How to Cite a Quote in a Quoted Essay

Citing quotes in essays is an effective way of strengthening your argument; however, you must take care in how you cite them.

If you are directly quoting from a source, use double quotation marks; for paraphrasing purposes use indirect quoting instead.

If the original quote features multiple authors, all their names should be included as authors in your citation by including one last name followed by “et al.”

Use the Author’s Last Name

Citing quotes in an essay requires you to include both the author’s last name and page number where the quote can be found. Doing this can be accomplished using quotation marks around quoted words with parenthetical citation following, for instance “Kenneth Burke states ‘humans are symbol-using animals'” (Burke 3). If you know the exact page where your quotation appears, add it in quotation marks before writing out its full citation at the end of your Works Cited list.

Some authors may include additional details with their names, such as titles or degrees, so include it when citing them: by appending their suffix with “- Sir/MLIS/PhD etc.” You may also choose to shorten a long quote so it fits grammatically within your sentence or provides more context to what the author was trying to convey by adding an ellipses: “… but it is worth remembering that we all possess some form of language anomaly (Barry 2)

If the source is an electronic document and for which you do not know the page numbers, omitting page numbers from parenthetical citation is easier: simply write out author’s last name followed by “page”.

Citing electronic sources (such as web pages ) that do not have designated pages should also omit page numbers when citing quotations; simply give author and work name instead. “When it comes to social science, the waste product of science is knowledge” (Bennett 67).

When including quotes in questions, no period is needed after each quoted word; simply place quotation marks around them and add parenthetical citations afterward:

Use the Title of the Book

Citing a book in text requires indenting its title italicized with parentheses to indicate author and year of publication, with italics used for its title (which may also contain quotation marks if needed for short stories or poems from an anthology). If using quotation marks instead of italics is preferred (often found with short story titles and poems from an anthology), consider placing quotation marks around its title instead.

Italicizing books helps readers distinguish them from similar works and is typically used for this purpose, though exceptions can arise depending on style guide requirements or medium specific factors.

The Modern Language Association (MLA) style guide advises italicizing titles of books, journals, magazines, plays, television/radio show titles, movie/long poem titles and journals; however, usage may differ between MLA and APA styles.

In APA style, book titles that are independent and self-contained should be italicized; collection names (such as anthologies or series ) should be enclosed within quotation marks; individual stories or poems within larger works should also be enclosed in quotes.

If you are uncertain which italicizing or quotation mark approach would best fit the work at hand, experiment with both and see which seems most suited for the task at hand. Also keep in mind the purpose of your writing as well as who your target audience might be.

For instance, when writing for academic audiences it may be beneficial to italicize titles to avoid confusion; conversely if writing for more general audiences it might make your writing sound more conversational and friendly by using quotation marks instead. If in doubt as to which method will best meet your needs then consult your style guide or speak to someone familiar with the genre – an easy rule of thumb would be not italicizing titles unless there are no other options available to you.

Use the Author’s First Name

Sometimes it can be impossible to identify exactly who said what in a quote, leaving two options open for citing it: you can include both authors in your citation, or just use one author and add “et al.” (This latter choice saves space since scholarly books often have multiple authors). When this occurs, two options should be explored; either listing both or using just “et al” saves more space and reduces verbiage required in listing all authors would take up multiple lines).

For quotes that involve dialogue between two or more speakers, it is always advisable to seek and read the original work in which it occurs. Doing this will enable you to gain an accurate citation of it for your paper as well as enrich your own writing by providing access to multiple interpretations of that text from both secondary sources as well as primary ones.

If it is impossible for you to locate the original work, it is permissible and appropriate to use a secondary source’s interpretation of it in your paper. When doing this, include their name in either your citation (MLA format) or works cited list entry (APA format). Individual names should be enclosed within quotation marks; titles for longer works such as books, plays, television series or websites should be italicized.

Parentshetical citations that use only an author’s first name are also acceptable and especially useful when citing sources that don’t provide page numbers, like websites and newspaper articles, for which page numbers don’t exist. Instead, such an citation would include either paragraph numbering (which should be counted manually and abbreviated as para. ), or in cases involving audiovisual sources like videos.

If your first name is common, initials should be used when citing in-text and reference list entries. If there are distinct first names you wish to differentiate from each other, full names may be more appropriate; when doing so, the initial should be enclosed in square brackets.

Use the Date

Quotes are statements or passages repeated verbatim and attributed back to their source. People commonly employ quotes when discussing or explaining something; quotes also feature prominently in literature such as Abraham Lincoln’s famous line: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Furthermore, verbal quotation is also possible: for instance a lawyer might reference previous court decisions in an argumentative setting or religious leaders may read from scriptures in religious services.

When using a quotation, be sure to include its date. Punctuation marks may also be added at the end of a quote as long as they do not form part of its quoted material; typically when ending a parenthetical citation with a period, however.

An exception to this rule occurs when a quotation marks the end of a sentence in dialogue; in such instances, it should come within its closing quotation marks and place the period within them. Furthermore, if there’s punctuation within a quotation and then follows with an citation, then its period should follow after this citation rather than before it.

Direct quotations should always use double quotation marks; single quotes can also be used enclosing within another quote within another quotation, such as when quoting from King Lear in which Goneril is described as an unwelcome kite – this would require using both sets of quotation marks.

Citing quotes in scholarly writing differs significantly from using them for other types of writing, for several reasons. First and foremost, APA requires you to always cite the original source for any quote used; often this means reading the entire work from which the quotation originates and/or placing the original quotation into context so you can fully comprehend its meaning.

Citations styles in scholarly works differ significantly, as citations are usually alphabetized rather than listed by page number. This makes locating sources more challenging if there are multiple authors; when this is the case it is recommended to cite only one name followed by “et al”. For online works that do not feature page numbers use paragraph numbers instead.