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Quoting is when you use someone else’s exact words in your paper. It requires that quotation marks go around that author’s words, and the quotation is followed by an in-text citation.

Good Reasons to Quote

• A quote exactly reinforces a point I want to make, and I want to emphasize the authority of the expert with her or his own voice.
• The language is unique or unusual. If I rewrote it in my own words, it would lose this quality.

How Does Quoting Work?

• Key Rules of Quoting
• Sample Quotation (APA Style)
• Step-by-Step Quoting

• The exact words of the author are in quotation marks
• The quote is introduced so the reader is alerted that these are not the words of the student
• The quote is properly cited in the text and the reference list

Explore the other tabs to see a sample quote and learn the steps of recording a quote properly. 

Author’s original text

Business communication is increasingly taking place internationally – in all countries, among all peoples, and across all cultures. An awareness of other cultures – of their languages, customs, experiences and perceptions – as well as an awareness of the way in which other people conduct their business, are now essential ingredients of business communication. 

Example quotation that could be added to a paper

 As business communication spans the globe, “an awareness of other cultures – of their languages, customs, experiences and perceptions – as well as an awareness of the way in which other people conduct their business, are now essential ingredients of business communication” (Chase, O’Rourke & Wallace, 2003, p.59). 

• Find a portion of a book, journal, or website that you would like to use in your paper. Copy the words you plan to use.
• Put quotation marks at the beginning and end of the copied text.
• Add an in-text citation at the end of the quoted text (outside the quotation mark).
• Write (in your own words) to give context or introduce the quoted text.
• Add the sentence with your own words, the quote, and the in-text citation to your paper.
• Add the full citation to your reference list at the end of your paper.

How Much to Quote?

No matter what the source or style, you need to cite it both in-text and at the end of the paper with a full citation! Write down or record all the needed pieces of information when researching to ensure you avoid plagiarism.

 Lester, J.D. (1976). Writing Research Papers (2nd ed.). Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman. 

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• How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago

How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago

Published on April 15, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Jack Caulfield. Revised on May 31, 2023.

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 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 .

Table of contents

How to cite a quote in apa, mla and chicago, introducing quotes, quotes within quotes, shortening or altering a quote, block quotes, when should i use quotes, other interesting articles, 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. Three of the most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

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 periods 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

Citing a quote in mla style.

An MLA in-text citation includes only the author’s last name and a page number. As in APA, it can be parenthetical or narrative, and a period (or other punctuation mark) appears after the citation.

• Evolution is a gradual process that “can act only by very short and slow steps” (Darwin 510) .
• Darwin explains that evolution “can act only by very short and slow steps” (510) .

Complete guide to MLA

Citing a quote in chicago style.

Chicago style uses Chicago footnotes to cite sources. A note, indicated by a superscript number placed directly after the quote, specifies the author, title, and page number—or sometimes fuller information .

Unlike with parenthetical citations, in this style, the period or other punctuation mark should appear within the quotation marks, followed by the footnote number.

Complete guide to Chicago style

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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 single (instead of double) 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 double 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 verb 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 italicize 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 capitalization made to ensure the quote fits the style of your text.

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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 period, the citation appears after the period.

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 in your own words. This helps you integrate information smoothly and keeps your own voice dominant.

However, there are some situations in which quoting is 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.

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• ChatGPT vs human editor
• ChatGPT citations
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Using ChatGPT for your studies
• What is ChatGPT?
• Chicago style
• Paraphrasing
• Critical thinking

 Plagiarism

• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Consequences of plagiarism
• Common knowledge

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

In academic writing , there are three main situations where quoting is the best choice:

• To analyze the author’s language (e.g., in a literary analysis essay )
• To give evidence from primary sources
• To accurately present a precise definition or argument

Don’t overuse quotes; your own voice should be dominant. If you just want to provide information from a source, it’s usually better to paraphrase or summarize .

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.

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.

The rules for when to apply block quote formatting depend on the citation style:

• APA block quotes are 40 words or longer.
• MLA block quotes are more than 4 lines of prose or 3 lines of poetry.
• Chicago block quotes are longer than 100 words.

If you’re quoting from a text that paraphrases or summarizes other sources and cites them in parentheses , APA and Chicago both recommend retaining the citations as part of the quote. However, MLA recommends omitting citations within a quote:

• APA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic (Jones, 2015; Sill, 2019; Paulson, 2020) shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).
• MLA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).

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

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.

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.

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If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. & Caulfield, J. (2023, May 31). How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago. Scribbr. Retrieved August 21, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/how-to-quote/

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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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If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

McCombes, S. & Caulfield, J. (2022, September 03). How to Quote | Citing Quotes in Harvard & APA. Scribbr. Retrieved 21 August 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/working-sources/quoting/

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Quotation Marks: When and How to Use Quotations in Academic Writing

The proper use of punctuation can help to strengthen arguments made in your research paper. But knowing the English grammar rules and using these correctly can be confusing, especially for researchers with English as a second language. One of the easiest punctuation marks that you can get wrong is quotation marks, also called inverted commas, quotes, or speech marks. Why? Because the grammar rules may differ depending on the journal’s preferred style. For instance, most authors can’t decide whether the punctuation marks at the end of the sentence, commas, full stop, question marks, etc. should be inside or outside the quotation mark. Also, what if there is a quotation mark inside a quotation mark? This article will answer your concerns about using quotation marks in your academic writing.

American English vs. British English

English is regarded as a global language, but its use varies between American and British English, the two styles used in academic writing. 1 This also holds true when you include information from external sources by using quotations in academic writing.

• Single and Double quotes

Both American and British English use single and double quotation marks, but their usage varies across places. This may also differ based on the journal you are submitting to. So to avoid mistakes when using quotation marks, first decide on the language style to follow. For example, Australia and the UK use single quotation marks (‘ ’), while North America uses the double quotation mark (“ ”). An exception to this is when using quotes in news headlines and when quoting within a quote, like the example below:

American English: “Ann said to John, ‘I will finish the project on time!’”

British English: ‘Ann said to John, “I will finish the project on time!”’

• Punctuation marks placement

Another difference between American and British English is where punctuation marks go when used with quotation marks. In American English, the punctuation marks are always placed inside the quotation mark. An exception is when using colons and semicolons, which are placed outside the quotes. British English places commas and periods outside the quotation marks unless it is part of the quote. In both British and American English, question marks and exclamation points that are part of the quote go inside the quotation marks.

American English: “The spaceship appeared over the ancient city.”

British English: ‘The spaceship appeared over the ancient city’.

Fig 1: Relative positions of punctuation and closing quotation marks in US and UK English.

But, in both styles, a question mark always appears inside the quotes when the person quoted is asking the question and outside if you are asking the question. For example,

• John asks, “How far will this road go?”
• How many users attending the conference reported their satisfaction as “high”?

When to use quotations in academic writing

• Give historical context to a theory or construct: Quote an original article to convey a unique perspective. This is especially true if the language of the original passage is elegant, powerful, or memorable. 2 E.g., Scholars have used mathematics as a communication method (Cockcroft, 1982). The SACE Board (2010) states that “mathematics is a universal language that is communicated through all cultures.”
• Quote an item from a questionnaire or measure: Use quotation marks to give examples of individual items describing a particular instrument or questions in a survey. E.g., Sample questions to rate their motivation when using a learning method include “What I feel and think about myself as a learner.” (Harlen and Crick, 2003).
• Start of the paper: These quotes help set up the central issue of a paper with a historical or political quote. An article on self-sufficiency, can begin as follows: “The best definition of man is: a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful” (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, 1864).

Quotations including external information should be kept relatively short and used sparingly. Too many of them, and the reviewers will accuse you of not producing original writing. Also, readers are more interested to read your thoughts on the paper and less on what others say on the topic.

In short, it’s important to use quotations in academic writing, and researchers should focus on understanding the rules so they can apply them properly. We hope the simple tips provided in this article help you use quotation marks more confidently.

• Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers. 2002. 6th ed. Revised by Snooks & Co. Milton, QLD: John Wiley & Sons.
• Eldh, A. C., Årestedt, L., & Berterö, C. Quotations in qualitative studies: Reflections on constituents, custom, and purpose. International Journal of Qualitative Methods , 19, 1609406920969268 (2020). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345320846_Quotations_in_Qualitative_Studies_Reflections_on_Constituents_Custom_and_Purpose.

