quote from a play in an essay

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How to Quote and Cite a Play in an Essay Using MLA Format

MLA style provides guidelines for citing both small and large passages of plays in the body of your text. In addition, MLA requires you to note any plays you reference on a separate works cited list. How you include quotes from a play in your text will depend on how whether you're quoting a single character or dialogue between multiple characters.

Quoting a Play in Your Essay

Whenever you quote a play in your essay, MLA style requires you to include an in-text citation showing where the quote came from. For a play, this will include the abbreviated title of the play, and the section of the play in which the quote is found.

If you are quoting a single character's dialogue, or stage directions, in your paper, you can simply include the quote within quotation marks as part of your sentence.

If quoting a verse play, lines are separated by a slash /. Take the following from Shakepeare's "Measure for Measure":

In asking for his pardon, Claudio states "the miserable have no other medicine/But only hope" ( Measure , 3.1.2-3).

In the in-text citation, " Measure " show's the play's title, "3" is the act number, "1" the scene number, and "2-3" the lines on which the quote appears. Note that each item in the play's division is separated by periods. '},{'content':'If you're quoting a play that does not have scenes or lines, include the act, and note it as such, so it is not confused with a page number.

For example, Caryl Churchill's "Cloud 9" has no scenes, so you might cite it as follows:

Betty's anxiety is shown by her worry toward Tommy. "He's going to fall in. Make Martin make him move back" ( Cloud , act 2).

Quoting Dialogue From Multiple Characters

One of the features of plays is that multiple characters speak to each other in dramatic form. If you quote two characters speaking to each other this way in your paper, it is formatted as a block quote. Include a blank line between the body of your paper and the first line of your quote.

When dialogue switches characters, include a blank line between each character's lines. Each line in the block quote must be indented 1 inch from your the rest of your paper's text, and if a character's speech runs more than one line, each additional line is indented an additional 1/4-inch. The names of characters are written in full caps -- don't forget to include an in-text citation after the quote.

This quote is from Aristophanes's "The Birds":

PISTHETAIROS: I never saw so many birds! They make me nervous.

EUELPIDES: You said it. When they lift their wings you can't see where you're going. ("Birds", párodos)

Greek plays are divided into named subsections, such as episodes and strophes -- the name of each subsection should be included when citing a Greek play. In this case "párodos" is the choral section including the quote.

Including a Play on Your Works Cited List

In MLA style, an additional page is added after the last page of your paper to include all items that were cited in your essay.

When you quote or reference a play in your writing, you place a reference on this page to give the information of the book or anthology in which you found the play. Your reference will include the name of the author, the play title, the publication information, and the format in which it was found. MLA arranges this information in the following order:

Author Lastname, Firstname. Title of Play . Publication Location: Publisher, Year of Publication. Format.

For example:

Churchill, Caryl. Cloud 9 . New York: Theater Communications Group, 1985. Print.

If you are referencing a play that has been translated and/or edited, include the translator's and/or editor's name after the title of the play:

Pirandello, Luigi. Six Characters in Search of an Author . Trans. Edward Storer. Ed. Adam Frost. Mineola: Dover Publications, 1998. Print.

Plays in Anthologies

Plays will often be included in a multivolume work or anthology. If you are citing a specific play that is included in an anthology, the anthology name should be included in italics after the play title.

In addition, the pages the play appears on within the anthology should be included after the year of publication. Here's an example of an anthology citation:

Aristophanes. The Frogs . Four Comedies . Trans. and Ed. Dudley Fitts. New York: Harcourt, 1962. 69-156. Print.

Note that if the translator and editor are the same person, you list "Trans." first.

Plays Found Online

To include a play found online your reference list, you will replace the publisher information with the name and date of the Web page on which you found the play. Also note the source format as "Web." You do not need a URL to cite a Web source in MLA, but you need to indicate the date you last accessed the Web page. Format your citation as follows:

Author Lastname, Firstname. Title of Play . Name of Web page . Name of website, last date Web page was updated. Web. Date you accessed Web page.

Here is an example:

Shakespeare, William. Measure for Measure . The Complete Works of William Shakespeare . Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d. Web. 16 March 2015.

Note that "n.d." means "no date." You can use this in place of the update date for a webpage, or publication date for a book, if no date is available.

Need help with a citation? Try our citation generator .

