Put quotation marks around a short quote within the text. If you are paraphrasing --- putting the original ideas into your own words --- you do not have to use quotation marks, but you do have to reference the original author.
Indent quotes of 40 words or longer into a separate block of text. The indentation should be one-half inch to the right of the left margin, and you must indent each line of the quotation at this new margin. Do not use quotation marks for block quotes.
Attribute the quote to the author by referencing the author's last name, the publication year of the original material and the page number of the quote. The placement of this information depends on the structure of the sentence containing the quote. The page number follows a "p."
Enclose elements of the citation in parentheses if not using that information in the sentence. A parenthetical reference to the year follows the author's name. Put a reference to the page number at the end of the sentence containing the quotation but before the final punctuation. Information in the parenthetical reference should be in this order: author's name, year, page.
Put titles of journal articles in quotation marks, and underline or italicize the names of journals. Within these titles capitalize any word longer than four letters, both words of a hyphenated word, any word after a colon or dash, and each adjective, adverb, noun, pronoun and verb.
Check your quotation to ensure correct format and desired style. Guidelines for parenthetical references are the same for both long and short quotes. For example, all of these short quotations are correct per APA style:
According Webb (2010), "the sky is blue" (p. 21).
Some say that "the sky is blue" (Webb, 2010, p. 21).
Webb (2010) asserted that "the sky is blue" (p. 21).
In 2010, Webb discovered that "the sky is blue" (p.21).