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When and How To Use Quotation Marks Correctly in Academic Writing

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Quotation marks are like flags: they draw attention, but their use is governed by several rules and conventions, such as the exact colors, design, and proportions of the flag; when it should be hoisted and when it should be taken down; when it should be flown half mast, etc.

What are Quotation marks?

Quotation marks are signals, and its meaning depends on whether the quotation marks are single (‘ and ’) or double (“ and ”), where they are placed relative to terminal punctuation –  either before or after it – and whether they appear alone or as a pair. (Terminal punctuation refers to only three marks that can end a sentence, namely the period, the question mark, and the exclamation mark.)  Although these conventions are clear as far as English is concerned, authors whose first language is not English often find them confusing. Not using quotation marks around text that you have reproduced word for word from another paper can even lead to your being accused of plagiarism, although all you did was to reproduce an exact definition in order to comment on it.

Here are some tips on to how to use quotations marks correctly in research papers. Although authors working in the social sciences and especially in the humanities tend to use quotation marks more often than those working in the physical and biological sciences, the conventions remain the same.

When to use Single and Double Quotation Marks

The choice is straightforward at one level: most publishers, especially US publishers, insist that their authors use double quotation marks as default; however, many UK publishers, including the Oxford University Press and the Cambridge University Press, use single quotation marks as default. However, both reverse the default for quotations within quotations: US publishers switch to single quotations marks whereas OUP and CUP switch to double quotation marks. This is shown in the following example.

The common US convention for quotation marks . As Eric Kandel points out in his book The Disordered Mind , in saying “ ‘I think, therefore I am’ . . . Descartes had it backward: in actuality, ‘I am, therefore I think.’ ”

The common UK convention for quotation marks . As Eric Kandel points out in his book The Disordered Mind , in saying ‘ “I think, therefore I am” … Descartes had it backward: in actuality, “I am, therefore I think.” ’

Incidentally, also note that both single and double quotation marks can occur together, without any text in between, as in the examples above. It is a good practice to separate them with a non-breaking space, which is typically narrower than the ordinary word space.

Also note that the common US practice is now being increasingly accepted because it leaves the single quotation marks to perform their other duties, such as marking omissions (as in Don’t for Do not) and indicating possession (John’s car).

Closing quotation marks and terminal punctuation: which to put first?

Here too, authors are confronted with the US/UK divide, and yet again, the US convention seems to be winning out because it is simpler, namely always put the closing quotation mark outside , or after , the terminal punctuation. The UK convention, however, is more logical because it considers whether the terminal mark is part of the quotation or not: if is not part of the quotation, put the terminal mark outside, or after, the closing quotation; if the terminal mark is part of the quotation, put the mark inside , or before , the closing quotation mark. Again, this distinction is best explained using a pair of made-up examples (see also Figure 1).

Assume that these are Broca’s actual words: “We speak with the left hemisphere because people with injured left brains find it difficult to speak.”

Terminal punctuation inside the quotation mark . Broca said, “We speak with the left hemisphere.”

Terminal punctuation outside the quotation mark . Broca said, “We speak with the left hemisphere”.

Figure 1: Relative positions of the period and closing quotation marks in US and UK style.

Quotation marks and commas: which to put first?

The same convention applies to commas: in the US style, commas always come inside the quotation marks; in the UK style, not necessarily , although in this case too the US style is becoming more common. Here are two examples in both of which the source of the quotation is sandwiched between two parts of the quotation. The same text is used here as used in the previous examples. Note that the original text was without a comma.

US style (always) and UK style (sometimes) : “We speak with left hemisphere,” said Broca, “Because people with injured left brains find it difficult to speak.”

UK style (at other time) : “We speak with left hemisphere”, said Broca, “Because people with injured left brains find it difficult to speak.”

Although the above sounds complicated, it is rare – at least in the physical and biological sciences – that you would be required to use quotation marks thus. More often than not, simply enclosing the text of the quotation should be enough, followed by the source of the quotation as a citation. The citation can be in the form of a number or, in the author–date style citations, the name(s) of author(s) and the year of publication.

Other uses of quotation marks

Quotation marks – typically single quotation marks irrespective of the flavor of English – are also used even when nobody is being quoted. For example, when the word in the source language appears in italics and is immediately followed by its translation, as in ‘Two major cropping seasons in India are kharif “summer” and rabi “winter”, which are typical of a monsoon-dominated climate.’ Note that in this example, single quotation marks begin and end the quotation and double quotation marks are used within the quotation. However, you can reverse the pattern if you wish to follow the US practice.

Quotation marks can indicate unfamiliar words, neologisms (newly coined words), and ‘nonce’ words, which are also new words but coined not for continued use but within, say, a given article.

Quotation marks are also used for indicating debatable or arguably inaccurate usage or irony or special usage (sometimes referred to as ‘scare quotes’ or ‘sneer quotes’ although it is best to avoid such use in research papers or in academic writing generally).

When not to use quotation marks?

Remember that quotation marks are not the same as the prime (single or double) or the marks used as symbols for minutes and seconds in giving geographic coordinates or to indicate feet and inches: for example, do not write 51 0 30’26” N when you mean 51°30’26” N, and do not write 6’5” when you mean 6’5” (6 feet 5 inches). These tips and the explanations will help you use quotation marks more confidently—provided you pay attention to the relevant details. And if you have ever wondered how the US conventions of using quotation marks differ from the UK conventions, this article throws some light on that too. Finally, if you’re looking for quick, high-quality editing support by subject-matter experts, try out Editage’s Advance Editing service . With two levels of in-depth editing to improve readability, polish the English language, and ensure technical terms are used accurately, this professional service is a great choice for researchers readying their manuscript for journal submission.

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Quoting and Paraphrasing

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College writing often involves integrating information from published sources into your own writing in order to add credibility and authority–this process is essential to research and the production of new knowledge.

However, when building on the work of others, you need to be careful not to plagiarize : “to steal and pass off (the ideas and words of another) as one’s own” or to “present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.”1 The University of Wisconsin–Madison takes this act of “intellectual burglary” very seriously and considers it to be a breach of academic integrity . Penalties are severe.

These materials will help you avoid plagiarism by teaching you how to properly integrate information from published sources into your own writing.

1. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 888.

How to avoid plagiarism

When using sources in your papers, you can avoid plagiarism by knowing what must be documented.

Specific words and phrases

If you use an author’s specific word or words, you must place those words within quotation marks and you must credit the source.

Information and Ideas

Even if you use your own words, if you obtained the information or ideas you are presenting from a source, you must document the source.

Information : If a piece of information isn’t common knowledge (see below), you need to provide a source.

Ideas : An author’s ideas may include not only points made and conclusions drawn, but, for instance, a specific method or theory, the arrangement of material, or a list of steps in a process or characteristics of a medical condition. If a source provided any of these, you need to acknowledge the source.

Common Knowledge?

You do not need to cite a source for material considered common knowledge:

General common knowledge is factual information considered to be in the public domain, such as birth and death dates of well-known figures, and generally accepted dates of military, political, literary, and other historical events. In general, factual information contained in multiple standard reference works can usually be considered to be in the public domain.

Field-specific common knowledge is “common” only within a particular field or specialty. It may include facts, theories, or methods that are familiar to readers within that discipline. For instance, you may not need to cite a reference to Piaget’s developmental stages in a paper for an education class or give a source for your description of a commonly used method in a biology report—but you must be sure that this information is so widely known within that field that it will be shared by your readers.

If in doubt, be cautious and cite the source. And in the case of both general and field-specific common knowledge, if you use the exact words of the reference source, you must use quotation marks and credit the source.

Paraphrasing vs. Quoting — Explanation

Should i paraphrase or quote.

In general, use direct quotations only if you have a good reason. Most of your paper should be in your own words. Also, it’s often conventional to quote more extensively from sources when you’re writing a humanities paper, and to summarize from sources when you’re writing in the social or natural sciences–but there are always exceptions.

In a literary analysis paper , for example, you”ll want to quote from the literary text rather than summarize, because part of your task in this kind of paper is to analyze the specific words and phrases an author uses.