• Pellissippi State Community College Library: MLA Style Guide - Drama
• Purdue University Online Writing Lab: MLA Works Cited -- Electronic Sources

Jon Zamboni began writing professionally in 2010. He has previously written for The Spiritual Herald, an urban health care and religious issues newspaper based in New York City, and online music magazine eBurban. Zamboni has a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Wesleyan University.

Table of Contents

Collaboration, information literacy, writing process, quoting plays and poetry in mla.

• © 2023 by Angela Eward-Mangione - Hillsborough Community College

The rules for quoting drama and/or poetry in Modern Language Association (MLA) Style differ from those for quoting the genre of prose. This article discusses rules for using MLA style to format quotes from drama and poetry. Consult the MLA Handbook to learn more.

Quoting Poetry

The MLA Handbook offers specific guidelines for quoting poetry.

In addition to the amount quoted and line breaks, other factors that matter include stanza breaks, and unusual layouts.

Special Issues: Stanza Breaks, Unusual Layouts

Stanza Breaks: Mark stanza breaks that occur in a quotation with two forward slashes, with a space before and after them ( / / ) (78).

William Carlos Williams depicts a vivid image in “The Red Wheelbarrow”: “so much depends / / upon / / a red wheel / / barrow / / glazed with rain / / water / / beside the white / / chickens” (“Williams”).

Unusual Layouts: If the layout of the lines in the original text is unusual, reproduce it as accurately as you can (79).

The English metaphysical John Donne uses indentation in some of his poems to create unusual layouts, as the first stanza of including “A Valediction: of Weeping” demonstrates:

Let me pour forth My tears before they face, whilst I stay here, For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear, And by this mintage they are something worth, For thus they be Pregnant of thee; Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more, When a tear falls, that thou falls which it bore, So thou and I are nothing then, when on a divers shore. (lines 1-9)

Quoting Plays

When you must quote dialogue from a play, adhere to these rules:

• Set the quotation off from your text.
• Indent each name half an inch from the left margin and write it in all capital letters.
• Follow the name with a period and then start the quotation.
• Indent all other lines in the character’s speech an additional amount.
• When the dialogue shifts to another character, start a new line indented half an inch.
• Maintain this pattern throughout the quotation (80).

Example: One of the flashbacks in Margaret Edson’s Wit suggests Vivian Bearing’s illness causes her to question some of her previous interactions with students:

STUDENT 1. Professor Bearing? Can I talk to you for a minute?

VIVIAN: You may.

STUDENT 1: I need to ask for an extension on my paper. I’m really sorry, and I know your policy, but see—

VIVIAN: Don’t tell me. Your grandmother died.

STUDENT 1: You knew.

VIVIAN: It was a guess.

STUDENT 1: I have to go home.

VIVIAN: Do what you will, but the paper is due when it is due. (63)

Special Issues

Omissions: Follow the rules for omissions in quotations of prose (83).

Although some of the rules for quoting plays and poetry in MLA differ than those for quoting prose, understanding the guidelines will help you apply them in any scenario.

Donne, John. “The Bait.” The Complete English Poems . Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 43-4.

—. “The Break of Day.” The Complete English Poems . Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 45-6. Edson, Margaret. Wit. Faber and Faber, 1993.

Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 39. The Pelican Shakespeare: The Sonnets . Penguin Books, 1970, p. 59.

Williams, William Carlos: “The Red Wheelbarrow.” Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/45502 .

Yeats, William. “A Prayer for My Daughter.” The Collected Poems . Ed. Richard Finneran. Scribner, 1983, pp. 188-190.

Brevity - Say More with Less

Clarity (in Speech and Writing)

Coherence - How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow - How to Create Flow in Writing

Inclusivity - Inclusive Language

The Elements of Style - The DNA of Powerful Writing

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How To Cite A Play In MLA – Formatting & Examples

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In academic writing , proper citation practices are essential to acknowledge the intellectual contributions of authors and to uphold the integrity of scholarly discourse. For scholars, students, and writers engaged in the study of drama and theater, understanding how to cite a play in MLA format is important. This guide delves into the intricacies of citing plays in MLA, providing a step-by-step elucidation of the citation process for various play types, including classic and contemporary works.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• 1 How to cite a play in MLA – In a Nutshell
• 2 Definition: How to cite a play in MLA
• 3 How to cite a play in MLA: In-text citations
• 4 How to cite a play in MLA: Works Cited list

How to cite a play in MLA – In a Nutshell

• When quoting from a play in an essay, MLA style requires you to add an in-text citation indicating the source.
• Including quotes from a play in your work will vary based on whether you are quoting a single character or dialogue between numerous characters.
• In MLA format, an additional page is inserted after the last page of the academic essay to list all sources acknowledged within.

