotation marks (‘…’) . Keep in mind that this is only necessary when both quotes are present in your paper.

Quoting – Shortening and changing

To smoothly incorporate quotes into your text, you may need to make changes to the original text. For this, it is vital to underline the alterations, so they are clear to the readers.

There are two ways of changing quotes:

How to shorten quotes

When shortening a quote to remove redundant information, you may omit words or parts of a sentence and insert ellipses (…) instead. These provide a clear indication that the quote has been shortened. However, before removing anything, make sure that shortening the quote won’t affect the meaning.

Meyer (2012) argues, “he has to run errands…to get home before midnight” (p. 12).

How to change quotes

In some cases, it is relevant to add or replace words in a quote. Integrating a quote in your own sentence may be challenging, as the grammatical structure or tense may not align with each other. In other cases, some quotes need more explanations in order to express the right context. When altering quotes, it is vital to highlight the changes made. This may be done in various ways:

When adding a word , use brackets around the word to indicate that you have added this word:

Jones (1993) states that “those [plants] with the highest stems are usually darker in color” (p. 201).

If you detect mistakes in an original quote, you may underline this in your paper . For this, the Latin term “sic” is used to indicate that this mistake has not been made by you:

Smith (2003) suggests, “some informations [sic] has been withheld from the government” (p. 60).

If you want to emphasize a certain word or phrase in italics , you must mark this with “emphasis added” so the reader knows to pay attention to this:

“Children from higher-income [emphasis added] families, perform better in school” (Brown, 2019, p. 21).

If you make small changes regarding punctuation or capitalization, it is generally not necessary to clarify this in a bracket.

Block quoting

If the quote is longer than a few lines, the quote must be formatted as a block. For this, you do not use quotation marks, but the quote must be placed in a new line and be indented, so it takes the shape of a separate block of text in your paper. In this style, the in-text citation must be placed after the period if the quote ends with a period.

Debeena Harris (2012) has a specific take on this topic:

Most people claim that they feel like they’re trapped in a rat race, without an exit. While we can all feel this way from time to time, it’s important to know that there is a way out. (p. 112)

What is quoting in academic writing?

Quoting is a technique that allows you to include ideas from outside sources in your arguments.

What format is used when quoting?

By adding quotation marks to words and sentences that were said or written by an individual other than you.

“ We should stand together to fight corruption, “ the politician said.

How do you write a question when quoting?

When quoting a question, you should put the question mark inside the quotation marks.

• The students were asked, “How many days are there in a month?”
• If are not quoting a question but the whole sentence is a question, you place the question mark outside the quotation mark. As shown below:
• Did the students really respond, “Averagely, there are 30 days”?

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How to Put a Quote in an Essay

Last Updated: November 28, 2022 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Danielle Blinka, MA, MPA . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 2,635,950 times.

Using a direct quote in your essay is a great way to support your ideas with concrete evidence, which you need to support your thesis. To select a good quote , look for a passage that supports your argument and is open to analysis. Then, incorporate that quote into your essay, and make sure you properly cite it based on the style guide you’re using.

Sample Quotes

Incorporating a Short Quote

• For instance, let's say this is the quote you want to use: "The brown leaves symbolize the death of their relationship, while the green buds suggest new opportunities will soon unfold."
• If you just type that sentence into your essay and put quotes around it, your reader will be disoriented. Instead, you could incorporate it into a sentence like this: "The imagery in the story mirrors what's happening in Lia's love life, as 'The brown leaves symbolize the death of their relationship, while the green buds suggest new opportunities will soon unfold.'"

• "Critic Alex Li says, 'The frequent references to the color blue are used to suggest that the family is struggling to cope with the loss of their matriarch.'"
• "According to McKinney’s research, 'Adults who do yoga at least three times a week have lower blood pressure, better sleeping patterns, and fewer everyday frustrations.'"
• "Based on several recent studies, people are more likely to sit on the park benches when they're shaded by trees."

• You still need to use quotation marks even if you're only quoting a few words.
• If you're in doubt, it's best to be cautious and use quotes.

• For example, let’s say you used the quote, “According to McKinney’s research, ‘Adults who do yoga at least three times a week have lower blood pressure, better sleeping patterns, and fewer everyday frustrations.’” Your commentary might read, “This shows that yoga can have a positive impact on people’s health, so incorporating it into the workplace can help improve employee health outcomes. Since yoga makes employees healthier, they’ll likely have reduced insurance costs.”