In research papers , you should quote from a source

• to show that an authority supports your point
• to present a position or argument to critique or comment on
• to include especially moving or historically significant language
• to present a particularly well-stated passage whose meaning would be lost or changed if paraphrased or summarized

You should summarize or paraphrase when

• what you want from the source is the idea expressed, and not the specific language used to express it
• you can express in fewer words what the key point of a source is

How to paraphrase a source

General advice.

• When reading a passage, try first to understand it as a whole, rather than pausing to write down specific ideas or phrases.
• Be selective. Unless your assignment is to do a formal or “literal” paraphrase, you usually don?t need to paraphrase an entire passage; instead, choose and summarize the material that helps you make a point in your paper.
• Think of what “your own words” would be if you were telling someone who’s unfamiliar with your subject (your mother, your brother, a friend) what the original source said.
• Remember that you can use direct quotations of phrases from the original within your paraphrase, and that you don’t need to change or put quotation marks around shared language.

Methods of Paraphrasing

• Look away from the source then write. Read the text you want to paraphrase several times until you feel that you understand it and can use your own words to restate it to someone else. Then, look away from the original and rewrite the text in your own words.
• Take notes. Take abbreviated notes; set the notes aside; then paraphrase from the notes a day or so later, or when you draft.

If you find that you can’t do A or B, this may mean that you don’t understand the passage completely or that you need to use a more structured process until you have more experience in paraphrasing.

The method below is not only a way to create a paraphrase but also a way to understand a difficult text.

Paraphrasing difficult texts

Consider the following passage from Love and Toil (a book on motherhood in London from 1870 to 1918), in which the author, Ellen Ross, puts forth one of her major arguments:

• Love and Toil maintains that family survival was the mother’s main charge among the large majority of London?s population who were poor or working class; the emotional and intellectual nurture of her child or children and even their actual comfort were forced into the background. To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence. (p. 9)

Children of the poor at the turn of the century received little if any emotional or intellectual nurturing from their mothers, whose main charge was family survival. Working for and organizing household subsistence were what defined mothering. Next to this, even the children’s basic comfort was forced into the background (Ross, 1995).

According to Ross (1993), poor children at the turn of the century received little mothering in our sense of the term. Mothering was defined by economic status, and among the poor, a mother’s foremost responsibility was not to stimulate her children’s minds or foster their emotional growth but to provide food and shelter to meet the basic requirements for physical survival. Given the magnitude of this task, children were deprived of even the “actual comfort” (p. 9) we expect mothers to provide today.

You may need to go through this process several times to create a satisfactory paraphrase.

Successful vs. unsuccessful paraphrases

Paraphrasing is often defined as putting a passage from an author into “your own words.” But what are your own words? How different must your paraphrase be from the original?

The paragraphs below provide an example by showing a passage as it appears in the source, two paraphrases that follow the source too closely, and a legitimate paraphrase.

The student’s intention was to incorporate the material in the original passage into a section of a paper on the concept of “experts” that compared the functions of experts and nonexperts in several professions.

The Passage as It Appears in the Source

Critical care nurses function in a hierarchy of roles. In this open heart surgery unit, the nurse manager hires and fires the nursing personnel. The nurse manager does not directly care for patients but follows the progress of unusual or long-term patients. On each shift a nurse assumes the role of resource nurse. This person oversees the hour-by-hour functioning of the unit as a whole, such as considering expected admissions and discharges of patients, ascertaining that beds are available for patients in the operating room, and covering sick calls. Resource nurses also take a patient assignment. They are the most experienced of all the staff nurses. The nurse clinician has a separate job description and provides for quality of care by orienting new staff, developing unit policies, and providing direct support where needed, such as assisting in emergency situations. The clinical nurse specialist in this unit is mostly involved with formal teaching in orienting new staff. The nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist are the designated experts. They do not take patient assignments. The resource nurse is seen as both a caregiver and a resource to other caregivers. . . . Staff nurses have a hierarchy of seniority. . . . Staff nurses are assigned to patients to provide all their nursing care. (Chase, 1995, p. 156)

Word-for-Word Plagiarism

Critical care nurses have a hierarchy of roles. The nurse manager hires and fires nurses. S/he does not directly care for patients but does follow unusual or long-term cases. On each shift a resource nurse attends to the functioning of the unit as a whole, such as making sure beds are available in the operating room , and also has a patient assignment . The nurse clinician orients new staff, develops policies, and provides support where needed . The clinical nurse specialist also orients new staff, mostly by formal teaching. The nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist , as the designated experts, do not take patient assignments . The resource nurse is not only a caregiver but a resource to the other caregivers . Within the staff nurses there is also a hierarchy of seniority . Their job is to give assigned patients all their nursing care .

Why this is plagiarism

Notice that the writer has not only “borrowed” Chase’s material (the results of her research) with no acknowledgment, but has also largely maintained the author’s method of expression and sentence structure. The phrases in red are directly copied from the source or changed only slightly in form.

Even if the student-writer had acknowledged Chase as the source of the content, the language of the passage would be considered plagiarized because no quotation marks indicate the phrases that come directly from Chase. And if quotation marks did appear around all these phrases, this paragraph would be so cluttered that it would be unreadable.

A Patchwork Paraphrase

Chase (1995) describes how nurses in a critical care unit function in a hierarchy that places designated experts at the top and the least senior staff nurses at the bottom. The experts — the nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist — are not involved directly in patient care. The staff nurses, in contrast, are assigned to patients and provide all their nursing care . Within the staff nurses is a hierarchy of seniority in which the most senior can become resource nurses: they are assigned a patient but also serve as a resource to other caregivers. The experts have administrative and teaching tasks such as selecting and orienting new staff, developing unit policies , and giving hands-on support where needed.

This paraphrase is a patchwork composed of pieces in the original author’s language (in red) and pieces in the student-writer’s words, all rearranged into a new pattern, but with none of the borrowed pieces in quotation marks. Thus, even though the writer acknowledges the source of the material, the underlined phrases are falsely presented as the student’s own.

A Legitimate Paraphrase

In her study of the roles of nurses in a critical care unit, Chase (1995) also found a hierarchy that distinguished the roles of experts and others. Just as the educational experts described above do not directly teach students, the experts in this unit do not directly attend to patients. That is the role of the staff nurses, who, like teachers, have their own “hierarchy of seniority” (p. 156). The roles of the experts include employing unit nurses and overseeing the care of special patients (nurse manager), teaching and otherwise integrating new personnel into the unit (clinical nurse specialist and nurse clinician), and policy-making (nurse clinician). In an intermediate position in the hierarchy is the resource nurse, a staff nurse with more experience than the others, who assumes direct care of patients as the other staff nurses do, but also takes on tasks to ensure the smooth operation of the entire facility.

Why this is a good paraphrase

The writer has documented Chase’s material and specific language (by direct reference to the author and by quotation marks around language taken directly from the source). Notice too that the writer has modified Chase’s language and structure and has added material to fit the new context and purpose — to present the distinctive functions of experts and nonexperts in several professions.

Shared Language

Perhaps you’ve noticed that a number of phrases from the original passage appear in the legitimate paraphrase: critical care, staff nurses, nurse manager, clinical nurse specialist, nurse clinician, resource nurse.

If all these phrases were in red, the paraphrase would look much like the “patchwork” example. The difference is that the phrases in the legitimate paraphrase are all precise, economical, and conventional designations that are part of the shared language within the nursing discipline (in the too-close paraphrases, they’re red only when used within a longer borrowed phrase).

In every discipline and in certain genres (such as the empirical research report), some phrases are so specialized or conventional that you can’t paraphrase them except by wordy and awkward circumlocutions that would be less familiar (and thus less readable) to the audience.

When you repeat such phrases, you’re not stealing the unique phrasing of an individual writer but using a common vocabulary shared by a community of scholars.

Some Examples of Shared Language You Don’t Need to Put in Quotation Marks

• Conventional designations: e.g., physician’s assistant, chronic low-back pain
• Preferred bias-free language: e.g., persons with disabilities
• Technical terms and phrases of a discipline or genre : e.g., reduplication, cognitive domain, material culture, sexual harassment

Chase, S. K. (1995). The social context of critical care clinical judgment. Heart and Lung, 24, 154-162.

How to Quote a Source

Introducing a quotation.