Definition: How to cite a play in MLA

An MLA parenthetical citation for a play with numbered lines should include the play’s title, author, act number, scene number, and line numbers. Without line numbers, refer to the page the text appears on. Capitalize, punctuate, and indent dialogue as necessary.

• Banquo: I’ll have it done.
• Macduff: What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. (Shakespeare 1.2.94–95)

How to cite a play in MLA: In-text citations

An MLA in-text citation includes the author’s last name and page number:

• (Beckett 8)

Replace the page number with the act, scene, and line numbers, separated by periods if they’re included in the play:

• (Shakespeare 1.3.188–90)

If the text only employs lines, clarify what the numbers represent by including “lines” before the author’s name or title in the first citation of that piece. Subsequent references to the same play may omit “lines.”

• (Malcolm, lines 15–26)
• (Malcolm 35–40)

Multiple plays by the same author

In articles focusing on many works by a single playwright, italicize the play title instead of the writer’s name in each reference.

• ( Macbeth 1.3.188–90)

The MLA style manual suggests using abbreviations after the initial reference to avoid repeating play titles throughout your dissertation . If your study is on Shakespeare, you can utilize commonly accepted acronyms for play titles.

• ( Mac . 2.1.25)

Quoting dialogue

When quoting several dialogue lines from a play or film:

• Place the quotation on a new line with a half-inch left margin indent.
• The discourse should begin with the character’s name in capital letters and a period.
• If a character’s discourse extends beyond one line, indent the subsequent lines by a half inch.
• Add the citation following the punctuation mark.

How to cite a play in MLA: Works Cited list

The Works Cited section contains the citation information used in the text. The citation format depends on whether it was published as a book, an anthology, or a live performance.

If the play is published as a book, the citation format is identical to the standard MLA format.

Collection or anthology

Put a period after the play’s title if published in a collection or anthology, and then give the complete details of the sourcebook.

If there is no editor listed, simply remove this section and proceed as illustrated above.

Live performance

To reference a live performance of a play, provide the date and location of the performance. Include the theater company as well.

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How to cite a play in MLA with a one-act play?

MLA style ensures that your reader knows the play being cited. Italicize the work’s title with the page number or scene, act , and lines and only use the full title in the initial citation.

How to cite a play in MLA with no author?

Use a shortened version of the work’s title when a source’s author is unknown. If the work is short, enclose the title in quotation marks ; if longer, italicize the title and include the page number.

How to cite a play in MLA with multiple lines

Quotes longer than four prose lines or three verse lines should be placed in a separate block of text without quotation marks. Begin the quotation on a new line, double-spacing throughout and indenting it by 1/2 inch from the left margin.

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources / How to Cite a Play in APA, MLA, or Chicago

How to Cite a Play in APA, MLA, or Chicago

You can cite a play as either a live performance or script.

Citing a Live Performance

EasyBib has a form to cite a performance that has been viewed live. For instructions on how to cite a live performance, visit this guide on citing Hamilton  the musical in MLA, APA, and Chicago .

Citing a Play Script

If you are citing a play found as an entire source, cite it as a book (and use our book citation form ).

MLA Format (9 th edition)

STRUCTURES:

(Playwright last name page#)

Works Cited:

Playwright last name, First name. Play Title. Publisher, edition (if applicable), publication year.

Hwang, David Henry. M Butterfly . Plume, 1989.

APA 7 Format

If you’re merely paraphrasing or discussing a play in general terms, you’re not required to use a page number or other locator. But if you directly quote a play script, you must include a location for the relevant passage. For plays, this often means including a page number(s).

However, some plays use books, chapters, verses, lines, or cantos to distinguish specific parts of a play. The examples below include citations for both a modern play script with a page number and a play by Shakespeare with an act, scene, and line number.

(Since Shakespeare’s works appear in republications, there are two years in the source citations: the original publication year/the republication year).

(Playwright last name, year, p. page#)

           (Playwright last name, year, Act#.Scene#.Line#)

References:

Playwright last name, First initials. (Year published). Play Title . Publisher.

           Playwright last name, First initial. (Year of republished play). Classic Play Title. (First initials. Last Name, Ed.). Publisher. (Original work published Year)

(Hwang, 1989, p. 22)

Hwang, D. H. (1989).  M butterfly . Plume.