• When you use a paraphrase, you still need to provide commentary that links the paraphrased material back to your thesis and ideas.

Using a Long Quote

• The reader will recognize that the material is a direct quote because it's set off from the rest of the text. That's why you don't need to use quotation marks. However, you will include your citation at the bottom.

• "In The Things They Carried , the items carried by soldiers in the Vietnam war are used 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)

Variation: When you're citing two or more paragraphs, you must use block quotes, even if the passage you want to quote is less than four lines long. You should indent the first line of each paragraph an extra quarter inch. Then, use ellipses (…) at the end of one paragraph to transition to the next.

• Your block quote will use the same spacing as the rest of your paper, which will likely be double-spacing.

• For example, “According to Li, “Rosa is the first sister to pick a rose because she’s the only one who’s begun to move on after their mother’s death” might become “According to Li, “Rosa is the first sister to pick a rose because she’s … begun to move on after their mother’s death.”
• Don’t eliminate words to change the meaning of the original text. For instance, it’s not appropriate to use an ellipsis to change “plants did not grow faster when exposed to poetry” to “plants did … grow faster when exposed to poetry.”

• For example, let’s say you want to use the quote, “All of them experienced a more relaxed, calmer disposition after doing yoga for 6 months.” This doesn’t tell the reader who you’re talking about. You could use brackets to say, “All of [the teachers in the study] experienced a more relaxed, calmer disposition after doing yoga for 6 months.”
• However, if you know the study is talking about teachers, you couldn’t use brackets to say, “All of [society experiences] a more relaxed, calmer disposition after doing yoga for 6 months.”

• If you don't explain your quote well, then it's not helping your ideas. You can't expect the reader to connect the quote back to your thesis for you.

• For instance, you may prefer to use a long block quote to present a passage from a literary work that demonstrates the author's style. However, let's say you were using a journal article to provide a critic's perspective on an author's work. You may not need to directly quote an entire paragraph word-for-word to get their point across. Instead, use a paraphrase.

Tip: If you’re unsure about a quote, ask yourself, “Can I paraphrase this in more concise language and not lose any support for my argument?” If the answer is yes, a quote is not necessary.

Citing Your Quote

• An MLA citation will look like this: (Lopez 24)
• For sources with multiple authors, separate their names with the word “and:” (Anderson and Smith 55-56) or (Taylor, Gomez, and Austin 89)
• If you use the author’s name in your lead-in to the quote, you just need to provide the year in parentheses: According to Luz Lopez, “the green grass symbolizes a fresh start for Lia (24).”

• An APA citation for a direct quote looks like this: (Ronan, 2019, p. 10)
• If you’re citing multiple authors, separate their names with the word “and:” (Cruz, Hanks, and Simmons, 2019, p. 85)
• If you incorporated the author’s name into your lead-in, you can just give the year and page number: Based on Ronan’s (2019, p. 10) analysis, “coffee breaks improve productivity.”

• For instance, a Chicago Style citation will look like this: (Alexander 2019, 125)
• If you’re quoting a source with multiple authors, separate them with the word “and:” (Pattinson, Stewart, and Green 2019, 175)
• If you already incorporated the author’s name into your quote, then you can just provide the year and page number: According to Alexander, “the smell of roses increases feelings of happiness” (2019, 125).

• For MLA, you'd cite an article like this: Lopez, Luz. "A Fresh Blossom: Imagery in 'Her Darkest Sunshine.'" Journal of Stories , vol. 2, no. 5, 2019, p. 15-22. [17] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• In APA, you'd cite an article like this: Lopez, Luz. (2019). A Fresh Blossom: Imagery in "Her Darkest Sunshine." Journal of Stories , 2(5), 15-22. [18] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• For Chicago Style, your article citation would look like this: Lopez, Luz. "A Fresh Blossom: Imagery in 'Her Darkest Sunshine.'" Journal of Stories 2 no. 4 (2019): 15-22. [19] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

Selecting a Quote

Tip: Quotes are most effective when the original language of the person or text you’re quoting is worth repeating word-for-word.

• If you’re struggling to explain the quote or link it back to your argument, then it’s likely not a good idea to include it in your essay.

• Paraphrases and summaries work just like a direct quote, except that you don’t need to put quotation marks around them because you’re using your own words to restate ideas. However, you still need to cite the sources you used.