One of your jobs as a writer is to guide your reader through your text. Don’t simply drop quotations into your paper and leave it to the reader to make connections.

Integrating a quotation into your text usually involves two elements:

• A signal that a quotation is coming–generally the author’s name and/or a reference to the work
• An assertion that indicates the relationship of the quotation to your text

Often both the signal and the assertion appear in a single introductory statement, as in the example below. Notice how a transitional phrase also serves to connect the quotation smoothly to the introductory statement.

Ross (1993), in her study of poor and working-class mothers in London from 1870-1918 [signal], makes it clear that economic status to a large extent determined the meaning of motherhood [assertion]. Among this population [connection], “To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence” (p. 9).

The signal can also come after the assertion, again with a connecting word or phrase:

Illness was rarely a routine matter in the nineteenth century [assertion]. As [connection] Ross observes [signal], “Maternal thinking about children’s health revolved around the possibility of a child’s maiming or death” (p. 166).

Formatting Quotations

Short direct prose.

Incorporate short direct prose quotations into the text of your paper and enclose them in double quotation marks:

According to Jonathan Clarke, “Professional diplomats often say that trying to think diplomatically about foreign policy is a waste of time.”

Longer prose quotations

Begin longer quotations (for instance, in the APA system, 40 words or more) on a new line and indent the entire quotation (i.e., put in block form), with no quotation marks at beginning or end, as in the quoted passage from our Successful vs. Unsucessful Paraphrases page.

Rules about the minimum length of block quotations, how many spaces to indent, and whether to single- or double-space extended quotations vary with different documentation systems; check the guidelines for the system you’re using.

Quotation of Up to 3 Lines of Poetry

Quotations of up to 3 lines of poetry should be integrated into your sentence. For example:

In Julius Caesar, Antony begins his famous speech with “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears; / I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” (III.ii.75-76).

Notice that a slash (/) with a space on either side is used to separate lines.

Quotation of More than 3 Lines of Poetry

More than 3 lines of poetry should be indented. As with any extended (indented) quotation, do not use quotation marks unless you need to indicate a quotation within your quotation.

Punctuating with Quotation Marks

Parenthetical citations.

With short quotations, place citations outside of closing quotation marks, followed by sentence punctuation (period, question mark, comma, semi-colon, colon):

Menand (2002) characterizes language as “a social weapon” (p. 115).

With block quotations, check the guidelines for the documentation system you are using.

Commas and periods

Place inside closing quotation marks when no parenthetical citation follows:

Hertzberg (2002) notes that “treating the Constitution as imperfect is not new,” but because of Dahl’s credentials, his “apostasy merits attention” (p. 85).

Semicolons and colons

Place outside of closing quotation marks (or after a parenthetical citation).

Question marks and exclamation points

Place inside closing quotation marks if the quotation is a question/exclamation:

Menand (2001) acknowledges that H. W. Fowler’s Modern English Usage is “a classic of the language,” but he asks, “Is it a dead classic?” (p. 114).

[Note that a period still follows the closing parenthesis.]

Place outside of closing quotation marks if the entire sentence containing the quotation is a question or exclamation:

How many students actually read the guide to find out what is meant by “academic misconduct”?

Quotation within a quotation

Use single quotation marks for the embedded quotation:

According to Hertzberg (2002), Dahl gives the U. S. Constitution “bad marks in ‘democratic fairness’ and ‘encouraging consensus'” (p. 90).

[The phrases “democratic fairness” and “encouraging consensus” are already in quotation marks in Dahl’s sentence.]

Indicating Changes in Quotations

Quoting only a portion of the whole.

Use ellipsis points (. . .) to indicate an omission within a quotation–but not at the beginning or end unless it’s not obvious that you’re quoting only a portion of the whole.

Adding Clarification, Comment, or Correction

Within quotations, use square brackets [ ] (not parentheses) to add your own clarification, comment, or correction.

Use [sic] (meaning “so” or “thus”) to indicate that a mistake is in the source you’re quoting and is not your own.

Additional information

Information on summarizing and paraphrasing sources.

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). (2000). Retrieved January 7, 2002, from http://www.bartleby.com/61/ Bazerman, C. (1995). The informed writer: Using sources in the disciplines (5th ed). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Leki, I. (1995). Academic writing: Exploring processes and strategies (2nd ed.) New York: St. Martin?s Press, pp. 185-211.

Leki describes the basic method presented in C, pp. 4-5.

Spatt, B. (1999). Writing from sources (5th ed.) New York: St. Martin?s Press, pp. 98-119; 364-371.

Information about specific documentation systems

The Writing Center has handouts explaining how to use many of the standard documentation systems. You may look at our general Web page on Documentation Systems, or you may check out any of the following specific Web pages.

If you’re not sure which documentation system to use, ask the course instructor who assigned your paper.

• American Psychological Assoicaion (APA)
• Modern Language Association (MLA)
• Chicago/Turabian (A Footnote or Endnote System)
• American Political Science Association (APSA)
• Council of Science Editors (CBE)
• Numbered References

You may also consult the following guides:

• American Medical Association, Manual for Authors and Editors
• Council of Science Editors, CBE style Manual
• The Chicago Manual of Style
• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

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Correct Usage of Quotation Marks in Academic Writing

The correct use of quotation marks can be confusing for authors, especially those whose primary language is not English (ESL authors). Quotation marks are used to show that the text is taken word for word from another source, to call attention to an important word or phrase, or when using a technical term for the first time. There are “run-in quotes,” and quotes that are separated by block text. There are quotes within other quotes and different punctuation styles depending on the subject matter, style guide used, and even the country. The following descriptions will help you with quotation marks in your academic writing.

How do quotation marks look—what’s the typeface? In scientific writing, this is important because it can distinguish a quotation mark from a prime mark, which is used often in genetics and other physical-science disciplines. According to the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), quotation marks that are often called “curly” or “smart” quotes, are used in most published text and are meant to match its typeface. Smart quotes should not be confused with straight quotes (“), which is the computer’s default form. In addition, single straight quotes are often used as prime marks; as the symbol in measurements, such as feet and arcminutes; and in mathematics, as in x’y’; however, this is not the correct usage—the prime symbol (ʹ) should be used instead. Changes to the correct forms can easily be made in your computer’s word-processing program.

Quotation Marks in Text

Regardless of which style guide you use or which side of the Atlantic you are on, there is an agreement about the specific rules for using quotation marks in your text. For example, if you are inserting a direct quote into your writing, it is important to ensure that the reader understands that those words are not yours. In a story that includes conversations among the characters, quotation marks distinguish their words from those of the author.

Quotation marks are also used to call attention to new words or phrases, which is particularly useful in science and technical writing, such as in the following sentence: One of the several branches of zoology, “ichthyology,” concentrates on the study of fish. Note that, in keeping with the American English style, not only is the new term in double quotes, but the comma is inside the quotation marks.

Related: Confused about the use of punctuations in a research paper ? Check out these posts now!

Quotation Marks in Reference Lists

Different style guides have different protocols for using quotation marks in reference lists. Papers written for the liberal arts or humanities follow the style set by the Modern Language Association ( MLA ). Authors with disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences usually use the American Psychological Association ( APA ) style guide, and writers in the biological sciences and engineering fields refer to the Council of Science Editors (CSE) handbook. For example, MLA and CMOS use quotation marks around titles of articles within books, but APA does not. Book titles are not surrounded by quotation marks, but periodicals (including newspapers) are. Note the differences in the following examples.

MLA: Bagchi, Alaknanda. “Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi’s Bashai Tudu.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature , vol. 15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 41–50.

APA:  MacLean, E. L., Krupenye, C., & Hare, B. (2014). Dogs ( Canis familiaris ) account for body orientation but not visual barriers when responding to pointing gestures. Journal of Comparative Psychology , 128, 285–297.

CMOS:  Joshua I. Weinstein, “The Market in Plato’s Republic,” Classical Philology 104 (2009): 440.

CSE: Powell JM, Wattiaux MA, Broderick GA. Evaluation of milk urea nitrogen as a management tool to reduce ammonia emissions from dairy farms. J Dairy Sci. 2011;94(9):4690–4694

Single, Double, and Punctuation

There are different rules for using single or double quotations marks. In American English, double quotation marks are used first and single quotations marks are used second for a citation within a citation. British English is just the opposite. See the following examples.

