APA 7th Edition Citation | Guide & Examples

A direct quotation is a text that has been taken exactly word for word from an original source. You can take a single word, a phrase, a sentence or an entire passage.

The Three Rules of Quoting in APA Style

Use double quotation marks when the quote is less than 40 words.

In case, a quote is 40 words or more, use the block quote format.

Add the author, year and page number in the in-text citation.

Example:
According to the study, “direct quotes can very helpful in academic papers” (Samuel et al., 2020, p. 29).

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.  Parenthetical and narrative in-text citations are the two forms of APA in-text citations. You put the whole citation in parenthesis 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.

Hora and Ková (2019) stated that “plagiarism is a very serious matter in an academic writing” (p. 2).

Quote a Source Having no Page Number

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 will make it the easiest for your reader to discover the quotation.

Quoting 40 or More Words

If the quotation is more than 40 words, it should be structured as a blockquote. In APA Style, a block quotation should be formatted as follows:

• Quote marks should not be used.
• Begin the quote with a new line.
• Indent the quotation by 0.5 inch throughout.
• Ensure that the whole quote is double-spaced.

Block quotations, like ordinary quotes, can be referenced using a parenthetical or narrative citation. If the block quotation completed with a period, the citation should be placed after the period.

Parenthetical 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 indented. Therefore, inverted commas are not necessary. (Concnor, p. 88, 2020)

Narrative Example:
The purpose and format of block quotations are explained by Concnor (2020):
Concnor (2020) describe the purpose of block quote format. 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 indented. Therefore, inverted commas are not necessary. (see p. 88)

 

Read more about APA formatting in academic papers | Reference page ordering how to guide | Heading and sub-heading with examples | APA 7th edition citation: direct quotes

Block Quote and Multiple Paragraphs

The first line of each paragraph shall be indented after the first paragraph if the block quote consists of several paragraphs.

Example:
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 indented. 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, p. 88, 2020)

How to Make Changes in Direct Quote APA Style?

A direct quote that you use should be an identical emulation of the actual source. Nevertheless, you may need to undertake minor tweaks. To incorporate the quotation correctly into your sentence, you can change the capitalization of the first word or the last punctuation mark, as long as the content remains the same.

Make a Quote Short

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), block quotes are very useful at the time when you……argument that you will critique later

Example 2: 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)

Clarify the Quote

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.

Example: In the view of Anderson (2017), “the results [of the election] reflected global patterns” (p. 17).

How to Emphasize a Quote?

Italicize a word or phrase in a quote and add the words “emphasis added” in square brackets to highlight it.

Example: In the view of Anderson (2017), “the results reflected global patterns [emphasis added]” (p. 17).

Frequently Asked Questions