Community Q&A

• Always cite your quotes properly. If you don't, it is considered plagiarism. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.ursinus.edu/live/files/1160-integrating-quotespdf
• ↑ https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/undergraduates/writing-guides/how-do-i-incorporate-quotes-.html
• ↑ https://helpfulprofessor.com/quotes/
• ↑ https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/using-sources/quotations/
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_quotations.html
• ↑ https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/apaquickguide/intext
• ↑ https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_articles_in_periodicals.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/periodicals.html
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/quotations/

About This Article

Medical Disclaimer

The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, examination, diagnosis, or treatment. You should always contact your doctor or other qualified healthcare professional before starting, changing, or stopping any kind of health treatment.

Read More...

To put a quote in an essay, incorporate it directly into a sentence if it's shorter than 4 typed lines. For example, you could write "According to researchers," and then insert the quote. If a quote is longer than 4 typed lines, set it off from the rest of the paragraph, and don't put quotes around it. After the quote, include an in-text citation so readers know where it's from. The right way to cite the quote will depend on whether you're using MLA, APA, or Chicago Style formatting. For more tips from our English co-author, like how to omit words from a quote, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Direct Quotations in Theses – Presentation, Integration and Accuracy

Posted by Rene Tetzner | Nov 11, 2021 | PhD Success | 0 |

Chapter 8: Direct Quotations: Presentation, Integration and Accuracy

  Not all doctoral candidates will make use of direct quotation in their theses, but many theses will include one or a few quoted passages, while others will feature a wide variety of quoted text and/or speech. The idea behind using the exact words of another person (or of other people in the case of sources with more than one author) is that those words contribute to your argument: they may support or contradict your methods, results or conclusions; they may be selected from a text or texts that your thesis analyses in detail; they may be exemplary, pithy or perfect expressions of ideas you introduce and discuss. Whatever your reasons for quoting the words of others in your own writing may be, you need to quote them accurately, remembering that ‘a direct quotation presents the exact words spoken on a particular occasion or written in a particular place’ (Ritter, 2005, Section 9.1). It is also essential that you observe with precision the appropriate scholarly techniques for quoting sources and that you make it absolutely clear to your readers how you are using direct quotations by introducing them effectively and discussing their significance in relation to your argument. In most cases, it is not enough simply to quote a passage and assume that your readers (and examiners) will know why you have quoted it: you need to let them know what you expect them to read or understand in the borrowed words. Any quotations you use should be integrated correctly into the syntax of your own prose as well, and all direct quotations must be acknowledged with precise references to the sources from which they have been taken. If your university or department has provided you with guidelines, they may offer instructions on the quotation practices appropriate for your thesis, in which case those instructions should be prioritised and used in conjunction with the more general advice provided in this chapter. The sections that follow focus on the scholarly practices and formats associated with quoting sources in acceptable ways in formal English prose, beginning with the most practical aspects of presenting quoted material – namely, laying it out on the page and providing the necessary references to the sources quoted.

8.1 Formatting and Acknowledging Quotations

There are two main ways to present quoted material in scholarly prose: it can be formatted as run-on or run-in quotations that are embedded in the main text, or it can be laid out as displayed or block quotations that are set off from the text. Short prose quotations, particularly those of less than a single sentence, are generally embedded, which means that they become a part of your own sentences and paragraphs. They therefore appear in the same font size as the surrounding text and are enclosed in quotation marks (The results of my investigation did not show ‘the negative effect of poor lighting’ (Bennett, 2007, p.197) revealed in an earlier study of the problem). Single quotation marks (‘ ’), as I use in this book, or double quotation marks (“ ”) can be used, but the same type must be used to mark all quotations in a thesis. Traditionally, single quotation marks tended to be used in British English and double quotation marks in American English, but this distinction is no longer as consistent or widespread as it once was. If the university or department guidelines you are using give any indication of the kind of quotation marks desired, you should follow that advice; otherwise, you may want to prefer one type of mark over the other based on whether British or American English is required or used, or you may want to follow your own preferences.

Whichever type of quotation mark is adopted for embedded quotations, the opposite type will be needed to enclose any quotations that appear within those quotations, as double quotation marks are used to enclose the word ‘novelty’ (a quote within a quote) in the following sentence: The results of my investigation did not show ‘the negative effect of poor lighting’ that surprised Bennett ‘due to its “novelty” in trials of this kind’ (2007, p.197). Were the main quotation enclosed in double quotation marks instead, the word ‘novelty’ would be marked by single quotation marks. In both cases the pattern of alternation continues if there is, by chance, a quote within a quote within a quote: single marks for the main quote with double marks enclosing the quote within it and a return to single marks to enclose the quote within that, or double marks for the main quote with single marks enclosing the quote within it and a return to double marks to enclose the quote within that. The two types could theoretically alternate indefinitely to provide many layers of quotation, but it is rare that more than three layers are used. Since errors often creep into the layered use of quotation marks, quotations featuring them require especially careful checking to ensure that each opening quotation mark has a matching and appropriately placed closing mark.