          (Shakespeare, 1603/2008, 1.4.5)

Shakespeare, W. (2008). Hamlet (S. Greenblatt, Ed.). W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. (Original work published 1603)

Chicago Format

Author-Date Format In-text:

(Playwright Last Name Publication Year, page#)

         (Playwright Last Name Publication Year, Act#.Scene#.Line#)

Author-Date Format Reference:

Playwright Last Name, First Name. Publication Year. Play Title. City: Publisher.

Playwright last name, First Name. Publication Year. Classic Play Title , edited by First Name Last Name. City: Publisher.

Note Format:

• Playwright First Name Last Name, Play Title (City: Publisher, Year), page #.
• Classic Play Title , ed. Editor First Name Last Name. (City: Publisher, Year), Act#.Scene#.Line#. References are to act, scene, and line.

Bibliography Format:

Playwright Last Name, First name. Play Title . City: Publisher, Year.

          Classic Play Title . Edited by First Name Last Name. Edition Details. City: Publisher, Year.

Author-Date:

(Hwang 1989, 22)

           (Shakespeare 1603, 1.4.5)

Hwang, David Henry. 1989.  M Butterfly . New York: Plume.

           Shakespeare, William. 2004. Hamlet,  edited by Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea House.

• David Henry Hwang, M Butterfly  (New York: Plume, 1989), 22.
• Hamlet , ed. Harold Bloom. (Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2004), 1.4.5. References are to act, scene, and line.

Bibliography:

Hwang, David Henry. M Butterfly . New York: Plume, 1989.

         Hamlet . Edited by Harold Bloom. Major Literary Characters, 1st ser. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2004.

Updated July 10, 2022.

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MLA Formatting Quotations

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When you directly quote the works of others in your paper, you will format quotations differently depending on their length. Below are some basic guidelines for incorporating quotations into your paper. Please note that all pages in MLA should be double-spaced .

Short quotations

To indicate short quotations (four typed lines or fewer of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author and specific page number (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the in-text citation, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation.

Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage, but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.

For example, when quoting short passages of prose, use the following examples:

When using short (fewer than three lines of verse) quotations from poetry, mark breaks in verse with a slash, ( / ), at the end of each line of verse (a space should precede and follow the slash). If a stanza break occurs during the quotation, use a double slash ( // ).

Long quotations

For quotations that are more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse, place quotations in a free-standing block of text and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented 1/2   inch  from the left margin while maintaining double-spacing. Your parenthetical citation should come  after the closing punctuation mark . When quoting verse, maintain original line breaks. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your essay.)

For example, when citing more than four lines of prose, use the following examples :

Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her narration: They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

When citing long sections of poetry (four lines of verse or more), keep formatting as close to the original as possible.

In his poem "My Papa's Waltz," Theodore Roethke explores his childhood with his father:

The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. We Romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself. (qtd. in Shrodes, Finestone, Shugrue 202)

When citing two or more paragraphs, use block quotation format, even if the passage from the paragraphs is less than four lines. If you cite more than one paragraph, the first line of the second paragraph should be indented an extra 1/4 inch to denote a new paragraph:

In "American Origins of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Movement," David Russell argues,

Writing has been an issue in American secondary and higher education since papers and examinations came into wide use in the 1870s, eventually driving out formal recitation and oral examination. . . .

From its birth in the late nineteenth century, progressive education has wrestled with the conflict within industrial society between pressure to increase specialization of knowledge and of professional work (upholding disciplinary standards) and pressure to integrate more fully an ever-widening number of citizens into intellectually meaningful activity within mass society (promoting social equity). . . . (3)

Adding or omitting words in quotations

If you add a word or words in a quotation, you should put brackets around the words to indicate that they are not part of the original text:

If you omit a word or words from a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word or words by using ellipses, which are three periods ( . . . ) preceded and followed by a space. For example:

Please note that brackets are not needed around ellipses unless they would add clarity.

When omitting words from poetry quotations, use a standard three-period ellipses; however, when omitting one or more full lines of poetry, space several periods to about the length of a complete line in the poem:

Theater Arts Resources: Citing

• Theater@Duquesne

http://Image: Indoor Panorama from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, London, 2001

Citing Dramatic Works in MLA Format, 8th Edition

In-text citations.

Citing in-text from a play (short quotation)

If the quote is only one line place quotation marks around the quote then in paraphrases include the author's last name, act.scene.line. If the play is not divided into acts, scenes and lines then cite the page number in the paraphrases.

         Example: "This is a sorry sight" (Shakespeare 2.2.26).

