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Integrating Quotations in MLA Style

Integrating Quotations (MLA)

A reader may be able to make sense of a quotation dropped into a piece of writing, but introducing or integrating quotations into the flow of your sentence is the way to use them most effectively—to be sure that your reader knows what you mean. You have three options: 

• Introduce the quotation with a statement that puts it in context. A colon follows a formal statement or independent clause.
• Lynn Quitman Troyka warns us of the particular challenges of using quotations in research papers: “The greatest risk you take when you use quotations is that you will end up with choppy, incoherent sentences” (184). 
• Use a signal phrase followed by a comma or a signal verb followed by that to announce a quotation.
• According to Lynn Quitman Troyka, “. . ..”
• The narrator suggests that “. . ..”
• As Jake Barnes says, “. . . . . ..”
• Frye rejects this notion when he argues, “. . ..”
• Integrate the quotation fully into your sentence. The quotation and your words must add up to a complete sentence.
• We know the boy has learned a painful lesson when he says that his eyes “burned with anguish and anger” (Joyce 481). 
• Leaders are inspirational; they are concerned with “providing meaning or purpose in work for employees and creating meaning in the product for customers” (Ivancevich, Lorenzi, and Skinner 341).  
• Researchers found that firms with a strong corporate culture “based on a foundation of shared values” outperformed the other firms by a large margin (Quigley 42).

Quotations within Quotations:

Use single quotation marks to enclose a quotation within a quotation.

• Miller states, “Religions are examples of ‘noble lies’ aimed at uplifting human stature” (18).

Adding Material within Quotations:

Use square brackets to enclose material that you add to or change within a quotation to allow it to fit grammatically into a sentence. 

• Balko (2015) argues, “If they [policymakers] want to fight obesity, they’ll halt the creeping 

socialization of medicine” (p. 142).

• “Today, the [saturated fat] warnings remain a cornerstone of the government’s dietary guidelines,” O’Connor (2016) states, “though in recent years the American Heart Association has also begun to warn that too much added sugar may increase cardiovascular disease risk” (p.92). 

Block Quotations:

Indent longer quotations (more than four lines) ten spaces from the margin. Notice that quotation marks are not used to enclose material that is set off from the text and that the parenthetical reference is placed after the punctuation following the quotation. 

A socially responsible vision can make an organization more attractive to customers, potential employees, and investors.  As consultant Robert Rosen puts it,  

The best companies are values-based and performance-driven.  Their community involvement supports the mission of the business.  Modern employees want to work for companies who make a difference, their customers want to do business with them because they have solid reputations as good corporate citizens, and shareholders enjoy the value such companies represent over the long term. (9)

Shortening Quotations:

Use an ellipsis of three dots to shorten longer quotations by removing non-essential words and ideas from the middle of the quote.  The quotation must fit grammatically into the sentence even with the ellipsis.   It must also retain enough of the quotation so that it still makes sense in your essay and you do not distort its meaning.   You do not need to provide ellipses at the beginning or the end of the quoted material. 

Foer states, “My grandmother survived World War II barefoot, scavenging Eastern Europe for other people’s inedibles . . . So she never cared if I colored outside the lines, as long as I cut coupons along the dashes” (159). 

Complete quote: “My grandmother survived World War II barefoot, scavenging Eastern Europe for other people’s inedibles: rotting potatoes, discarded scraps of meat, skins and the bits that clung to bones and pits. So she never cared if I colored outside the lines, as long as I cut coupons along the dashes.” 

Quick tip about citing sources in MLA style

What’s a thesis, sample mla essays.

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• Block quoting in MLA style

MLA Block Quotes | Format and Examples (8th Edition)

Published on May 23, 2018 by Courtney Gahan . Revised on March 5, 2024.

When you include a long quote in an MLA paper , you have to format it as a block quote . MLA style (8th edition) requires block quote formatting for:

• Quotes of poetry longer than three lines
• Quotes of prose longer than four lines

An MLA block quote is set on a new line, indented 0.5 inches, with no quotation marks. The MLA in-text citation  goes after the period at the end of the block quote.

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Table of contents

How to block quote in mla, block quote examples, quotes within block quotes, omitting words or lines in block quotes, frequently asked questions about block quoting in mla.

To create a block quote in MLA, follow these four simple steps.

Step 1: Introduce the quote

Always introduce block quotes in your own words. Start with a sentence or two that shows the reader why you are including the quote and how it fits into your argument. After the introductory sentence, add a colon , and then start the quote on a new line.

Step 2: Format the quote

Like the rest of your MLA format paper, the block quote should be double spaced. Indent the entire quote half an inch from the left margin. Include the same capitalization , punctuation, and line breaks as appear in the original text.

Step 3: Cite the quote

At the end of the quote, add an MLA in-text citation directly after the final punctuation mark. This contains the name of the author(s) and the page number(s) from which the quote is taken.

Every in-text citation must correspond to an entry in the Works Cited list. You can create citations using our free MLA citation generator .

Step 4: Comment on the quote

Under the block quote, analyze or comment on the quoted text. Never end a paragraph with a block quote – you should always start and end in your own words.

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See an example

Use the tabs to navigate between the examples for quoting prose and quoting poetry . Pay attention to the indentation, spacing, the colon after the leading sentence, and the parenthetical citation.

• Block quote of prose
• Block quote of poetry

The reader quickly becomes familiar with Nick Carraway’s relationship with Jay Gatsby, as the very first mention of the character illustrates both his admiration and disdain :

The poem “My Country” is one of the most widely known in Australia, expressing the poet’s affection for the country’s unique landscape :

If you block quote from a play, follow our guide to MLA play citation .

If you want to block quote a passage that itself contains a quote , use quotation marks as you normally would around the inner quote.

Example nested quotation

Like his introduction of Gatsby, Fitzgerald’s opening description of Daisy immediately informs the reader of her charm and allure:

You can shorten block quotes by using ellipses ( … ) to indicate that you have removed some text. If you shorten a quote like this, make sure it doesn’t change the author’s original meaning or leave out important context.

If you want to omit a line of poetry , you can indicate this with a line of periods approximately the same length as the line of the poem.

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In MLA style , if you quote more than four lines from a source, use MLA block quote formatting .

If you are quoting poetry , use block quote formatting for any quote longer than three lines.

To format a block quote in MLA:

• Introduce the quote with a colon and set it on a new line.
• Indent the whole quote 0.5 inches from the left margin.
• Place the MLA in-text citation after the period at the end of the block quote.

Then continue your text on a new line (not indented).

To create a correctly formatted block quote in Microsoft Word, follow these steps:

• Hit Enter at the beginning and end of the quote.
• Highlight the quote and select the Layout menu.
• On the Indent tab, change the left indent to 0.5″.

Do not put quotation marks around the quote, and make sure to include an MLA in-text citation after the period at the end.

Cite this Scribbr article

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.

Gahan, C. (2024, March 05). MLA Block Quotes | Format and Examples (8th Edition). Scribbr. Retrieved August 12, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/mla/block-quotes/

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Writing with artificial intelligence, quoting in mla – definition & examples.

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Table of Contents

Quotations are effective in academic writing when used carefully and selectively. Although misquoting or quoting too much can confuse or overwhelm your audience, quoting relevant and unique words, phrases, sentences, lines, or passages can help you achieve your purpose.

The Modern Language Association (MLA) provides guidelines/rules for quoting:

• Quotes within quotes.  

This article discusses rules for quoting both prose and quotes within quotes. It also addresses a few special issues, like what to do if there is a spelling error in a quote, as well as how to handle punctuation. Consult the MLA Handbook to review additional topics and learn more.

