Review the quotation to make sure you have copied it word for word from its original text. If you find it necessary to remove words to shorten the quote, place an ellipsis where you have deleted the text. An ellipsis mark is three periods separated by spaces. If you need to add a word or short phrase for the quotation to make sense in the context of your paper, place brackets around the word or phrase.
Place double quotation marks at the start and end of the quote. If the quote includes multiple sentences, the quotation marks are only placed at the beginning of the first sentence and the end of the last sentence.
Create an in-text citation for the quote. Place the author’s last name and the page number of the text you are quoting in parentheses. The location of this citation depends on the length of the quote. If the quote is a phrase within a sentence, place the citation directly after the quote and before any punctuation. If the quote is one or more sentences, place the citation after the quoted text. Refer to the following examples:
According to some, the side effects of the drug are “significantly worse and more debilitating” (Smith 204) than suffering with the disorder.
The Harvard University study proves that “more than 90 percent of the adults suffering from the disorder prefer not to take the new medicine because of the side effects.” (Smith 204)
Check the formatting of the quotation. Short quotations, considered to be less than four lines of text, do not need any additional formatting. Longer quotations must be separated from the rest of the text. Start a long quotation on a new line and indent it 1 inch from the left margin. If the quotation includes multiple paragraphs, the first line should only be indented 1/2 inch, with the rest indented 1 inch. Do not place quotation marks before or after long quotations. The location of the citation remains the same as in step 3; it is placed after the period of the last sentence.