Quoting means replicating part of a source word for word in your assignment.

How many quotations can I use in an assignment?

The number of quotations expected varies in different disciplines and types of assignments. For example, in an English literature paper, direct quotations from a novel or play are often used as the basis for a discussion, while in a business proposal, direct quotations are rare, or not accepted at all.

Quotations are often the material evidence you’ll use to support claims. The substance of your assignment, however, is the thorough and detailed discussion, explanation, or analysis of the quotations. Make sure that you’ve not introduced more material than you can explain — your reader should understand why the quotations appear.

Quotations should be used purposefully because otherwise quoting can sometimes give the impression that you don’t understand a source enough to put it in your own words and that you may not have any thoughts on the topic. If you aren’t sure whether you should use direct quotations in a specific assignment, ask your instructor.

Reasons to Quote

• To present something you are analyzing, interpreting, or commenting on so the reader will understand better what you are referring to (such as a literary passage)
• If the original language is especially moving, descriptive, or historically significant
• For unique terms or a passage that cannot be paraphrased or summarized adequately without losing or changing the meaning

How to Quote

Quotations can be included at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence. However, it is a good practice to introduce quotations with some sort of statement that signals to the reader that the wording ahead is from a source, such as in the two examples shown below. ​

Short Quotations (defined in APA Style as quotations of fewer than 40 words) are always enclosed in quotation marks, so the reader knows that these are the EXACT words from the source. Not putting quotation marks around a short quotation is considered plagiarism even if a citation is included, because the absence of quotation marks signals to your reader that the words are your own.

EXAMPLE

One researcher indicates that “the most difficult thing for them was the attitude of their parents” (Crook, 2003, p. 157), while others believe…​

Long Quotations (defined in APA Style as quotations of 40 words or more) are not placed in quotation marks but are instead formatted in a block indented from the remaining text.

EXAMPLE

A family’s assessment has a powerful influence on how capable teenagers believe they are. In her study, Crook (2003) found

their expectations became self-fulfilling prophecies; because their families thought they couldn’t do anything, they didn’t think they could either. After all, if the people who knew them best and presumably loved them most thought they were losers, then the family was probably right. (p. 37)​

Can I make changes to a quotation? 

You may omit words from a quotation, but you must indicate that you did so by inserting three spaced dots called an ellipsis. If you change a quotation, for example to make it fit your sentence structure, you must use square brackets to do so.

In her study, Crook (2003) found that if teenagers felt that “their families thought they couldn’t do anything, they didn’t think they could either . . . [and] the family was probably right” (p. 37).​

In the example above, we omitted a part of the quotation, and we indicated this by adding three dots. We also added the word “and” which is put in square brackets because it is not part of the original sentence.

Attribution

This chapter is an adaptation of 3.1 Quoting  by Donnie Calabrese; Emma Russell; Jasmine Hoover; and Tammy Byrne and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. You can download this book free at Academic Integrity Handbook Copyright © 2020.

This chapter is also an adaptation of 3.2 How to Quote by Donnie Calabrese; Emma Russell; Jasmine Hoover; and Tammy Byrne and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. You can download this book free at Academic Integrity Handbook Copyright © 2020.