Writers must always accurately quote the source. If you decide to quote a source in order to support your thesis statement, reproduce the source word for word. Unless you use brackets or parentheses (see below), changes to the source’s words, spelling, capitalization, or punctuation cannot be made. Additionally, introducing the quote with a signal phrase helps you smoothly incorporate the quotation (“Quotations” 75).

Quoting Prose

The rules for quoting prose vary according to how much you quote. Adhere to the following guidelines.

Special Issues: Omissions in Passages

According to the MLA Handbook , if you must omit a word, phrase, or sentence from a quoted passage, mark the omission with ellipsis points (. . . ), or three spaced periods (80-81).

If you omit an entire sentence, use ellipses points, and retain rules for end punctuation (always place a period at the end of a declarative sentence). In other words, use four periods, with no space before the first or after the last. Follow this rule for a quotation with an ellipses at the end as well, except when a parenthetical citation follows the ellipses.

Original : “I know I have said this before and will say it again, but it bears repeating: if it’s not in the text, it doesn’t exist. We can only read what is present in a novel, play, or film. If something informed the author’s creation of the text but the evidence is not present in the text, that’s a matter for scholars concerned with motives, not with readers wrestling with meaning” (80). Quote with Omission : In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas Foster emphasizes the importance of focusing on textual evidence: “I know I have said this before and will say it again, but it bears repeating: if it’s not in the text, it doesn’t exist. . . . If something informed the author’s creation of the text but the evidence is not

Explanation : Foster’s main point is that readers of literature should concern themselves with the evidence in the text. Pointing out that readers can only read what is actually present in a particular text is illustrative, but this assertion can be omitted without changing the meaning of the passage.

A Word of Caution : Never present a quote in a way that could cause a reader to misunderstand the original quote (80-81).

Additional Special Issues

Other Alterations of Quotes

There may be some occasions when you need to alter a quote in order to prevent the audience from becoming confused.

Punctuation

In the book Subliminal, Leonard Mlodinow explains the role that technology has played in furthering our understanding of the unconscious: “The current revolution in thinking about the unconscious came about because, with modern instruments, we can watch as different structures and substructures in the brain generate feelings and emotions. We can measure the electrical output of individual neurons” (15).

As Harry Frankfurt cautions, “The fact that a person could not have avoided doing something is a sufficient condition of his having done it. But, as some of my examples show, this fact may play no role whatever in the explanation of why he did it” (8).

To further explain the principle of diminishing marginal utility of income, Watts quotes Abba Lerner, who argues that the principle ““can be derived from the assumption that consumers spend their income in a way that maximizes the satisfaction they can derive from the good obtained’” (Lerner qtd. in Watts 141).

“No!” she emphatically responded, for the third time.

Do you agree with Watts’s view regarding the essential difference between persons and other creatures: that it is to be found in the “structure of a person’s will” (12)? The question mark is not part of the quoted material, so it should be placed outside the closing quotation mark.

Quoting prose in MLA format can seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, the MLA has offered clear guidelines for doing so. Consult the MLA Handbook to learn more about quoting in MLA.

Works Cited

Foster, Thomas. How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines . Revised Edition. Harper Perennial, 2014.

Frankfurt, Harry. The Importance of What We Care About. Cambridge UP, 1998.

Mlodinow, Leonard. Subliminal : How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior . Vintage Books, 2012.

“Quotations.” The MLA Handbook . 8 th edition. The Modern Language Association of America, 2016, pp. 75-91.

Smith, James Jr. The Writer’s Little Helper . Writer’s Digest Books, 2006.

Watts, Alan. The Book on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are . 1966. VintageBooks, 1989.

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Jerz's Literacy Weblog (est. 1999)

Quotations: integrating them in mla-style papers.

Jerz >  Writing > Academic     [ Argument | Title  |  Thesis  |  Blueprint  | Pro/Con | Quoting |  MLA Format ]

The MLA-style in-text citation is a highly compressed format, designed to preserve the smooth flow of your own ideas (without letting the outside material take over your whole paper). See also: Academic Writing ; Using Quotations Effectively ; Thesis Statements

One engineer who figures prominently in all accounts of the 1986 Challenger accident says NASA was “absolutely relentless and Machiavellian” about following procedures to the letter ( Vaughan 221 ).

Integrating Sources: Using Quotations in an MLA Style Academic Paper

The standard MLA citation uses just the author’s last name and the page number (or line number), separated by a space ( not a comma).

Diane Vaughan cites a shuttle engineer who says NASA was “absolutely relentless and Machiavellian” about following procedures to the letter ( 221 ). 

When your own sentence mentions the author, do not repeat the author in the parenthetical citation.

In high school, you may have been rewarded for introducing every quote with a full sentence identifying the author and mentioning the author’s credentials. In the examples below, the bold text is useless filler.

An MLA-style paper does not ask you to give the full name and credentials of your sources in the body of your paper, or even the full title of your source. (Save that information for the Works Cited list.)

In high school, where you might write a whole paper using only one or two sources, you got points for calling attention to the fact that you found a good source and were able to use it successfully in a paper. But in a paper you write for college, you may use three or four different sources in the same paragraph, and you may refer to several additional sources without actually quoting from them. If you bring your essay to a screeching halt in order to introduce the full name and credentials of each author, you will bury whatever argument you were trying to make.

Any college writing handbook will have multiple examples of how to cite multiple pages from the same source, multiple works from the same author, and other variations. This handout does not attempt to cover those details; instead, it emphasizes the stylistic and intellectual value of integrating brief quotes from outside sources, using those words to make your own original point. That’s very different from the wordy, high-schoolish method of introducing a quotation, presenting the quoted words, and then summarizing what those words mean.

Integrate Brief Quotations from Outside Sources

Don’t interrupt the flow of your own argument to give the author’s full name or the source’s full title. Spend fewer words introducing your sources, and devote more words to expressing and developing your own ideas in ways that use shorter quotations, or even just a few words, from your outside sources.

Spot the Wordy Formula

Efficient Revision

Three Potential Ways to Apply Borrowed Material

The following examples show three different ways that the same quoted material could be used to advance an original argument, by directly tying the material from one source to related material from another source..

Note the absence of phrases like, “This quote supports my claims because…” or “Another quote offers a useful contrast with this quote.” These revisions aren’t wasting any words talking about “quotes” or “sources,” just as a good carpenter won’t call attention to nail holes or sawed joints.

Integrate Borrowed Material Smoothly and Efficiently

Avoid clunky, high-schoolish documentation like the following:.

Don’t expend words writing about quotes and sources. If you use words like “in the book My Big Boring Academic Study , by Professor H. Pompous Windbag III, it says” or “the following quote by a government study shows that…” you are wasting words that would be better spent developing your ideas.

Using about the same space as the original, see how MLA style helps an author devote more words to developing the idea more fully. We shall continue to revise the above example:

While MLA Style generally expects authors to save details for the Works Cited pages, there’s nothing wrong with introducing the work more fully — if you have a good reason to do so.

For example, in a paper on the history of the typewriter, you might want to refer to the typist who appears in T. S. Eliot’s poem, “The Waste Land.” If so, you should identify the source as a poem, so that reader won’t mistake the reference for an academic article. In a similar way, if your paper mainly cites poets, you might need to identify somebody else as an editor or literary critic. Or, perhaps you feel that a particular author’s nationality, ethnicity, gender, age, or education level may affect the relevance of a particular point raised by the author.

Don’t give the full, high-schoolish introduction without a good reason — the presence of irrelevant details is a signal to your reader that you don’t know what you want to say.