Longer prose quotations are usually displayed or set off as block quotations, but exactly what length quotations should be to justify such treatment varies considerably from style to style: quotations of forty words or more are displayed as block quotations in some styles, while in others a quotation should be longer (100 words or more in some cases) to receive such treatment. There is, then, no firm rule based on the length of the passage, though if university or department guidelines indicate that quotations over a particular word count should be displayed, do observe them. Alternate criteria can be used, however, to determine the format of quotations in the absence of such instructions. You might, for example, choose to display a short quotation that is central to your argument or to embed a long quotation in order to comment on parts of it in more detail; you might decide to display a series of quotations of varying length in order to highlight them and facilitate comparison, or to embed the same series of quotations to make the text more readable; or you might embed quotations that are central to the argument of your thesis, but display those cited as examples or illustrations. It is therefore essential to determine exactly what criteria you will use to make this distinction before formatting quotations and then to stick to those criteria as consistently as possible, making exceptions only when they serve your argument or your reasons for quoting in the first place.

When quotations are displayed, they are not enclosed in quotation marks, but they should start on a new line and they often feature a slightly smaller font size than that used in the main text of a document (in this book, for instance, I use a 12-point font for the main text, but an 11-point font for block quotations). The line spacing around and within a block quotation may also differ from that used in the main text of a thesis, and the same may be the case with indentation and justification, with all of these differences enabling the quotations to stand out effectively from your own prose. If your university or department provides specific instructions for laying out block quotations, they should be followed, but, in most cases, indentation (left or both left and right) and a smaller font size will suffice for marking displayed quotations. The following passage shows a simple but effective layout for prose quotations:

His manuscript project underwent various changes as it proceeded, however, and among these developments was the transformation of this meditation designed for readers into twin ‘meditational dramas’ that enact that reflective experience and could well have been performed, in the author’s priory perhaps, or the hall of a local gentleman, or the streets of a nearby Yorkshire community.

                                                                                                                   (Olson, 2012, p.338)

Since quotation marks are not required around the entire quotation, single quotation marks are used for quotations within the quotation, which results in a different alternation pattern than that for embedded quotations: single marks for quotations within the block quotation, double marks for quotations within those quotations and so on, with the reverse the case if double quotation marks are the predominant marks used in the thesis (double marks for quotations within block quotations, single marks for quotations within those quotations and so on).

When quoting more than a single line of poetry or any text (whether long or short) for which retaining the exact format of the original is important, such as lists, letters, interviews and passages from plays, and when quoting prose passages of more than a single paragraph, displaying the quotation is in almost all cases a much better choice than embedding it. Here, for instance, is a passage of the Middle English poem Piers Plowman (B-Text) formatted as a block quotation:

      For if heuene be on þis erþe, and ese to any soule,

      It is in cloistre or in scole, by manye skiles I fynde.

      For in cloistre comeþ no man to carpe ne to fiȝte

      But al is buxomnesse þere and bokes, to rede and to lerne.

          (Kane & Donaldson, 1975, X.305–308)

Notice that the indentation at the left is set so that the longest line is more or less centred on the page, although each line starts in the same position (not centre justified), and the passage is formatted to represent as faithfully as possible the layout of the poem in the source text. If the poem’s indentation varies in the source, this should be represented by extra indentation in the format of the block quotation. If any line is too long to fit on a single line in the block quotation and thus runs over onto the next line, the runover line should be indented a space or two beyond the usual indentation to distinguish it from new lines. If any quotations appear within the quoted lines, they should be enclosed in quotation marks exactly as they are in prose block quotations. Finally, if the quotation begins part way through a line, a space representing the length of the omitted material should be inserted before the quotation:

                             comeþ no man to carpe ne to fiȝte

                                              (Kane & Donaldson, 1975, X.307–308)

The layout of a letter or list, the dialogue of a play including speaker tags and stage directions, the exchange during an interview and the breaks between paragraphs in a long prose quotation can be reproduced in similar ways in the formatting of a block quotation, as is the case in this example:

INTERVIEWER: Were you able to move easily when connected to the equipment?

