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APA Citation: Quotations

Quotations

When you quote directly from a source, enclose the words in quotation marks and add the page number to the in-text citation. There are two basic formats which can be used.:

1. When you DO NOT MENTION the author's name in the sentence, the author's name, the year of publication, and the page number are placed in parenthesis at the end of the sentence, separated by commas.

2.  When you MENTION the author's name in the the sentence, the year of publication is placed in parenthesis after the author's name is mentioned, and the page number is listed in parenthesis at the end of the sentence.

In-Text Citation Using Direct Quotation Examples

Fractions, decimals and percents "come up in situations involving tipping, taxes, inflation, finance, mortgages, credit cards, sales, cooking, sports, gambling, [and] measurement" (Ryan, 2002, p. 27).

According to Ryan (2002), fractions, decimals and percents "come up in situations involving tipping, taxes, inflation, finance, mortgages, credit cards, sales, cooking, sports, gambling, [and] measurement" (p. 27).

Long Quotations

What Is a Long Quotation?

If your quotation extends to more than forty words as you're typing your essay, it is a long quotation. This can also be referred to as a block quotation.

Rules for Long Quotations

There are 4 rules that apply to long quotations that are different from regular quotations:

  1. The line before your long quotation, when you're introducing the quote, usually ends with a colon.
  2. The long quotation is indented half an inch from the rest of the text, so it looks like a block of text.
  3. There are no quotation marks around the quotation.
  4. The period at the end of the quotation comes before your in-text citation as opposed to after, as it does with regular quotations.

Example of a Long Quotation

At the end of Lord of the Flies the boys are struck with the realization of their behaviour:

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. (Golding, 1960, p.186)