Dennis G. Jerz 03 Oct 2007 — extracted from a handout that focused on finding good sources . 08 Oct 2011 — minor updates. 06 Feb 2012 — minor updates (added wordiness table and bar chart)

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / MLA Format / Using short quotes and block quotes in MLA

Using short quotes and block quotes in MLA

Quotations (also known as quotes) are the exact words that are taken directly from a text and repeated by someone other than the original author. When you use the exact words and sentence structure as your source, you are quoting that source. When using quotes in your writing, you need to copy the words exactly as they appear in the source.

Quotes should be used sparingly because the majority of the text should be your own ideas. Keep quotations short and to the point to keep your readers interested. Quotes are most effective when the exact words of the source are particularly well suited for your purposes and back up your own ideas.

Short quotes vs. block quotes

There are several ways to incorporate quotations into your text. You can include short quotes of four lines or less, which are incorporated into your text and are set off from the text with quotation marks.

If the section you wish to quote is longer than four lines, you can use a block quote . Block quotes are set off from the text in a separate paragraph that has larger indents at the left margin.

The MLA Handbook says this about quotes:

Construct a clear, grammatically correct sentence that allows you to introduce or incorporate a quotation accurately. When you quote, reproduce the source text exactly. Do not make changes in the spelling, capitalization, interior punctuation, italicization, or accents that appear in the source. Generally place citations at the end of your sentence or quotation. (253)

The quote above from the MLA Handbook is formatted in block quote style.

When using quotes in your papers, you must include the author’s last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation is taken as an in-text citation, unless you have named the author is the sentence preceding the quote. A full reference should appear in your Works Cited page.

Using short quotes in MLA

When you want to cite a section of your source that is four lines or less, you set off the quote in the text with double quotation marks directly before and after the quoted material. End punctuation goes before the final quotation mark.

Quotations can be integrated into a text in several ways.

1. Use the quote as a sentence

She recalled the moment of her husband’s passing. “John was talking, then he wasn’t” (Didion 10).

2. Directly integrate the quote into the sentence

Didion writes that for many months, “there has been occasions on which I was incapable of thinking rationally” and that she was “thinking as small children think, as if my thoughts or wishes had the power to reverse the narrative, change the outcome” (35).

3. Place the quotation in the middle of the sentence

Joan Didion says that after returning to her apartment after her husband’s death, she felt that, “there must be certain things I needed to do,” when she got home from the hospital (28).

Guidelines that apply to all short quote formats:

• All punctuation should be the same in the quote as in the source text.
• The MLA in-text citation should always appear in parentheses at the end of your sentence, regardless of the location of the quote within the sentence.
• If the source does not use page numbers, do not include a number in the parenthetical citation.
• If the source does not have an author’s name, you should use the title of the work or the first item listed in the full reference in the parenthetical citation instead.
• Punctuation such as periods, commas, and semicolons are placed after the parenthetical citation.

Quoting poetry

When quoting up to three short lines of poetry, indicate breaks in verse by placing a forward slash at the end of each verse line. A space should precede and follow the slash. If there is a stanza break within the quotation, indicate this with a double slash ( // ).

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?” (Oliver 94).

“What is my name? // What is the name of the deep breath I would take / over and over” (Oliver 125).

Block quotes

If you want to quote a section of text that is longer than four lines or a section of poetry that is longer than three lines, use a block quote. Block quotes are also used when quoting lines from a play.

You introduce the block quote with a sentence in your own words. You want to let your reader know who the quote is from and why you are including it.

Joan Didion ends her first chapter by laying out her goal for writing the book:

This is my attempt to make sense of the period that followed, the weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I had ever had about death, about illness, about probability and luck, about good fortune and bad, about marriage and children and memory, about grief, about the ways in which people do and do not deal with the fact that life ends, about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself. (7)

How to format a block quote

• Lead into the quote with a summary sentence that lets the reader know why you are including the quote.
• End the sentence before quote with a colon (unless the grammatical connection between the sentence leading into the quote requires some other punctuation or none at all).
• Start a new line.
• Indent the quote ½ inch or five spaces from the left margin for the entire quote (not just the first line).
• Do not use quotation marks.
• Double space the quote.
• Put the parenthetical citation after the final punctuation mark in the quote.
• Comment on the quote after using it. Do not end a paragraph with a block quote. You should always have text after it.

Adding or omitting words in quotations

• If you add words to a quotation, enclose them in brackets like [this].
• If you omit words in a quotation, use an ellipsis, which is three periods separated by spaces ( . . . ) to show where the words were removed.

You may want to add or omit words in quotations to make them clearer, shorten them, or help them to fit grammatically into your sentence.

Additional block quote formatting for prose

• If you are directly quoting one paragraph or part of one, do not indent the first line of the block quote more than the rest of the quote.
• If you are quoting two or more paragraphs and the first sentence of the quote is also the first sentence of a paragraph in the source, indent the first line of each paragraph an additional ½ inch or five spaces.
• If the first sentence of a multi-paragraph quote is not the first sentence of a paragraph in the source, indent only the first line of the second paragraph ½ inch or five spaces.

Formatting block quotes for poetry

Format it as you would prose unless the poem has unusual spacing or formatting.

• Indent ½ inch or five spaces from the left margin.
• Do not add any quotation marks unless they appear in the source.
• If the line of poetry does not fit on one line in the paper, continue it on the next line, but indent that line an additional ½ inch or five spaces (like a hanging indent).
• When citing longer sections of poetry, keep the formatting as close to the original as possible.

In her poem, Rain, Mary Oliver describes the sensation of rain on a tree:

All afternoon it rained, then

such power came down from the clouds

on a yellow thread,

as authoritative as God is supposed to be.

When it hit the tree, her body

Opened forever. (3)

Formatting block quotes for drama/plays

Formatting quotes from plays has slightly different rules than prose and poetry.

To format dialogue from plays:

• Begin with the name of the character speaking printed in all capital letters followed by a period.
• Start the quotation. If the line a character is saying needs more than one line, indent the subsequent lines a ½ inch or five spaces.
• Some lines of dialogue start with extra spaces between the character name and the first line of dialogue. Print the dialogue exactly as it appears in the play, including the extra spaces.
• When the dialogue shifts to a new character, follow the pattern above.
• For the in-text citation, cite the act, scene, and line of the quote instead of the page number.

ROMEO.                                     By a name

I know not how to tell thee who I am.

My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,

Because it is an enemy to thee.

Had I it written, I would tear the word.

JULIET. My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words

Of thy tongue’s uttering, yet I know the sound.

Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

ROMEO. Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike. (Shakespeare 2.2.54-61)

• Works Cited

Didion, Joan. A Year of Magical Thinking . Vintage International, 2006.

MLA Handbook.  9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

Oliver, Mary. New and Selected Poems. Vol. 1, Beacon Press, 2004.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet . Arden Shakespeare , edited by René Weis, Bloomsbury, 2012, 118–338. Drama Online , https://doi.org/10.5040/9781408160152.00000039.

Published October 27, 2020. Updated July 18, 2021.

By Catherine Sigler. Catherine has a Ph.D. in English Education and has taught college-level writing for 15 years.

MLA Formatting Guide

MLA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Sample Paper
• MLA 8 Updates
• MLA 9 Updates
• View MLA Guide

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• Magazine Article
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Quoting and integrating sources into your paper

In any study of a subject, people engage in a “conversation” of sorts, where they read or listen to others’ ideas, consider them with their own viewpoints, and then develop their own stance. It is important in this “conversation” to acknowledge when we use someone else’s words or ideas. If we didn’t come up with it ourselves, we need to tell our readers who did come up with it.

It is important to draw on the work of experts to formulate your own ideas. Quoting and paraphrasing the work of authors engaged in writing about your topic adds expert support to your argument and thesis statement. You are contributing to a scholarly conversation with scholars who are experts on your topic with your writing. This is the difference between a scholarly research paper and any other paper: you must include your own voice in your analysis and ideas alongside scholars or experts.