American : “I know,” he said, “that I heard him say ‘help me’ as he fell.”

British : ‘I know’, he said, ‘that I heard him say “help me” as he fell.’

In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks while other punctuations are placed outside. Is this logical? No, but it stems from the days of typesetting by hand when the printer did not want to have small punctuation sort of hanging off the end of a block of text. In British English, all punctuation is placed outside the quotation marks unless it is part of the quoted text. For scientific writing, CSE suggests that punctuations should follow the British English style as “internationally accepted” usage; however, always check your author guidelines.

Block Text and Epigraphs

The format for quotations changes depending on the length of the passage. If it is more than four lines, MLA protocol states formatting the passage as block text, which is never surrounded by quotations marks, APA protocol states to use block text if the passage exceeds 40 words. Other style guides might have other rules so be sure to check.

Epigraphs are inscriptions that are often used on buildings, tombstones, or other objects. Although they can be direct quotes, quotation marks are not used; special typefaces and formats are used instead to call attention to them.

Writing Tips

Don’t overuse quotation marks—whatever style guide you use, it’s important that they be used correctly but sparingly. It is not always necessary to use them around words for emphasis . Always check to ensure that you are using the correct style for your discipline.

• Academic Skills, University of Melbourne. ‘Using quotation marks’. Retrieved from https://students.unimelb.edu.au/academic-skills/explore-our-resources/grammar/punctuation

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Using Evidence: Quotation

Basics of quoting other writing.

In most social science disciplines, you will use direct quotations only sparingly. Use a direct quotation only if the exact phrasing of the original material is crucial to your point. If you can paraphrase the idea in your own words, do so.

Use quotation marks around the words you are borrowing directly from another source. For longer passages, use block quotations .

Example: Samson (2010) stated, “Mirror neurons allow for imitation and empathy” (p. 214).

For more examples of integrating quotations into your own sentences along with guidance on punctuation and capitalization of quotations, please visit our page on Quotation Marks .

In order for a reader to understand the impact of a direct quotation or paraphrased source material, you should work to integrate your evidence into your paragraph's overall discussion. A strong way to integrate source material is to use transitions . As you integrate sources, you will also often begin analyzing the evidence

Citations for Direct Quotations

Every direct quotation citation should be incorporated into the paragraph with quotation marks. This means every direct quotation should have the following:

• Year of publication
• Page (p.) or paragraph (para.) number—for more of APA's guidance on citing a specific part of a work without page numbers, see our Citations Overview page
• Quotation marks

In APA, in order to best incorporate your direct quotations, pay close attention the punctuation:

• Your page or paragraph number should always have a period, with no space between the p. or para. and the period.
• The cited page or paragraph number for direct quotations should always come directly after the quotation marks end.

Correct citation: Christensen (2010) regarded the "infiltration of only red light" (p. 32) as a success in the experiment.

Incorrect citation: Christensen (2010) regarded the "infiltration of only red light" as a success in the experiment (p. 32).

Integrating Direct Quotations Into Your Paragraphs

Paragraph with direct quotations not integrated.

Teachers in ESL classrooms need more access to professional development. According to Grant (2009), "The percentage of ESL students in high schools has gone up 75% in the last ten years" (p. 338). Gramber (2010) said, "The scope of ESL education is changing rapidly" (p. 2834). Judes (2008) suggested, "ESL teachers often do not have updated certification." A study found that "Non-native English speakers require a different pedagogy than native speakers" (Bartlett, 2004, p. 97).

In this paragraph, there are several excellent direct quotations. However, readers cannot determine why the author chose to list each of these ideas or how they are connected. This paragraph feels a bit choppy because the author is jumping from one idea to another. By using transitions, though, the author can identify the relationships among the ideas.

Paragraph With Direct Quotations, Revised (Revisions in Bold)

Teachers in ESL classrooms need more access to professional development. According to Grant (2009), "The percentage of ESL students in high schools has gone up 75% in the last ten years" (p. 338). This increase has caused a shift in the tradition training of ESL educators. Speaking of this shift, Gramber (2010) wrote, "The scope of ESL education is changing rapidly" (p. 2834). With such a fast change in training and requirements, districts often neglect to keep their teachers up to date. Judes (2010) suggested, "ESL teachers often do not have updated certification" (p. 33). However, teachers must have up-to-date techniques and be familiar with the most recent theories in the field of ESL education. A recent study found that "Non-native English speakers require a different pedagogy than native speakers" (Bartlett, 2011, p. 97), thus showing the need for teachers to be current in their training and pedagogy. One of the best ways to accomplish this update and keep educators aware of currents trends and theories in their fields is through professional development.

Note that all the transitions and connecting sentences are in bold. These sentences help to move the reader along from one quotation to another while also connecting the quotations.

Using Quotations Video Playlist

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Didn't find what you need? Email us at [email protected] .

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Using Different Types of Quotes

• Use a complete sentence to incorporate a dropped quote. Ex: As Rembrandt’s skill developed, he began painting landscapes that are “romantic and visionary” (Wallace 96).
• Use a short phrase to incorporate a dropped quote: Rembrandt’s landscapes are “romantic and visionary” (Wallace 96).

• Use a complete sentence to introduce a full sentence quote. Ex: Over the course of time Rembrandt’s work began to change and focus on different themes, but as Wallace points out: "Rembrandt’s great gift as an etcher lay in preserving a sense of spontaneity while scrupulously attending to close detail” (142).
• Use a signal phrase to introduce your full sentence quote. Ex: As Wallace states, “Rembrandt’s great gift as an etcher lay in preserving a sense of spontaneity while scrupulously attending to close detail” (142).

• Introduce your block quote with a colon. Ex: According to Wallace: (add a line break here, and then indent the entire quote).
• Block quotes do not use quotation marks. You have already stated who the author is/what is being referred to in the introduction sentence. Add the in-text parenthetical citation after the period at the end of the quote, though.
• If your block quote is inside a paragraph, you don’t have to start a new paragraph at the end of it. Simply add another line break and begin writing along the left margin (with no indent). [4] X Research source However, you will need to indent the second paragraph by an extra 0.25 in (0.64 cm) if you are citing more than 1 paragraph. [5] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

• Change the structure of the sentence by moving clauses around. Aim to change at least half of the sentence into a new structure, but also make sure that the grammar is correct and the meaning of the sentence is still clear. You can use a thesaurus to exchange words with synonyms.
• Paraphrasing should only be done if you are certain that you understand the content you are copying. If you are unclear as to the meaning of the quote, you won’t be able to put it adequately into your own words.
• When you write your paraphrase, don’t look at the quote. Keep the meaning in your head and create a new sentence to match. [7] X Research source

Formatting Your Quotes

• To use a comma, you might structure the quote with in sentence like this: “Yogurt provides beneficial bacteria to your gut,” so it is good to include 1 serving per day in your diet.
• To use a period, you might structure the quote like this: “Carrots are a valuable source of vitamin A.”

• Example of a quotation that comes with a question mark: Alice said “but where will I go?” (24).
• Example of asking a question about a quotation: With so much contention, will literary scholars ever agree on “the dream-like quality of Alice’s adventure” (39)?
• Example of a question about a quoted question: At this point in the story, readers communally ask “but where will I go?” (24).

• Ellipses can be used in the center of a quote to leave out words that you feel add unnecessary length to the statement without adding value. For example: As the man stated, “reading the book was...enlightening and life-changing.” This is done rather than: As the man stated, “reading the book over the last few weeks was not only incredibly enjoyable, but also enlightening and life-changing.”
• Ellipses should be used only before or after a quote, not both. If you are only use a part of a quote from the center of a selection, it is just a partial or dropped quote. However, keep in mind that ellipses rarely come at the beginning of a quotation. [11] X Research source

• For example: As scholars have noted, “Rembrandt’s portrait of her [Henrickje, his mistress] was both accurate and emotion-filled” (Wallace 49).

• Ex: As Dormer has noted, “his work is much more valuable now then [sic] it was at the time of its creation.”

