To shorten a quote in an essay, cut non-essential words and mark the gap with an ellipsis (three dots, with a space before and after each dot), then keep the remaining text inside quotation marks with a proper citation.
Start by identifying exactly which part of the passage supports your point, then work out which surrounding words can be removed without changing what the original author meant. Precision matters more than brevity here.
For example, ‘Climate change, driven largely by human activity, poses a serious threat to global food security’ could be shortened to ‘Climate change … poses a serious threat to global food security’ once the added detail is trimmed.
This technique is especially common when quoting sources in APA-style assignments, where concise, well-integrated quotations are valued over long block quotes; our APA style guide covers quotation formatting in more detail.
Always double-check that a shortened quote still reflects the source accurately, since misrepresenting a writer’s meaning can be treated as a citation error. Our referencing and citation support team can review your quotations before submission.