All your sources must relate to your thesis, or central argument, whether they are in agreement or not. It is a good idea to address all sides of the argument or thesis to make your stance stronger. There are two main ways to incorporate sources into your research paper.

Quoting is when you use the exact words from a source. You will need to put quotation marks around the words that are not your own and cite where they came from. For example:

“It wasn’t really a tune, but from the first note the beast’s eyes began to droop . . . Slowly the dog’s growls ceased – it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep” (Rowling 275).

Follow these guidelines when opting to cite a passage:

• Choose to quote passages that seem especially well phrased or are unique to the author or subject matter.
• Be selective in your quotations. Avoid over-quoting. You also don’t have to quote an entire passage. Use ellipses (. . .) to indicate omitted words. Check with your professor for their ideal length of quotations – some professors place word limits on how much of a sentence or paragraph you should quote.
• Before or after quoting a passage, include an explanation in which you interpret the significance of the quote for the reader. Avoid “hanging quotes” that have no context or introduction. It is better to err on the side of your reader not understanding your point until you spell it out for them, rather than assume readers will follow your thought process exactly.
• If you are having trouble paraphrasing (putting something into your own words), that may be a sign that you should quote it.
• Shorter quotes are generally incorporated into the flow of a sentence while longer quotes may be set off in “blocks.” Check your citation handbook for quoting guidelines.

Paraphrasing is when you state the ideas from another source in your own words . Even when you use your own words, if the ideas or facts came from another source, you need to cite where they came from. Quotation marks are not used. For example:

With the simple music of the flute, Harry lulled the dog to sleep (Rowling 275).

Follow these guidelines when opting to paraphrase a passage:

• Don’t take a passage and change a word here or there. You must write out the idea in your own words. Simply changing a few words from the original source or restating the information exactly using different words is considered plagiarism .
• Read the passage, reflect upon it, and restate it in a way that is meaningful to you within the context of your paper . You are using this to back up a point you are making, so your paraphrased content should be tailored to that point specifically.
• After reading the passage that you want to paraphrase, look away from it, and imagine explaining the main point to another person.
• After paraphrasing the passage, go back and compare it to the original. Are there any phrases that have come directly from the original source? If so, you should rephrase it or put the original in quotation marks. If you cannot state an idea in your own words, you should use the direct quotation.

A summary is similar to paraphrasing, but used in cases where you are trying to give an overview of many ideas. As in paraphrasing, quotation marks are not used, but a citation is still necessary. For example:

Through a combination of skill and their invisibility cloak, Harry, Ron, and Hermione slipped through Hogwarts to the dog’s room and down through the trapdoor within (Rowling 271-77).

Important guidelines

When integrating a source into your paper, remember to use these three important components:

• Introductory phrase to the source material : mention the author, date, or any other relevant information when introducing a quote or paraphrase.
• Source material : a direct quote, paraphrase, or summary with proper citation.
• Analysis of source material : your response, interpretations, or arguments regarding the source material should introduce or follow it. When incorporating source material into your paper, relate your source and analysis back to your original thesis.

Ideally, papers will contain a good balance of direct quotations, paraphrasing and your own thoughts. Too much reliance on quotations and paraphrasing can make it seem like you are only using the work of others and have no original thoughts on the topic.

Always properly cite an author’s original idea, whether you have directly quoted or paraphrased it. If you have questions about how to cite properly in your chosen citation style, browse these citation guides . You can also review our guide to understanding plagiarism .

University Writing Center

The University of Nevada, Reno Writing Center provides helpful guidance on quoting and paraphrasing and explains how to make sure your paraphrasing does not veer into plagiarism. If you have any questions about quoting or paraphrasing, or need help at any point in the writing process, schedule an appointment with the Writing Center.

Works Cited

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.  A.A. Levine Books, 1998.

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

MLA Formatting and Style Guide

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.

The following overview should help you better understand how to cite sources using MLA  9 th edition, including how to format the Works Cited page and in-text citations.

Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in MLA. See also our MLA vidcast series on the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel .

Creating a Works Cited list using the ninth edition

MLA is a style of documentation that may be applied to many different types of writing. Since texts have become increasingly digital, and the same document may often be found in several different sources, following a set of rigid rules no longer suffices.

Thus, the current system is based on a few guiding principles, rather than an extensive list of specific rules. While the handbook still describes how to cite sources, it is organized according to the process of documentation, rather than by the sources themselves. This gives writers a flexible method that is near-universally applicable.

Once you are familiar with the method, you can use it to document any type of source, for any type of paper, in any field.

Here is an overview of the process:

When deciding how to cite your source, start by consulting the list of core elements. These are the general pieces of information that MLA suggests including in each Works Cited entry. In your citation, the elements should be listed in the following order:

• Title of source.
• Title of container,
• Other contributors,
• Publication date,

Each element should be followed by the corresponding punctuation mark shown above. Earlier editions of the handbook included the place of publication and required different punctuation (such as journal editions in parentheses and colons after issue numbers) depending on the type of source. In the current version, punctuation is simpler (only commas and periods separate the elements), and information about the source is kept to the basics.

Begin the entry with the author’s last name, followed by a comma and the rest of the name, as presented in the work. End this element with a period.

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. Routledge, 1994.

Title of source

The title of the source should follow the author’s name. Depending upon the type of source, it should be listed in italics or quotation marks.

A book should be in italics:

Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House . MacMurray, 1999.

An individual webpage should be in quotation marks. The name of the parent website, which MLA treats as a "container," should follow in italics:

Lundman, Susan. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow, www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html.*

A periodical (journal, magazine, newspaper) article should be in quotation marks:

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.

A song or piece of music on an album should be in quotation marks. The name of the album should then follow in italics:

Beyoncé. "Pray You Catch Me." Lemonade, Parkwood Entertainment, 2016, www.beyonce.com/album/lemonade-visual-album/.

*The MLA handbook recommends including URLs when citing online sources. For more information, see the “Optional Elements” section below.

Title of container

The eighth edition of the MLA handbook introduced what are referred to as "containers," which are the larger wholes in which the source is located. For example, if you want to cite a poem that is listed in a collection of poems, the individual poem is the source, while the larger collection is the container. The title of the container is usually italicized and followed by a comma, since the information that follows next describes the container.

Kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl." The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by Tobias Wolff, Vintage, 1994, pp. 306-07.

The container may also be a television series, which is made up of episodes.

“94 Meetings.” Parks and Recreation, created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, performance by Amy Poehler, season 2, episode 21, Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, 2010.

The container may also be a website, which contains articles, postings, and other works.

Wise, DeWanda. “Why TV Shows Make Me Feel Less Alone.”  NAMI,  31 May 2019,  www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/May-2019/How-TV-Shows-Make-Me-Feel-Less-Alone . Accessed 3 June 2019.

In some cases, a container might be within a larger container. You might have read a book of short stories on Google Books , or watched a television series on Netflix . You might have found the electronic version of a journal on JSTOR. It is important to cite these containers within containers so that your readers can find the exact source that you used.

“94 Meetings.” Parks and Recreation , season 2, episode 21, NBC , 29 Apr. 2010. Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/70152031?trackId=200256157&tctx=0%2C20%2C0974d361-27cd-44de-9c2a-2d9d868b9f64-12120962.

Langhamer, Claire. “Love and Courtship in Mid-Twentieth-Century England.” Historical Journal , vol. 50, no. 1, 2007, pp. 173-96. ProQuest, doi:10.1017/S0018246X06005966. Accessed 27 May 2009.

