Direct quotations play an important role in academic writing, allowing you to incorporate an author’s exact words to support arguments, analyse literature, emphasise evidence, or present precise definitions.
The APA 7th Edition provides clear guidelines on how to format, integrate, and cite direct quotations. They significantly ensure clarity, accuracy, and academic integrity.
A direct quotation is any text taken word-for-word from an original source. This can include:
When using direct quotations, APA requires a full and accurate citation to acknowledge the source and help readers locate the original text.
APA 7th Edition outlines three simple but strict rules for quoting:
Short quotes are kept within the text using double quotation marks.
Block quotes are indented and placed in a separate paragraph without quotation marks.
In APA, you must always mention the author’s last name, the year the source was published, and the page where the quote can be located when citing a quote.
Use “p.” when referring to a single page or “pp.” for multiple pages.
EXAMPLE
According to the study, “direct quotes can be very helpful in academic papers” (Samuel et al., 2020, p. 29).
APA suggests quoting only when necessary. Over-quoting weakens your writing and hides your originality.
Use quotes when:
When quoting is not essential, paraphrasing is usually better.
Parenthetical and narrative in-text citations are the two forms of APA in-text citations:
Citation appears at the end of the sentence. You put the whole citation in parentheses after the quote and before the period.
EXAMPLE
A recent study of students found that “plagiarism is a very serious matter in academic writing” (Hora & Ková, 2019, p. 2).
The author(s) should be part of your sentence in a narrative quotation. Put the year after the author’s name in brackets, and the page number after the quotation in brackets.
EXAMPLE
Hora and Ková (2019) stated that “plagiarism is a very serious matter in academic writing” (p. 2).
Of all types of citations, narrative citations integrate more naturally into academic writing and are preferred when emphasising the researcher.
We make sure our essays are:
Page numbers are not present in some source formats, such as web pages. Unless the source is very brief, you should normally give an alternate location when citing a direct quotation.
A chapter or section name, a paragraph number, or a mix of the two might be used as the locator. Use whichever location makes it the easiest for your reader to discover the quotation.
EXAMPLE
The report noted that “the outcomes varied significantly between groups” (Conclusion section, para. 3).
If the quotation is of 40 words or more, it should be structured as a block quote. It is visually separated from the main text.
In APA referencing style, a block quotation should be formatted as follows:
Block quotations, like ordinary quotes, can also be referenced using a parenthetical or narrative citation.
Parenthetical block quote example:
If you want to annotate an author’s use of language or make an argument that you will critique later, the block quote is very practical. The excerpt is clearly delimited from your own words by placing the quotation on a new line and indenting. Therefore, inverted commas are not necessary. (Concnor, 2020, p. 88)
Narrative Example:
Concnor (2020) describes the purpose and structure of the block quotations:
If you want to annotate an author’s use of language or make an argument that you will critique later, the block quote is very practical. The excerpt is clearly delimited from your own words by placing the quotation on a new line and indenting. Therefore, inverted commas are not necessary. (p. 88)
If the block quote consists of more than one paragraph, the first line of each paragraph shall be indented after the first paragraph.
EXAMPLE
A block quote is quite valuable here. If you want to annotate an author’s use of language or make an argument that you will critique later, the block quote is very practical. The excerpt is clearly delimited from your own words by placing the quotation on a new line and indenting. Therefore, inverted commas are not necessary.
However, it is advised to rely on the quotes. Rather, use your own words to explain the quote (Concnor, 2020, p. 88)
This structure clearly separates paragraphs within the same long quotation.
A direct quote that you use should be identical to the actual source. Nevertheless, you may need to undertake minor tweaks. APA allows minimal changes to make quotes fit grammatically or clearly into your sentence.
However, here is how you can modify a direct quote in APA style efficiently:
If you want to free up space by eliminating certain words, phrases or sentences from the quote, then use an ellipsis (..) preceded and followed by a space to signify that some of the content has been eliminated.
Add a period before the ellipsis to show that the content you eliminated has a sentence break.
EXAMPLE
Without Sentence Break
According to Concnor (2020), if you want to annotate an author’s use of language or make an argument that you will critique later, the block quote is very practical… However, the excerpt is clearly delimited from your own words by placing the quotation on a new line and indented (p. 88)
With Sentence Break
According to Concnor (2020), block quotes are very useful at the time when you……argument that you will critique later.
For instance, you might wish to add a word or phrase. If a pronoun is used in the quote, you will have to add a name to clarify who or what is being referred to. Brackets allow you to add clarity without changing the meaning.
EXAMPLE
In the view of Anderson (2017), “the results [of the election] reflected global patterns” (p. 17).
Use brackets to:
Italicise a word or phrase in a quote and add the words “emphasis added” in square brackets to highlight it. This signals to readers that you, not the original author, added the emphasis.
EXAMPLE
In the view of Anderson (2017), “the results reflected global patterns [emphasis added]” (p. 17).
Using quotes correctly strengthens arguments, supports analysis, and builds academic credibility.
Use quotation marks for any direct quote under 40 words. Quotes longer than 40 words must be formatted as block quotes without quotation marks.
Yes. APA requires page numbers for all direct quotations. If the source has no page numbers, use paragraph numbers or section headings as alternative locators.
You may only make minor modifications such as adjusting capitalisation, adding clarification in brackets, or removing works using ellipses. The original meaning must remain unchanged.
There is no strict limit, but your own analysis should dominate the paper. Over-quoting weakens your academic voice; paraphrase where possible.
Place the citation after the final period of the block quote. Follow APA rules for indentation and spacing. Narrative and parenthetical formats are both acceptable.
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