RESPONDENT 1: Yes, most of the time, but a few of the exercises were more difficult.

INTERVIEWER: Do you remember which ones presented movement problems?

If two or more block quotations appear one after the other, make sure that the spacing between them leaves no ambiguity about where one quotation ends and the next begins. It should also be made clear whether the paragraph that precedes a block quotation continues after the quotation or not, so if a new paragraph begins immediately after displayed material, indentation and/or spacing should indicate that this is the case.

Although embedding such specifically formatted quotations should be avoided if at all possible, there are instances in which more than one line of poetry, more than one paragraph of prose or the parts of a letter, list or play will need to be presented as run-on quotations within your own sentences and paragraphs. In such cases, the original formatting should be represented as accurately as possible while maintaining effective sentence and paragraph structure and a tidy page layout. For lines of poetry, for instance, the font should be the same size as the main text, capitalisation should be retained and line breaks should be marked by either a forward slash or a vertical line (see Section 5.6.5) with a space on either side, as in the following example: ‘For if heuene be on þis erþe, and ese to any soule, | It is in cloistre or in scole, by manye skiles I fynde. | For in cloistre comeþ no man to carpe ne to fiȝte | But al is buxomnesse þere and bokes, to rede and to lerne’ (Kane & Donaldson, 1975, X.305–308). When a quotation of more than one paragraph is embedded, quotation marks should appear at the beginning of the quotation and at the beginning of each new paragraph, but only at the end of the final paragraph (or the end of the quotation if the final paragraph is not quoted in its entirety). The same approach should be used when quoting dialogue in which a single speaker’s words extend over more than one paragraph.

Representing lists, the dialogue in plays (along with stage directions) and the questions and answers in interviews as embedded quotations will be a little more challenging, and it is always best to format them as block quotations if possible, but short passages of this kind can be successful (if not ideal) when careful and creative formatting is used: ‘INTERVIEWER: Were you able to move easily when connected to the equipment? RESPONDENT 1: Yes, most of the time, but a few of the exercises were more difficult. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember which ones presented movement problems?’ I have not used quotation marks around the actual speech of the two parties in this example, which is an acceptable approach for such dialogue (when quoting a play as well) whether it is embedded or displayed, but the additional quotation marks can certainly be added around those bits of direct speech to avoid confusion when using an embedded format: ‘WILL: “Where did she go?” ROB, looking from side to side : “She was just here.” WILL, looking up and pointing : “She’s there.”’ Embedding quotations of this kind may be particularly necessary in footnotes and endnotes, because the font used in notes is usually smaller than that in the main text, which means that block quotations become smaller still, so even long quotations with complicated formatting are often embedded in notes.

When the quotation is displayed, the same source information is required, but the parenthetical reference is positioned a little differently: after the closing punctuation of a block quotation, for instance, and usually oriented to the right on the line directly below the quotation, as it appears in the block quotations from Olson and Piers Plowman that I provided above. If there is room for the reference on the final line of the quotation, that is usually an acceptable position as well, and certainly it is on that line immediately after the closing punctuation of the block quotation that a note number or numerical reference would appear instead if that is the system you are using:

                                But al is buxomnesse þere and bokes, to rede and to lerne. 1

As with embedded quotations, an explanation of your referencing practices can be offered in the first relevant note to facilitate shorter references and avoid numerous notes if the same text is quoted frequently, and, as a general rule, regardless of which quotation format or system of referencing you use, subsequent references to the same text can be shortened to provide only the information absolutely necessary for the reader to locate the quotation accurately. If, for example, you are discussing Langland for several paragraphs in which you quote repeatedly from his poem, it is not necessary to identify the author, poem, editors and publication date with each quotation unless it is unclear which text is being cited; only if a different author or text, or perhaps a different edition or version of the poem is quoted in the midst of the discussion would a full reference be required to reorient the reader. Shortening references to a bare minimum is noted as desirable in most style guides, but do be sure that you provide enough information in each instance for your readers to identify and locate your quotations, remembering that offering too much information is preferable to offering too little.

Why PhD Success?

To Graduate Successfully

This article is part of a book called "PhD Success" which focuses on the writing process of a phd thesis, with its aim being to provide sound practices and principles for reporting and formatting in text the methods, results and discussion of even the most innovative and unique research in ways that are clear, correct, professional and persuasive.