Other contributors

In addition to the author, there may be other contributors to the source who should be credited, such as editors, illustrators, translators, etc. If their contributions are relevant to your research, or necessary to identify the source, include their names in your documentation.

Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Translated by Richard Howard , Vintage-Random House, 1988.

Woolf, Virginia. Jacob’s Room . Annotated and with an introduction by Vara Neverow, Harcourt, Inc., 2008.

If a source is listed as an edition or version of a work, include it in your citation.

The Bible . Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. 3rd ed., Pearson, 2004.

If a source is part of a numbered sequence, such as a multi-volume book or journal with both volume and issue numbers, those numbers must be listed in your citation.

Dolby, Nadine. “Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Future Directions.” Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, 2008, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/60/362. Accessed 20 May 2009.

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. Translated by H. E. Butler, vol. 2, Loeb-Harvard UP, 1980.

The publisher produces or distributes the source to the public. If there is more than one publisher, and they are all are relevant to your research, list them in your citation, separated by a forward slash (/).

Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine. 1922. Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Artchive, www.artchive.com/artchive/K/klee/twittering_machine.jpg.html. Accessed May 2006.

Women's Health: Problems of the Digestive System . American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2006.

Daniels, Greg and Michael Schur, creators. Parks and Recreation . Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, 2015.

Note : The publisher’s name need not be included in the following sources: periodicals, works published by their author or editor, websites whose titles are the same name as their publisher, websites that make works available but do not actually publish them (such as  YouTube ,  WordPress , or  JSTOR ).

Publication date

The same source may have been published on more than one date, such as an online version of an original source. For example, a television series might have aired on a broadcast network on one date, but released on  Netflix  on a different date. When the source has more than one date, it is sufficient to use the date that is most relevant to your writing. If you’re unsure about which date to use, go with the date of the source’s original publication.

In the following example, Mutant Enemy is the primary production company, and “Hush” was released in 1999. Below is a general citation for this television episode:

“Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer , created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 4, Mutant Enemy, 1999 .

However, if you are discussing, for example, the historical context in which the episode originally aired, you should cite the full date. Because you are specifying the date of airing, you would then use WB Television Network (rather than Mutant Enemy), because it was the network (rather than the production company) that aired the episode on the date you’re citing.

“Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 4, episode 10, WB Television Network, 14 Dec. 1999 .

You should be as specific as possible in identifying a work’s location.

An essay in a book or an article in a journal should include page numbers.

Adiche, Chimamanda Ngozi. “On Monday of Last Week.” The Thing around Your Neck, Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, pp. 74-94 .

The location of an online work should include a URL.  Remove any "http://" or "https://" tag from the beginning of the URL.

Wheelis, Mark. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases , vol. 6, no. 6, 2000, pp. 595-600, wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/6/00-0607_article. Accessed 8 Feb. 2009.

When citing a physical object that you experienced firsthand, identify the place of location.

Matisse, Henri. The Swimming Pool. 1952, Museum of Modern Art, New York .

Optional elements

The ninth edition is designed to be as streamlined as possible. The author should include any information that helps readers easily identify the source, without including unnecessary information that may be distracting. The following is a list of optional elements that can be included in a documented source at the writer’s discretion.

Date of original publication:

If a source has been published on more than one date, the writer may want to include both dates if it will provide the reader with necessary or helpful information.

Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. 1984. Perennial-Harper, 1993.

City of publication:

The seventh edition handbook required the city in which a publisher is located, but the eighth edition states that this is only necessary in particular instances, such as in a work published before 1900. Since pre-1900 works were usually associated with the city in which they were published, your documentation may substitute the city name for the publisher’s name.

Thoreau, Henry David. Excursions . Boston, 1863.

Date of access:

When you cite an online source, the MLA Handbook recommends including a date of access on which you accessed the material, since an online work may change or move at any time.

Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 16 Aug. 2002, alistapart.com/article/writeliving. Accessed 4 May 2009.

As mentioned above, while the MLA handbook recommends including URLs when you cite online sources, you should always check with your instructor or editor and include URLs at their discretion.

A DOI, or digital object identifier, is a series of digits and letters that leads to the location of an online source. Articles in journals are often assigned DOIs to ensure that the source is locatable, even if the URL changes. If your source is listed with a DOI, use that instead of a URL.

Alonso, Alvaro, and Julio A. Camargo. "Toxicity of Nitrite to Three Species of Freshwater Invertebrates." Environmental Toxicology , vol. 21, no. 1, 3 Feb. 2006, pp. 90-94. Wiley Online Library, doi: 10.1002/tox.20155.

Creating in-text citations using the previous (eighth) edition

Although the MLA handbook is currently in its ninth edition, some information about citing in the text using the older (eighth) edition is being retained. The in-text citation is a brief reference within your text that indicates the source you consulted. It should properly attribute any ideas, paraphrases, or direct quotations to your source, and should direct readers to the entry in the Works Cited list. For the most part, an in-text citation is the  author’s name and the page number (or just the page number, if the author is named in the sentence) in parentheses :

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

Again, your goal is to attribute your source and provide a reference without interrupting your text. Your readers should be able to follow the flow of your argument without becoming distracted by extra information.

How to Cite the Purdue OWL in MLA

Entire Website

The Purdue OWL . Purdue U Writing Lab, 2019.

Individual Resources

Contributors' names. "Title of Resource." The Purdue OWL , Purdue U Writing Lab, Last edited date.

The new OWL no longer lists most pages' authors or publication dates. Thus, in most cases, citations will begin with the title of the resource, rather than the developer's name.

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL, Purdue U Writing Lab. Accessed 18 Jun. 2018.

VCU Writes: A Student’s Guide to Research and Writing

Focused inquiry, mla quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing.

An essential skill in writing is the ability to ethically and accurately share the ideas of others. Quotations, paraphrases and summaries are all methods of including research in your writing or presentations. Here is a quick overview of the difference between quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing:

• What it is: Using the exact words of your source; must be placed within quotation marks.
• When to use it: Specific terminology, powerful phrases.
• Example: McMillan Cottom explains that “Reading around a subject is about going beyond the object of study to unpack, examine, or pick apart what the person or the object of study represents” (1).

PARAPHRASING

• What it is: Putting another’s ideas into your own words.
• When to use it: To clarify a passage, to avoid over-quoting.
• Example: McMillan Cottom contends that, in addition to reading about a subject itself, we also need to read about the ideas and concepts that are ingrained in a subject in order to truly understand its deeper meaning (1).

SUMMARIZING

• What it is: Putting a larger main idea into your words.
• When to use it: Overview of a topic, main point/idea.
• Example: In McMillan Cottom’s article, “Sleep Around Before You Marry an Argument,” she describes the process of preparing to write about a subject and develop an argument. For her, the first and most important stage in this process is reading; however, she isn’t focused on simply reading everything ever written on a topic, but “reading around a subject.” In her view, the end goal is not just to compile facts, but to develop a thorough, but interesting final product that will connect with your audience. (1)

Work Cited McMillan Cottom, Tressie. “Sleep Around Before You Marry An Argument.” Essaying, Substack, 8 March 2021, https://tressie.substack.com/p/sleep-around-before-you-marry-an?utm_source=url

Note: This page reflects the 9th ed. of the MLA Handbook, published in April 2021. 

The guidelines and examples below will help you determine when and how to appropriately incorporate research into your writing.

For the drop-down menus below, click on the plus (+) sign to open the example; click on the arrow to obtain a link for each specific item that you can copy or email to yourself.

General Guidelines

While you are still gaining experience and confidence in writing, there is often a temptation to rely heavily on the words and ideas of others. You might think, “How can I possibly say it as well as the expert?” or “How will anyone believe me unless I add in exhaustive research?” However, having confidence in your own ideas is one of the hallmarks of a more experienced writer, and this means that when incorporating the ideas of others, we should not allow them to “take over” our own ideas.

