Quoting a Passage in MLA Format

Short Quotes

• 1

  Gather information on your source, specifically the author’s last name.

• 2

  Type or paste the passage you are quoting in the paper word for word. Copying and pasting the quote from an online source is the most efficient, though you’ll have to type the sentence out if you’re quoting the passage from an offline text. Double-check for accuracy.

• 3

  Put a quotation mark before the first word in the sentence you are quoting. Do not put a space between the quote and the first word of the sentence.

• 4

  Place a quotation mark after the punctuation mark for the final sentence you are quoting. If you are placing the quote within a larger sentence that contains your own words, and the sentence does not end with your quote, instead place the quotation mark after the last word in the sentence.

• 5

  Add parenthetical citations at the end of the last sentence that contains the quote, right before the punctuation mark. The parenthetical citation normally includes the author’s last name and the page number where the information was found. If the information was on more than one page, use a hyphen to indicate the range; for example, “pages 5-7.” If the author’s last name isn’t available, use the first piece of information found in your reference page. For example, if the first piece of information is the title of the cited source, include that in the parenthetical citation.

Block Quotes

• 6

  Put quotes in block quote if they are more than four lines long or more than 40 words.

• 7

  Add a colon after the last sentence before the block quote.

• 8

  Press “enter” on the keyboard or write the block quote in a way that there is a space between the block quote and the sentence before it. Type a space between the block quote and the first sentence after the quote.

• 9

  Indent every line of the block quote. In a word processor, click the bar underneath the left indent on the ruler at the top of the word processor, hold down the mouse button, and drag the left indent halfway between the starting point and the number 1. When using a pen, simply leave extra space between the quote and the left margin.

• 10

  Place a parenthetical citation after the last punctuation mark of the block quote.