Quoting in Different Styles

• Ex: We can therefore ascertain that “Rembrandt’s decline in popularity may have been his dedication to Biblical painting” (Wallace 112).
• Ex: According to some, “another reason for Rembrandt’s decline in popularity may have been his dedication to Biblical painting” (Wallace 112), but not everyone agree on this matter.
• Ex: Wallace states that “another reason for Rembrandt’s decline in popularity may have been his dedication to Biblical painting” (112). [15] X Research source

• Ex: As Billy’s character is described, we learn “Billy wasn’t a Catholic, even though he grew up with a ghastly crucifix on his wall” (Vonnegut 1969).
• Ex: Vonnegut gives a factual statement with a clear opinion thrown in when he says “Billy wasn’t a Catholic, even though he grew up with a ghastly crucifix on his wall” (1969).
• Ex: With the knowledge that “Billy wasn’t a Catholic, even though he grew up with a ghastly crucifix on his wall” (Vonnegut 1969), we begin to understand his philosophical standings.

Quoting Successfully

Community Q&A

• Keep a list of quotations as you take research notes, and star your favorites to return later. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Watch for quotations that are quoted by other researchers again and again. Often secondary material will give you hints to finding the best parts of the primary sources. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Quote the opposition so that you can directly pick apart their argument. It's easier to argue against someone if you're using exactly what they said and pointing out its flaws. Otherwise, the opposition can claim that you simply twisted their meaning. Rely on their words and attack directly. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Don't let a research paper become a sea of he-said, she-said. While you want to set up the arguments that have been made on both sides in the past, you also want to make a compelling argument for yourself. Rephrasing, re-organizing an argument, and synthesizing different arguments in your own words makes it clear that you understand what you've researched and makes the paper interesting to read. The reader is searching for a new way to understand the research or a new idea. Too many quotes tend to bury the lead. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• Don't rely too heavily on one source. It's easy to fall in love with a single book when doing research, particularly if there aren't a lot of books on the subject and one author particularly agrees with you. Try to limit how much you quote that author, particularly if a lot of your argument is relying on his or her groundwork already. Look for quotations that complement or challenge that person, and provide your own analysis. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Don't be a sloppy note-taker. Unfortunately, accidental plagiarism is all too common, and it has serious consequences. You may not have meant to plagiarize, but if you write someone else's words down without indicating that you are using a direct quotation, you are plagiarizing whether it was intentional or not (after all, merely relying on lecture notes and not on your own research is lazy and not acknowledging direct quotes as you take notes from texts reflects poor organization). Always indicate quotations in your notes. It's also better to write down a lot of quotations and then paraphrase them later than to write down a paraphrased version. The danger here, particularly if you don't alter the quote much, is that you'll unwittingly change it back to the quotation later, in revision. It's better to have the original right in front of you. If you find yourself unable to choose better language, just quote it properly. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://midway.libguides.com/c.php?g=1100261&p=8025172
• ↑ https://facultyweb.ivcc.edu/rrambo/eng1001/quotes.htm
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_quotations.html
• ↑ http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/engl402/cited.htm
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/punctuation/quotation_marks/index.html
• ↑ http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase2.html
• ↑ http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/ellipses.html
• ↑ https://www.unr.edu/writing-speaking-center/student-resources/writing-speaking-resources/mla-quotation-punctuation
• ↑ https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/mlacitation/intext
• ↑ http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/
• ↑ https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/quotations
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html
• ↑ https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/quoting-paraphrasing-summarizing
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/quotations/
• ↑ https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/evidence/quotation

About This Article

To quote in a research paper in APA style, use in-text parenthetical citations at the end of quotes that have the author's last name and the year the text was published. If you mention the author's name in the sentence with the quote, just include the year the text was published in the citation. If you're citing a quote in MLA style, do the same thing you would for APA style, but use the page number instead of the year the text was published. To learn how to quote a research paper in Chicago style, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Citing Sources in APA Style 7th edition: Quotations

• In-Text Citations
• References Page

For short quotations (less than 40 words), cite the source with page numbers immediately following the end of the quotation.

Effective teams can be difficult to describe because "high performance along one domain does not translate to high performance along another" (Ervin et al., 2018, p. 470).

If there are no page numbers

Provide readers with another way of locating the quoted passage (heading or section names, paragraph numbers, or both if that will best help the reader find the quotation.

Music and language are intertwined in the brain such that "people who are better at rhythmic memory skills tend to excel at language skills as well" ( DeAngelis, 2018, Musical Forays section, para. 4).

Omitted and Added Words

Use ellipsis (...) to indicate any words you omitted from the original work. Use a period plus an ellipsis (. ...) to show a sentence break within omitted material the end of the sentence.

Use brackets [ ] to enclose material you add within a quotation to make it readable or define a term.

DeBacker and Fisher (2012) noted that "those [adults] who read gossip magazines, watch gossip-related television shows, or read gossip articles from internet sites... may feel guilty about wasting their time on a leisure pursuit" (p. 421).

Quotes Within a Quote

Use 'single quotation marks' to indicate dialog or quotations within a quotation.

Bliese et al. (2017) noted that "mobile devices enameled employees in many jobs to work 'anywhere, anytime' and stay electronically tethered to work outside formal working hours" (p. 391).

Quotations That Cite Other Works

When quoting material that contains embedded citations, include the citations within the quotation. Do not include these works in your reference list unless you cite them as a primary source elsewhere in your paper.

Actors "are encouraged to become immersed in a character's life (Stanislavski, 1950), an activity that calls for absorption" (Panero et al., 2016, p. 234).

Long Quotations - 40 words or more

• Start the quotation on a new line and indent the entire quotation a half inch from the left margin.
• Do not use quotation marks.
• Indicate new paragraphs within the quotation by an additional indent.
• Follow the final sentence with a parenthetical citation.

Researchers have studied how people talk to themselves:

Inner speech is a paradoxical phenomenon. It is an experience that is central to many people's everyday lives, and yet it presents considerable challenges to any effort to study it scientifically. Nevertheless, a wide range of methodologies and approaches have combined to shed light on the subjective experience of inner speech and its cognitive and neural underpinnings. (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015, p. 957)

Or, if you use authors' names in the narrative:

Flores et al. (2018) described how they addressed potential researcher bias:

Everyone on the research team belonged to a stigmatized group but also held privileged identities. Throughout the research process, we attended to the ways in which our privileged and oppressed identities may have influenced the research process, findings, and presentation of results. (p. 311)

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MLA Formatting Quotations

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

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:

Quotations and Ellipsis Marks in Research

Basic usage.

In research writing, a student needs to use quoted material carefully. Both quotation and ellipsis marks help the writer to indicate clearly what specific information is borrowed and quoted directly from outside resources.

Double Quotation Marks

Use these to open and close short quotations that can be typed in four lines or fewer.

“Walter Lee! . . . It’s after seven thirty. Lemme see you do some waking up in there now!” shouts Ruth Younger in Act I of A Raisin in the Sun .

Single Quotation Marks

Sometimes, the original passage you’re quoting already uses quotation marks. Change the existing double quotation marks to single quotation marks. Then, enclose the entire passage in double quotation marks. This is called “quote within a quote.”

E.F. Carpenter, writing in Contemporary Dramatists , says of James Butterfield: “The playwright knows where his best work originated. ‘Everything that touches an audience,’ Butterfield told me, ‘comes from memories of the period when I was down and out.’”

Block Quotes

If the borrowed material is longer than four lines, don’t use quotation marks. Instead, indent all lines ten spaces from the left margin and keep double spaced.

Sandra Cisneros’ short story “Eleven” stresses pre-teen isolation:

What they don’t understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you’re eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. And when you wake up on your eleventh birthday you expect to feel eleven, but you don’t. You open your eyes and everything’s just like yesterday, only it’s today. And you don’t feel eleven at all. You feel like you’re still ten. And you are—underneath the year that makes you eleven. (233) Note that the period goes before the MLA page citation.

Other Uses of Double Quotation Marks

• Titles of articles and published essays (but NOT the title of your essay)
• Short stories
• Short poems
• Chapters of books
• Lectures and speeches
• Individual episodes of radio or TV programs
• Words used as words

The Ellipsis Mark

The ellipsis mark indicates that you left some material out of a direct quote. It consists of three spaced periods with a space before and after each one ( . . . ) Example: The health reporter wrote that “obese children are ten times more likely to suffer from heart attacks . . . than non-obese children.”