In addition, sometimes it is better to paraphrase or summarize an idea to keep it brief, rather than having an excessively long quotation. (See below for more info on both paraphrasing and summarizing ideas.)

That said, there are a number of reasons why we might want to quote the ideas of others. Here are some of the most common:

• When wording is very distinctive so you cannot paraphrase it adequately;
• When you are using a definition or explaining something very technical;
• When it is important for debaters of an issue to explain their positions in their own words (especially if you have a differing viewpoint);
• When the words of an authority will lend weight to your argument;
• When the language of a source is the topic of your discussion (as in an interpretation).

Trying to balance your ideas and those of your sources takes a bit of skill and finesse. The goal is to make the ideas (both yours and those of your sources) feel and look like a conversation—a mutual exchange of voices and ideas that helps you and your audience work out your reasoning on a topic. (You can read more about this idea of academic conversations here.) Sometimes, in the process of trying to incorporate the ideas of others, things fall a bit short of the ideal. Here are some common missteps that can lead to your writing seeming less polished:

• Over-using one source : If you find yourself repeatedly citing the same source again and again in your writing, it will begin to seem as if you are merely repackaging the other author’s ideas, rather than presenting your own. It also gives the appearance that your ideas are one-sided, due to the lack of a diversity of voices in the conversation.
• Having more source material than your own original ideas *: Try color-coding your writing. Highlight each instance where you are quoting, paraphrasing or summarizing a source. What’s left? Is your essay a rainbow of colors, with little else? Or are the majority of ideas/sentences yours, with a few well-chosen instances of source material? Aim for the latter; otherwise, it will seem like you are just “reporting out” on all the research you have gathered, rather than developing your own thinking on a subject.
• Does every aspect of this passage relate to my own paragraph ideas?
• Can I cut out a section of this quotation to emphasize the points that are most relevant? (If yes, see below on proper formatting when you eliminate a portion of the quoted material.)
• Would it be easier/better/more concise to paraphrase this idea? (If yes, see below on how to correctly and incorrectly paraphrase.)
• Dropping in a random quote or source reference : Ideas without context are always confusing, whether they are yours or someone else’s. Make sure you provide adequate context and make connections between your ideas and those of your sources.
• Signal phrase (a few words that introduce the author of the source; this might also include credentials of the author and/or title of work);
• Quoted, paraphrased or summarized material, followed by a parenthetical citation;
• Your own thinking that expands upon the ideas from the source material, and connects it back to your larger point.

For more on how to effectively incorporate evidence into your writing or presentation, see the handout “What Is Evidence?” here on VCU Writes.

*NOTE : This goal is more applicable to some writing situations than others. In a lab report or literature review, for example, the majority of your discussion might include restating/sharing research. Always confirm with your instructor if you are not sure what the appropriate balance of source material should be for your specific writing situation.

When quoting material from a source, wording and punctuation should be reproduced exactly as it is in the original. If you need to alter the quotation in any way, you must indicate this through punctuation or added material. Otherwise, you will be misrepresenting the ideas of others.

When paraphrasing or summarizing source info, you should still use quotation marks and cite any distinctive wording that you kept from the original.

For examples of how to correctly alter a quotation, see the “quoting material with alternate spellings or errors,” “omitting part of a quotation,” and “adding to or changing material in a quotation” sections below.

In certain instances, you do not need to cite information. Some examples include “common knowledge,” “passing mentions,” allusions, or epigraphs. To learn more about these situations and why we don’t need to cite them, see “when documentation (aka citation) is NOT needed” on the MLA parenthetical citations page of this site.

Direct Quotation of Sources

A. Quotations that are fewer than four lines should be included in the text and enclosed in quotation marks. If you introduce the quotation in a signal phrase with the author’s full name (or source title, if the author’s name is not provided), include the page number in parentheses after the end of the quotation and before the period. It is not necessary to repeat the name in the parenthetical citation:

On the efficacy and importance of religion, David Hume asserts , “The life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster” (319) .

B. If you do not introduce the quotation with the author’s full name (or source title, if the author’s name is not provided), include the author’s last name and page number in parentheses after the end of the quotation and before the period:

When considering the efficacy and importance of religion, one must understand that “the life of man is of no greater importance to the universe than that of an oyster” (Hume 319) .

C. If the quotation appears mid-sentence , end the passage with any applicable punctuation and a closing quotation mark, finish the sentence, and then cite the source in parentheses at the end of the sentence :

Based on the findings, Sommerfeldt argued that “the normative role of public relations in democracy is best perceived as creating the social capital that facilitates access to spheres of public discussion,” challenging dominant notions of democratic discourse (664).

(An exception to the mid-sentence example above would be if you have more than one source cited in the same sentence. In that case, include the parenthetical citation directly after each quotation in the sentence.)

Quotations that are more than four lines should be displayed in block quotation format . This is an indented passage that does not require quotation marks (the indent serves in place of quotation marks):

The question of voters’ reasons for picking a specific candidate or side in an issue is a complicated one.

Voters should have good grounds for thinking that they are voting for policies or candidates that will promote the common good. In general, there are three ways that voters will violate this norm. Bad voters might vote out of 1) ignorance, 2) irrational beliefs, or 3) immoral beliefs. In contrast, good voters not only know what policies candidates will try to implement, but also know whether those policies would tend to promote or harm the common good. Voters should aim to promote the common good rather than narrow self-interest. (Brennan 37)

Given that voters often don’t vote with the common good in mind, what steps can the community take to help change that?

Note that the period at the end of the block quotation is placed at the end of the sentence, rather than after the parenthetical citation. After the quotation is completed, continue your paragraph on the left margin (i.e., don’t indent as if it were a new paragraph).

If the quotation includes an alternate spelling (i.e., British English) or an error in grammar, punctuation, or spelling, write the word “sic” in brackets directly after the alternate spelling or error inside the quotation:

“VCU is well known for it’s [sic] diversity” (Jones 43). 

This lets the reader know that it is the original writer’s spelling or error.

It is often useful to omit material when you do not need all words or sentences included in the passage you are citing. If you omit material, use three spaced periods (. . .) within a sentence (the three periods are called an ellipsis) to indicate that you have omitted material from the original source:

Ariel Levy notes that “in the decades since the McKennas’ odyssey, the drug . . . has become increasingly popular in the United States” (34).

If you omit material after the end of a sentence, use four spaced periods (. . . .) . This is a period, followed by an ellipsis.

A. Though direct quotations must be accurate, the first letter of the first word in the quotation may be changed either as uppercase or lowercase to match the flow of your sentence. Additionally, the punctuation mark ending a sentence may also be changed if necessary for appropriate syntax.

B. It is sometimes important to insert material when it will help the reader understand a quotation. When inserting material, enclose it in brackets :

Original quotation : “By programming a variety of Twitter bots to respond to racist abuse against black users, he showed that a simple one-tweet rebuke can actually reduce online racism” (Yong 45).

Revised quotation with inserted material for clarity : “By programming a variety of Twitter bots to respond to racist abuse against black users, he [Kevin Munger] showed that a simple one-tweet rebuke can actually reduce online racism” (Yong 45).

C. If you decide to italicize part or all of a quotation to emphasize a point you’re trying to make, add “emphasis added” in the parenthetical citation directly after the quotation :

The Dalai Lama has said, “Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that’s important. Self-discipline with awareness of consequences” (1, emphasis added) .

Note : If words were already italicized in the quoted material, you do not need to include the “emphasis added” designation. It is assumed that all formatting is original to the quotation unless you indicate otherwise.