The assumption of the book is that the doctoral candidate reading it is both eager to write and more than capable of doing so, but nonetheless requires information and guidance on exactly what he or she should be writing and how best to approach the task. The basic components of a doctoral thesis are outlined and described, as are the elements of complete and accurate scholarly references, and detailed descriptions of writing practices are clarified through the use of numerous examples.

The basic components of a doctoral thesis are outlined and described, as are the elements of complete and accurate scholarly references, and detailed descriptions of writing practices are clarified through the use of numerous examples. PhD Success provides guidance for students familiar with English and the procedures of English universities, but it also acknowledges that many theses in the English language are now written by candidates whose first language is not English, so it carefully explains the scholarly styles, conventions and standards expected of a successful doctoral thesis in the English language.

Individual chapters of this book address reflective and critical writing early in the thesis process; working successfully with thesis supervisors and benefiting from commentary and criticism; drafting and revising effective thesis chapters and developing an academic or scientific argument; writing and formatting a thesis in clear and correct scholarly English; citing, quoting and documenting sources thoroughly and accurately; and preparing for and excelling in thesis meetings and examinations. 

Completing a doctoral thesis successfully requires long and penetrating thought, intellectual rigour and creativity, original research and sound methods (whether established or innovative), precision in recording detail and a wide-ranging thoroughness, as much perseverance and mental toughness as insight and brilliance, and, no matter how many helpful writing guides are consulted, a great deal of hard work over a significant period of time. Writing a thesis can be an enjoyable as well as a challenging experience, however, and even if it is not always so, the personal and professional rewards of achieving such an enormous goal are considerable, as all doctoral candidates no doubt realise, and will last a great deal longer than any problems that may be encountered during the process.

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Rene Tetzner

Rene Tetzner's blog posts dedicated to academic writing. Although the focus is on How To Write a Doctoral Thesis, many other important aspects of research-based writing, editing and publishing are addressed in helpful detail.

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How Do You Incorporate an Interview into a Dissertation? | Tips

Published on November 5, 2014 by Bas Swaen . Revised on December 19, 2022.

You have performed qualitative research for your dissertation by  conducting interviews that you now want to include: how do you do that? Chances are that this was never explained to you and you don’t know what is expected. That’s why in this article we describe how interviews can be included in, for instance, the  discussion section of your dissertation and how they can be referenced.

Table of contents

Including interviews in your dissertation, referring to interviews, quoting from interviews, mentioning the name of the interviewee.

To present interviews in a dissertation, you first need to transcribe your interviews . You can use transcription software for this. You can then add the written interviews to the appendix. If you have many or long interviews that make the appendix extremely long, the appendix (after consultation with the supervisor) can be submitted as a separate document. What matters is that you can demonstrate that the interviews have actually taken place.

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When you have added the interviews to the appendix, you can then paraphrase  to them in your dissertation. Paraphrasing is done as follows:

It became clear from an interview with Y that … (Appendix 1).

Sometimes you are not allowed to add the transcription of an interview to the appendix. In this case it is not possible to refer to this interview. According to the APA Style it is possible to refer to it like this:

APA interview citation MLA interview citation

If you literally copy the words of the interviewee, then you need to quote . Finding interesting quotes is easier if you know how to get usable information out of the person during the interview. That’s why you should conduct the interviews in a professional manner.

Don’t just blindly note the name of the person you’re interviewing, but ask yourself two questions:

• Are you allowed to mention the name?  This is the first question you should ask yourself before you include the interviewee’s name in a dissertation . Determine, in consultation with the interviewee, whether the name should be anonymized (and get informed consent). Sometimes, in fact, the interviewee doesn’t want that. This may be the case when you have interviewed, for example, an employee and the employee does not want his or her boss to be able to read the answers because this could disturb their working relationship. Another situation where this can occur is, for example, when the interview contains very personal questions.
• Does it add anything to mention the name?  The second factor to consider is whether it is relevant to mention the name. Does it add anything to your research? When the interviewee is an unknown person you have approached on the street, the name of this person is not very important. But if you have interviewed the CEO of a large organization, then it can be very relevant to mention their name. In this second case, add a short introduction so that the reader of the dissertation knows immediately who this person is.

Thus, you may mention the name if you have permission from the interviewee to do so and if it is relevant to the research. If you don’t have permission to use the name or if you don’t want to mention the name, you can then choose to use a description. For example: “Employee 1”.

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Swaen, B. (2022, December 19). How Do You Incorporate an Interview into a Dissertation? | Tips. Scribbr. Retrieved April 15, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/how-do-you-incorporate-an-interview-into-a-dissertation/

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