• If you omit a full sentence or more in the middle of a quoted passage, or when the ellipsis coincides with the end of your sentence, use a period to end the sentence and then use the three-period ellipsis. You should have complete sentences—not fragments—on either side of a four-dot ellipsis. “Most of our efforts,” writes Dave Erikson, “are directed toward saving the bald eagle’s wintering habitat along the Mississippi River. . . . It’s important that the wintering birds have a place to roost, where they can get out of the cold wind and be undisturbed by man.”
• The ellipsis may be used to mark a hesitation or interruption in speech, to suggest unfinished thoughts or to indicate that words have been deleted from the end of a sentence. Do not use the ellipsis at the beginning of a sentence. Before falling into a coma, the victim whispered, “It was a woman with a tattoo on her . . . .”
• When necessary, add the ellipsis after question marks and exclamation points to indicate deleted material. “Is Emily Bronte,” she asked, “really the equal of Jane Austen? . . . That seems unlikely.” Muhammad Ali shouted, “I am the greatest! . . . Nobody can mess up my pretty face.”
• In quoted poetry, use a full line of spaced periods to indicate that you have omitted a line or more from the poem.       Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .       But at my back I always hear Time’s winged chariot hurrying near. —Andrew Marvell

How to Use Quotation Marks: Rules and Examples

by Kaelyn Barron | 10 comments

Whether you want to liven up your book’s scenes with dialogue or simply give credit where it’s due in your research paper, you’ll need to use quotation marks to attribute words to a speaker.

There are some specific rules you’ll need to follow, however, especially once you throw in other punctuations or mix quotes within quotes.

When to Use Quotation Marks

Quotation marks should be used to directly quote the words of someone else, with titles of short works, and when indicating certain words as words.

Direct Quotes

Use quotation marks when you want to use the exact words of someone else in your writing.

For example:

“It’s getting late,” John said. “Maybe we should go home.”

Note that you could also relay what John said without a direct quotation:

John said it’s getting late and maybe we should go home.

Quotes like the example above are usually best suited for creative writing.

If you were sending a text to a friend, for instance, you would probably use the second method and simply relay what John said.

In fiction, however, quotations are used to create dialogue, and dialogue is an excellent way to let your characters speak for themselves and move the plot along more naturally.

In nonfiction, quotes are usually included to present information from other sources. However, if information is simply being paraphrased, quotation marks are not needed.

Run-in and Block Quotations

Run-in quotations are shorter quotes (like the examples above) that take the same format as the regular text that surrounds it.

Block quotes, on the other hand, are longer quotes that are separated from their surrounding text. Although they are direct quotes, direct quotes do not need quotation marks because they are usually separated from the text (in a new paragraph with indented margins, a different font style, or by some other distinction).

Refer to your designated style guide for specific rules regarding how long a quote should be before it becomes a block quote (although five or more lines is generally a good rule).

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches often utilized parallel structure to emphasize key points. One example can be found in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

Titles of Short Works

Most style guides dictate that titles of books, films, magazines, newspapers, and other large works be italicized.

Titles of shorter works, such as poems, chapter titles, and short stories, are placed in quotation marks.

“Mad Girl’s Love Song” is a poem by Sylvia Plath.

He’s currently on Chapter 2, “How to Teach Your Dog to Roll Over.”

“A Sound of Thunder” is a short story by Ray Bradbury.

Words as Words

In some cases, such as when you’re defining a word, you need to indicate which word you’re referring to. Use quotation marks to make this clear.

“SEO” is short for search engine optimization.

The word “tranquil” is synonymous with “calm.”

Quotation Mark Rules

There are several key grammatical rules to keep in mind when using quotation marks in your writing.

Quotations and Capitalization

If you’re quoting a complete sentence, the quotation should start with a capital letter (even if your sentence doesn’t begin with the quote).

Mark explained, “There aren’t enough rooms available for everyone at the house.”

If you are only quoting a particular phrase or selection of words—not a complete sentence—then your quotation should not start with capital letters.

Mark explained that there “weren’t enough rooms” at the house.

If you are splitting a complete sentence in half to insert a parenthetical, then the second half of the quote should not be capitalized.

“The problem,” Mark explained, “is that there aren’t enough rooms for everyone.”

Quotations and Other Punctuations

When quotations contain complete sentences, there is often confusion about where the quotation marks should be placed.

Commas and periods should always go inside quotation marks. Other ending punctuations, like question marks, are placed inside the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted material.

“Is it really necessary?” Sandy asked.

In the example above, Sandy is asking a question, so the question mark is placed inside the quotation marks.

Did Tommy tell you that these things are “really necessary”?

Here, an unnamed writer is asking if Tommy used the precise words “really necessary”; she is asking a question, but she is only quoting two words.

Tina loved everything about the “Eternal City”: its monuments, its river, and especially its food.

The “Eternal City” is in quotation marks because it is a name commonly used to describe Rome. The colon is placed outside, because it is not part of the name.

Quotes Within Quotes

If you want to quote something that already contains a quote, do not use double quotation marks.

“”The Road Not Taken” is my favorite poem,” Michelle said.

Instead, use single quotation marks (‘ ‘) for quotes within quotes.

“‘The Road Not Taken’ is my favorite poem,” Michelle said.

British vs. American Use

If you’re writing for a British audience, note that the British style calls for only single quotation marks (‘ ‘), except when there is a quote within a quote, in which case the double quotation marks are employed.

‘I love your dress, where did you get it?’ she asked the girl.

Additionally, the British also leave punctuation marks that are not part of the quote, such as commas, outside of the quotation marks.

‘It’s such a lovely day’, said Mary, ‘we should go for a walk.’

Check Your Style Guide

Rules for proper use of quotation marks may vary between Chicago , AP , MLA , and other style guides.

When in doubt, always refer to your style guide for the most up to date, accurate information for your specific kind of writing.

How to Use Quotation Marks

Quotes can liven up your fiction with dialogue or help you ace your next research paper with the expert words of others.

Make sure you know how to properly include quotation marks to make your writing more precise and effective.

Do you have any tricks for remembering how to use quotation marks? Share them in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

• Titles: Italics or Quotation Marks? Tips for Writing Titles of Works
• 10 Grammar Software Tools and Punctuation Checkers
• 10 Great Proofreading Tools and Software Programs
• He Said, She Said: Grammar Options in Dialogue

As a blog writer for TCK Publishing, Kaelyn loves crafting fun and helpful content for writers, readers, and creative minds alike. She has a degree in International Affairs with a minor in Italian Studies, but her true passion has always been writing. Working remotely allows her to do even more of the things she loves, like traveling, cooking, and spending time with her family.

10 Comments

Hi Kaelyn I’m writing a biographical book about my great grandparents and I’m wondering how to show when they receive a letter from home. Does the written text of the letter need to be separated by single quotes? Just wondering what the rule was for that situation. Thank you so much.

Hi Deedy, thanks for your question! For a letter, the best thing to do is indent the entire text of the letter so it’s clear it’s separate. You can italicize it or not (I’ve seen both, but no quotes necessary :)

As a novelist, I use characters that talk a lot for a long time. When I move on to a different thought from the character in the next paragraph, do I have to use open quotes? Or do I just continue writing without the open (“) quote?

Hi Lloyd! Thanks for the question. Personally, I think it’s best if you still use the open quote. It’s a visual indication that your character is still talking, so it confuses the reader less.

I do also suggest breaking up the dialogue with some exposition. From my experience, long dialogues/monologues often disrupt the scene, making it hard to remember what else is happening aside from the characters talking.

How should I write what a sign reads/says? Should it be in quotations? All caps? Both? (ex. The sign reads: “PROCESSING.”) Thanks in advance for all you do!

Rick (Author of The Fifth Plane and the upcoming novel The Last Sand Granules)

Hi Rick, thanks for your comment! It doesn’t matter so much which style you choose so long as you’re consistent. In general, though, I wouldn’t put it in a ll caps unless you want to emphasize that the actual sign was in all caps. If you’re using a colon, you might even drop the quotation marks, but keep them if you use a comma.