Paraphrasing source material

When a writer uses another person’s idea but puts it in their own words, the writer is paraphrasing . We use paraphrasing when we wish to preserve the original ideas in their entirety (as opposed to summarizing the main points). Some reasons a writer might choose to do this include preserving the flow of their writing, or if quoting the material directly would take up too much space.

It is important to remember that just as with quotations, paraphrased material requires an in-text citation to give credit to the original author.

When paraphrasing or referencing an idea from another source, make sure that you provide enough information for the reader to easily locate the passage from the source you reference (for example, the page number or the paragraph number).

Example paraphrase : Original passage : “Reading around a subject is about going beyond the object of study to unpack, examine, or pick apart what the person or the object of study represents” (McMillan Cottom).

Unacceptable paraphrase : It’s important to read around the subject that we are studying by examining what that subject represents.

• Issue 1: Certain words from the original are simply moved around.
• Issue 2: Certain words are only replaced with synonyms or similar words.
• Issue 3: The sentence structure has remained the same.
• Issue 4: The source citation is missing.

Acceptable Paraphrase : McMillan Cottom contends that, in addition to reading about a subject itself, we also need to read about the ideas and concepts that are ingrained in a subject in order to truly understand its deeper meaning (1).

Work Cited McMillan Cottom, Tressie. “Sleep Around Before You Marry An Argument.” Essaying , Substack, 8 March 2021, https://tressie.substack.com/p/sleep-around-before-you-marry-an?utm_source=url

Many writers are reluctant to paraphrase because they worry about making mistakes and unintentionally plagiarizing ideas in their writing. This is a valid concern, but with practice this skill can be developed just like any other. Learning to paraphrase effectively can demonstrate a deeper understanding and command of the ideas you are discussing, and aid in the flow of ideas in your essay or presentation. That said, there are some common mistakes that should be avoided:

• When paraphrasing, make sure that you don’t copy the same pattern of wording as the original sentence or passage . This sometimes happens when a writer tries to just swap out a few words, but keeps the structure of the sentence the same or very similar.
• Likewise, avoid using the same or very similar wording as the original . If your paraphrase includes a word or phrase borrowed from the original, make sure to put that portion in quotation marks.
• As noted above, paraphrases require citations, just like direct quotations. Always include a signal phrase and parenthetical citation to indicate that the info you are sharing is not your own. This is especially important in paraphrasing to make a clear distinction between the writer’s own ideas and the source info. Also, citing your source makes sure that you provide enough information for the reader to easily locate the passage from the source you reference.

To make sure that you don’t fall prey to the above mistakes, read the passage you wish to paraphrase and then put it aside. Without looking at it, try to think about how you can say it in your own words, and write it down. Make sure you aren’t including your own ideas—just try to capture the essence of the original in as clear and straightforward a manner as possible.

Summarizing source material

As explained at the top of this page, a summary is when a writer wants to provide a brief overview of a larger idea. This is distinct from a paraphrase, which usually focuses on a single sentence or paragraph. A writer can summarize an entire essay, a section of an article, or the overall main idea of a composition. While summarizing is perhaps not used as frequently as quoting or paraphrasing in academic writing, it can be an effective critical thinking and reading tool. In fact, your instructor may ask you to do a summary as part of your reading and research gathering to demonstrate your understanding of the material. In most academic writing, summaries should be used sparingly, but can be an efficient way to provide additional context to the intended audience.

It is important to remember that just as with quotations and paraphrases, summarized material requires an in-text citation to give credit to the original author.

When summarizing an idea from another source, make sure that you provide enough information for the reader to easily locate the passage from the source you reference (for example, the page number or the paragraph number).

Example summary :

The following summary focuses on an online article written by Tressie McMillan Cottom, which you can read in full here .

In Tressie McMillan Cottom’s article, “Sleep Around Before You Marry an Argument,” she describes the process of preparing to write about a subject and develop an argument. For her, the first and most important stage in this process is reading; however, she isn’t focused on simply reading everything ever written on a topic, but “reading around the subject.” In her view, the end goal is not just to compile facts, but to develop a thorough, but interesting final product that will connect with your audience. (1)

McMillan Cottom, Tressie. “Sleep Around Before You Marry An Argument.” Essaying , Substack, 8 March 2021,      https://tressie.substack.com/p/sleep- around-before-you-marry-an?utm_source=url

There are some common mistakes that should be avoided when summarizing a source:

• Providing too much detail : While a summary is by its nature longer than a paraphrase, too much detail means that you are getting a bit “in the weeds” with your writing. A summary should be focused on the big ideas of a piece of writing, rather than the individual sections or minor points. A good summary should be much shorter than the original; in most cases, a full paragraph will be more than enough.
• Using the same or very similar wording for part of the summary : Just as with paraphrasing, you want to avoid words, phrases, or patterns of wording from the original source. Stick to your own wording/ideas; if your summary does include a word or phrase borrowed from the original, make sure to put that portion in quotation marks.
• Not providing a citation : As with paraphrases and quotations, summaries also require citations. Always include a signal phrase and parenthetical citation to indicate that the ideas you are summarizing are not your own. This is especially important in summarizing to make a clear distinction between your own ideas and the source info. Also, citing your source makes sure that you provide enough information for the reader to easily locate the source you reference.

To make sure that you don’t fall prey to the above mistakes, read the item you wish to summarize and then put it aside. Without looking at it, try to think about how you would explain the main ideas from the source to someone else in your own words, and write that down. Make sure you don’t add your own analysis or opinion—just try to capture the essence of the original in as clear and straightforward a manner as possible.

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Suggested Ways to Introduce Quotations

When you quote another writer's words, it's best to introduce or contextualize the quote. 

How To Quote In An Essay?

To introduce a quote in an essay, don't forget to include author's last name and page number (MLA) or author, date, and page number (APA) in your citation. Shown below are some possible ways to introduce quotations. The examples use MLA format.

Use A Full Sentence Followed by A Colon To Introduce A Quotation

• The setting emphasizes deception: "Nothing is as it appears" (Smith 1).
• Piercy ends the poem on an ironic note: "To every woman a happy ending" (25).

Begin A Sentence with Your Own Words, Then Complete It with Quoted Words

Note that in the second example below, a slash with a space on either side ( / ) marks a line break in the original poem.

• Hamlet's task is to avenge a "foul and most unnatural murder" (Shakespeare 925).
• The speaker is mystified by her sleeping baby, whose "moth-breath / flickers among the flat pink roses" (Plath 17).

Use An Introductory Phrase Naming The Source, Followed By A Comma to Quote A Critic or Researcher

Note that the first letter after the quotation marks should be upper case. According to MLA guidelines, if you change the case of a letter from the original, you must indicate this with brackets. APA format doesn't require brackets.

• According to Smith, "[W]riting is fun" (215).
• In Smith's words, " . . .
• In Smith's view, " . . .

Use A Descriptive Verb, Followed by A Comma To Introduce A Critic's Words

Avoid using says unless the words were originally spoken aloud, for instance, during an interview.

• Smith states, "This book is terrific" (102).
• Smith remarks, " . . .
• Smith writes, " . . .
• Smith notes, " . . .
• Smith comments, " . . .
• Smith observes, " . . .
• Smith concludes, " . . .
• Smith reports, " . . .
• Smith maintains, " . . .
• Smith adds, " . . .

Don't Follow It with A Comma If Your Lead into The Quotation Ends in That or As

The first letter of the quotation should be lower case.

• Smith points out that "millions of students would like to burn this book" (53).
• Smith emphasizes that " . . .
• Smith interprets the hand washing in MacBeth as "an attempt at absolution" (106).
• Smith describes the novel as "a celebration of human experience" (233).

