Transition into your first quotation with a signal phrase, followed by a comma. A signal phrase typically uses the author's name and indicates that you will be using a quotation. The first time you quote an author, use his first and last names. Some sample signal phrases include:
According to Stephen McDonald and William Salomone,
Stephen McDonald and William Salomone, authors of "The Writer's Response," write,
Stephen McDonald and William Salomone argue,
If the source of your quotation has no author listed, use the title of the work you're quoting. For example:
According to the Purdue Online Writing Lab,
The Purdue Online Writing Lab states,
Place your quotation in quotation marks after your signal phrase. For example:
According to Stephen McDonald and William Salomone, authors of "The Writer's Response," "Every quotation should be integrated into your text with a transition that refers to its source."
According to the Purdue Online Writing Lab, "When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name."
Provide further citation information if necessary. If you're writing a paper in Modern Language Association (MLA) format, remove the period from the end of the quote, add the page number of the quote in parentheses after the quote and place the period after the parentheses. For example:
According to Stephen McDonald and William Salomone, "Every quotation should be integrated into your text with a transition that refers to its source" (158).
If you're writing a paper in American Psychological Association (APA) format, remove the period at the end of the quote, place the year of the publication that you're quoting in parentheses after the author's last name, write "p." and the page number in parentheses after the quote and put the period after the page number. For example:
According to Stephen McDonald and William Salomone (2008), "Every quotation should be integrated into your text with a transition that refers to its source" (p. 158).
For quotes from sources without page numbers, such as websites, leave out the parenthetical citation of the page number. For example:
The Purdue Online Writing Lab states that "MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities."
Use only the author's last name in signal phrases for subsequent quotes from the same work.