Hello Kaelyn, if you would please, let me know how can I emphasize the quotation when reading a text? Shall I say: start quote “riding upon the air” end quote, is an Oriental phrase…

Hi Marcus, thanks for your question! You have a few options. I wouldn’t recommend using quote/end quote. You could simply write the quotation in quotation marks, like this: “Riding upon the air” is an Oriental phrase. OR, you could say: The phrase “riding upon the air” is Oriental in origin.

In writing a story I was told that I need to keep it separate like this. Mike asked, “Are you going to eat that?” “No.” answered John.

Hi Kathryne, yes, the two speakers should appear on different lines. However, if you want to attribute “No” that way, it should have a comma and not a period.

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When to Use Quotation Marks for Titles

Do you know when to use quotation marks for titles? Knowing whether to use italics or quotation marks for titles is one of the most common problems students have, especially when it comes to academic writing where you discuss your sources. Luckily, there are consistent themes that can help you pick the right format for each title, no matter what style guide you’re following. 

Below, we explain exactly when to use quotation marks in titles (and when to use italics instead). We’ll cover the title rules for the three main style guides—APA, MLA, and Chicago—and give you some guidelines for figuring out which kinds of titles use which format. 

How to properly quote a title with quotation marks

Quotation marks (“ ”) are mostly for showing speech or copying passages verbatim from other works, but sometimes they’re used for more than just punctuation . For certain types of works, they’re used to set apart titles. 

The general rule is to use quotation marks for titles of short works such as articles, poems, songs, essays, or short stories. By contrast, use italics for larger works such as books, movies, and the names of periodicals. We provide a complete list below. 

When to use italics or quotation marks for titles

Some types of work italicize titles , and some use quotation marks, but how do you know which is which? Here’s a quick list of what kinds of works use each. 

Works that use quotation marks in titles

• journal articles
• newspaper and magazine articles
• blog and online news articles
• essay titles
• poems (except epic poems)
• short stories
• episode titles of TV shows, podcasts, and other serial works
• page titles for websites
• section or part titles within a larger work
• short-form videos, such as those on YouTube

Examples of titles with quotation marks

“A Policy Framework for the Growing Influence of Private Equity on Health Care Deliver”

( Journal of the American Medical Association )

“Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to consider sewer rate increase”

( The Press Democrat )

“E.U. Approves Microsoft’s $69 Billion Deal for Activision”

( The New York Times )

“A Dream Deferred” 

(Langston Hughes)

Short story:

“Everything that Rises Must Converge”

(Flannery O’Connor)

“A Lonely Coast”

(Annie Proulx)

“ (Sittin ’ On) The Dock of the Bay ”

(Otis Redding)

“Think About Things”

(Daoi Freyr)

“The Wolves”

( The Wild Robot Escapes )

“The First Tee”

( The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever )

“The Danger of a Single Story”

(Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)

“ Creativity in Management ”

(John Cleese)

Podcast episodes:

“The Lives of Others”

( This American Life )

“Alone@Work: Miles To Go Before I’m Me”

( Rough Translation )

“Responsible AI”

(Grammarly.com)

“Volleyball”

(Wikipedia.com)

Works that use italics in titles

• anthologies
• epic poems (not regular poems)
• periodical names (magazines, newspapers, and news websites)
• radio shows
• TV shows (not individual episodes)
• podcasts (not individual episodes)
• music albums
• video games
• operas and long musical compositions
• classic art like paintings and sculptures
• dissertations
• legal cases
• large vehicles such as ships, aircrafts, and spacecrafts

When to use quotation marks for titles for each style guide

While the basics are the same—italics for the titles of long works and quotation marks for the titles of short works—some minor details may vary. Here’s a quick rundown of when to use quotation marks in titles for the APA, MLA, and Chicago styles. 

Quotations marks in titles for APA

The APA format follows the list above: It uses quotation marks for all types of work mentioned. The only particular rule they have about quotation marks in titles is that they are not used in the reference list for articles and chapters.  

In APA, the reference list is the name of the bibliography, like a works cited page . When writing a full citation that mentions an article or book chapter, simply write the title with neither quotation marks nor italics. However, if the same title is written within the text (or in a copyright attribution), use quotation marks. 

Quotations marks in titles for Chicago

In general, Chicago style follows the list above. It does, nevertheless, list a few extra types of works that the other style guides do not. 

Quotation marks for titles:

• fairy tales and nursery rhymes

Italics for titles: 

• serialized cartoons and comic strips

Quotations marks in titles for MLA

The use of quotation marks in titles for MLA format is very straightforward. Simply use the appropriate format for the type of work, as indicated in the large list above. 

When to use single or double quotation marks for titles

There are two types of quotation marks: single quotation marks (‘ ’) and double quotation marks (“ ”). 

In general, American English uses double quotation marks. The only time we use single quotation marks for titles is to replace quotation marks within another pair of quotation marks. 

For example, if you were writing an article about Langston Hughes’s poems—highlighting “Harlem” in particular—the title of your article might be something like this:

“Reflections on ‘Harlem’ and Other Poems” 

Notice how, when we talk about the poem “Harlem” on its own, we use the standard double quotation marks. However, when we mention it within another pair of quotation marks, we use single quotation marks instead. 

This is done simply for the sake of clarity. It would be confusing to use double quotation marks within double quotation marks, so this makes reading a bit easier. Let’s look at another example: 

EPISODE TITLE: “The Winds of Winter” (episode of Game of Thrones )

ESSAY TITLE: “Why ‘The Winds of Winter’ Is the Best Episode of Game of Thrones ”

Keep in mind that if a title in quotation marks is used within an italicized title, double quotation marks are used. For example, look at how we write the title of a full book that collects Roald Dahl’s short stories: 

“The Landlady” and Other Short Stories

It’s also worth noting that this is only the convention in American English. In British English, single quotes and double quotes are switched! That means titles and speech quotes use single quotation marks most of the time and double quotation marks are used only within single quotes. Keep that in mind if you’re ever reading a British piece of writing . 

Quotation marks for titles FAQs

Why use quotation marks for titles.

Quotation marks set apart the titles of short works like articles, poems, songs, essays, or short stories. Longer works like books or movies use italics instead. 

When do you use quotation marks for titles?

Use quotation marks for the titles of articles, essays, poems, short stories, songs, chapters, lectures, pages for websites, episodes of serial works (such as TV shows or podcasts), names of sections or parts in larger works, and short-form videos such as those on YouTube. 

When do you use italics?

Use italics for the titles of books, movies, plays, TV shows, podcasts, video games, apps, classic art (like paintings and sculptures), music albums, legal cases, dissertations, anthologies, reports, periodicals (like magazines or newspapers), operas and long musical compositions, and large vehicles (like ships or aircraft).

Quotations From Research Participants

Because quotations from research participants are part of your original research, do not include a reference list entry for them in the reference list and do not treat them as personal communications.

For the formatting, follow the same guidelines as for other quotations :

• Present a quotation of fewer than 40 words in quotation marks within the text.
• Present a quotation of 40 words or more in a block quotation indented below the text.

State in the text that the quotations are from participants, as in this example:

In focus group discussions, participants described their postretirement experiences, including the emotions associated with leaving work and its affective and practical implications. “Rafael” (64 years old, retired pilot) mentioned several difficulties associated with retirement, including feeling like he was “in a void without purpose . . . it took several months to develop new interests that motivated [him] each day.” Several other participants agreed, describing the entrance into retirement as “confusing,” “lonely,” “purposeless,” and “boring.” In contrast, others described the sense of “balance” and “relaxation” retirement brought to their lives.

Quotations from research participants are covered in the seventh edition APA Style Publication Manual Section 8.36

Ethical considerations when quoting participants

When quoting research participants, abide by any ethical agreements regarding confidentiality and/or anonymity agreed to between you and your participants during the consent or assent process. Take care to obtain and respect participants’ consent to have their information included in your report. To disguise participant information, you may need to

• assign pseudonyms to participants,
• obscure identifying information, and/or
• present aggregate information.

Agreements regarding confidentiality and/or anonymity may also extend to other sources related to your methodology (e.g., quoting a school policy document when conducting a case study at a school). In that case, you might need to employ similar strategies (e.g., rather than referring to a school by name, refer to “an elementary school in Atlanta, Georgia”).

For detailed discussion of ethical considerations for sharing data and protecting confidentiality in your research, see Sections 1.14, 1.15, and 1.19 of the Publication Manual .