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• How to format In-Text Citations
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• Integrating Quotations and Paraphrases
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Integrating Quotations

• Introducing Quotations
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• Format Block Quotations

Introduce the quotation or paraphrase by setting it in context. For a nonfiction source, identify the author the first time you cite the source. For a literary source, identify the speaker or writer and the position of the quoted piece in its work for every quotation. There are three ways to introduce quotations or paraphrases:

1. You can use a full sentence followed by a colon to introduce a quotation.

Coming upon the witches, Macbeth unknowingly echoes them: “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (1.3.39).

Economist Grant Houston lays the blame on bad government policy:  “subsidies to corn growers keep the price of corn artificially low” (122).  

2. You can use a lead-in naming the author or character, followed by a comma .

Often since his walk, the speaker confides, “They flash upon that inward eye/ Which is the bliss of solitude” (21-22).

According to Sanchez, parents are furious about the ban on bake sales at schools (“PTA Focuses on Food” 16).

[No quotation marks in this example because it’s a paraphrase.]

3. You can also begin a sentence with your own words and complete it with quoted words. In this case, do not use a comma before the quotation.

Mr. Bennet, however, is “among the earliest of those who waited on Mr. Bingley” (7).

Houston argues that “tariffs on imported sugar unfairly subsidize US sugar growers” (248).

1. If the quotation ends in a punctuation mark such as a period or a comma, drop that final punctuation mark (keep it only if it’s an exclamation mark or a question mark).  At the end of the sentence containing the quotation, provide a parenthetical citation of the page or line number, and put a period at the end of the whole sentence.

[The period that concludes the quoted sentence in the original has been dropped.]

2. If you quote words that are in quotation marks in the original, such as character dialogue in a novel, then use double quote marks enclosing single quote marks.

Talking to Wickham about Darcy, Elizabeth says, “’He is a man of very large property in Derbyshire, I understand’” (67).

3. When quoting poetry, indicate line breaks with a slash mark.

The speaker may live in a city, but his heart in on the island: “While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,/ I hear it in the deep heart’s core” (11-12).

4. Quotations must match the source exactly.  Indicate omissions with three dots (ellipsis), and indicate insertions with square brackets.

Ralph and the other boys realize the horror of their actions: “The tears began to flow and sobs shook him… [T]he other little boys began to shake and sob too” (186).

Set off a quotation of more than 50 words of prose or 3 lines of poetry by beginning a new line and indenting the body of the quotation one inch in from the left margin of your text (a “block quotation”).   Block quotations are double spaced like the rest of your essay and not surrounded by quotation marks.  With a block quotation, put the period before the parenthetical citation instead of after.

A quotation of more than 50 words of prose:   

Ralph and the other boys realize the horror of their actions:

The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island: great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. (186)

A quotation of more than 3 lines of poetry:

Elizabeth Bishop's "In the Waiting Room" is rich in evocative detail:

The waiting room

was full of grown up people,

arctics and overcoats,

lamps and magazines. (6-10)

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• Last Updated: May 6, 2024 2:48 PM
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How to Quote and Cite a Poem in an Essay Using MLA Format

Last Updated: July 3, 2024 Fact Checked

Template and Examples

Quoting in essays, citing in essays, citing in a works cited.

This article was co-authored by Jamie Korsmo, PhD . Jamie Korsmo is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Georgia State University. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,327,789 times.

Navigating the MLA Handbook can be pretty overwhelming; there are so many rules that regulate the way we can quote and cite poetry in MLA format in our own writing. Improper quoting and citing can even be considered a form of plagiarism. Here is a comprehensive look at the most important things you need to know to make your English teacher happy with how you quote from and cite poetry in your papers.

• Example sentence: Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” discusses the idea of solitude versus living in a world of other people and obligations.

• Here is an example of several lines of poetry from Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”: The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep.
• Here is an example of how to insert several lines of poetry into an essay: In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Frost writes, “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep."

• Example: Robert Frost writes about solitude and man’s relationship with nature:                     Whose woods these are I think I know.                     His house is in the village, though;                     He will not see me stopping here                     To watch his woods fill up with snow. (1-4)

• Example: Robert Frost discusses solitude and a desire to forget obligations when he writes, "The woods are lovely...but I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep" (13-15).

Tip: If an ellipsis covers a line break, do not worry about including a backslash inside the ellipsis, as in the above example. But if you continue on without an ellipsis, include the backslashes that indicate line breaks.

• Example: Robert Frost discusses solitude when he writes,                     Whose woods these are I think I know.                     ………………………………………….                     He will not see me stopping here                     To watch his woods fill up with snow. (1-4)

• If you don't take these steps correctly, then you aren't giving credit where it's due to the original author and your teacher may consider this plagiarism.

• Example: In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Frost writes, “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep / But I have promises to keep / And miles to go before I sleep” (13-15).
• Example: The notion of solitude appears in many notable poems including the famous lines, "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep" (Frost 13-15).

• Example of one quoted word: Robert Frost uses the word “sleep” to imply fantasies about solitude and perhaps death (15).
• Example of multiple words: Robert Frost uses a variety of words and phrases such as “frozen” (7), “darkest evening” (8), and “before I sleep” (15) to imply thoughts of solitude and the desire to not return to his obligations.

Tip: Just make sure that you include the proper line numbers, whatever the form. If you are citing a longer section of the poem, you will include more line numbers (12-32). If you cite two separate sections using an ellipsis, indicate the range of the sections with a comma separating them (11-15, 18-21).

• Example of citing a short quote: In "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," Frost writes, “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep” (13-15).
• Example of citing a long quote: Robert Frost writes about solitude and man’s relationship with nature:                     Whose woods these are I think I know.                     His house is in the village, though;                     He will not see me stopping here                     To watch his woods fill up with snow. (1-4)

• Example: The notion of solitude appears in many notable poems including the famous lines, "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep" (Frost, "Stopping by the Woods" 13-15). This idea is mirrored in the lines "And both that morning equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black" (Frost, "The Road Not Taken" 11-12).

• Example: Frost, Robert. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1969. 224-225. Print.

• Example: Frost, Robert. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The Poetry Foundation. n.d. Web. 6 January 2014.

Tip: You do not need to add the URL of the website as they change often and are generally long and confusing, and URLs are not required in MLA format. [10] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

• Example (note this is a made up anthology): Frost, Robert. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The Little Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Marie Shier. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Some Publisher, 2010. 21-22. Print.

• Frost, Robert. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1969. 224-225. Print.
• ---. “The Road Not Taken.” The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1969. 227-228. Print.

Community Q&A

• When writing about poetry in your essay, use the present tense. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Brackets are not needed around ellipses. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_quotations.html
• ↑ https://stlcc.edu/student-support/academic-success-and-tutoring/writing-center/writing-resources/mla-in-text-citation-sample-essay-8th-edition.aspx
• ↑ https://style.mla.org/line-numbers-in-text-citation/
• ↑ https://otis.libguides.com/mla_citations/in-text
• ↑ https://www.monmouth.edu/resources-for-writers/documents/mla-citing-poetry.pdf/
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_electronic_sources.html
• ↑ https://libguides.uww.edu/mla/poem
• ↑ https://uwcchina.libguides.com/c.php?g=830919&p=6639313

About This Article

If you use a quote from a poem in an MLA-format essay, place the line numbers of the poem in parentheses right after the closing quotation marks, with the closing punctuation right behind the parentheses. If you mention the name of the author when you are introducing the text, you do not have to include the author’s name in the parenthesis, but you do if you have not already stated the name of the author. If the quote is more than 3 lines long, indent 10 spaces from the left margin when you type the poem. To learn about how to include a citation for a poem on the Works Cited page of your essay, continue reading the article! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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