If the quote is two or three lines then place a forward slash between each line.

        Example: "Come, you spirits / That tend on my mortal thoughts, unsex me here" (Shakespeare 1.5.46).

Citing in-text from a play (long quotation)

When quoting a conversation between two or more characters in a play, indent 1/2 an inch from the left margin then begin with the character's name in all capital letters and follow the name with a period. Do the same for each character.

Example: HE. You saw nothing in Hiroshima. Nothing.....

SHE. I saw everything. Everything.. The hospital, for

      instance, I saw it. I'm sure I did. There is a hospital

      in Hiroshima. How could I help seeing it?....

HE: You did not see the hospital in Hiroshima. You saw

              nothing in Hiroshima. (Dura 15-17)

Citing Prose Plays vs Verse Plays

When citing prose plays, use the page number first, followed by a semicolon and then other identifying information (e.g. Miller 9; Act 1). When citing verse plays with line numbers provided, use those instead of page numbers, separating division numbers with a period. 

On a Works Cited Page

Citing a play published as a book

When citing a play in a bibliography first place the playwrights last name then first, the title of the play should be italics, then add the publisher and publication year.

             Example: Shakespeare, William. Macbeth , Bedford/St. Martins, 1999.

Citing a play in an anthology

When citing a play from an anthology first cite the playwright, name of the play in italics, the name of the anthology also in italics , who the anthology was edited by then the publisher, publication year and page numbers.

      Example:

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. William Shakespeare: The Complete Works , edited by            _____ Stanley Well et al., Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 2501-2565.

The et al. is included when three or more contributors perform the same function.  

Citing a play from a database

When citing from a database use the author's last and first name, the title of the play in italics, the name of the publisher, the publication year, the name of the database in italics and then the link to the database.

     Example:

Shakespeare, William, et al. Macbeth . Yale University Press, 2005. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1nq91p.

Citing a play published as an eBook

When citing as an eBook use the author's last and first name, the title of the play in italics, then put the word "e-book" or if you have used a specific device then replace "e-book" with "[App/Service] ed.". Then use with the name of the publisher, the publication year.

    Example: Shakespeare, William. The Winter's Tale , Kindle ed., Simon & Schuster, 2016.

Citing a play from web site

When citing as a play use the author's last and first name, the title of the play in italics, the name of the website in italics and web site link.

    Example: Shakespeare, William. As You Like It , The Complete Works of William Shakespeare,     ______________ http://shakespeare.mit.edu/asyoulikeit/index.html

Our Sources:

Modern Language Association of America.  MLA Handbook.   Eighth ed. 2016. Print.

" MLA Works Cited : Electronic Sources (Web Publications)." Purdue Writing Lab, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_electronic_sources.html

Citing prose vs verse plays is from this library guide: https://rdc.libguides.com/c.php?g=529924&p=3624428

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MLA Style Guide: 8th Edition: Block Quote

• Works Cited examples
• Direct Quote

Block Quote

• Paraphrase/Summary
• Indirect Quote
• Multiple Authors
• In-Text Exceptions
• Personal Communications
• MLA Handbook/Other Resources
• NoodleTools

IN-TEXT CITATIONS FOR A...

The block quote is used for direct quotations that are longer than four lines of prose, or longer than three lines of poetry. A block quote is always used when quoting dialogue between characters, as in a play.

The block format is a freestanding quote that does not include quotation marks. Introduce the block quote with a colon (unless the context of your quote requires different punctuation) and start it on a new line. Indent the entire quote 1-inch from the left margin and double-space it (even if the rest of your paper is not double-spaced). Include the page number at the end of your block quote outside of the ending period. Also include the author's last name, date of publication, and page number(s)/paragraph number.

If you quote a single paragraph (or just part of one), do not indent the first line of the block quote more than the rest:

It is not until near the end of The Hound of the Baskervilles that the hound itself is actually seen:

A hound it was, an enormous coal-black hound, but not such a hound as mortal eyes have ever seen. Fire burst from its open mouth, its eyes glowed with a smouldering glare, its muzzle and hackles and dewlap were outlined in flickering flame. Never in the delirious dream of a disordered brain could anything more savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall of fog. (Doyle 82)

If you quote two or more paragraphs, indent the first line of each paragraph an additional ¼ inch. However, if the first sentence quoted does not begin a paragraph in the source, do not indent it the additional amount, only indent the subsequent paragraphs. Here is an example where the first sentence is the beginning of a paragraph:

In the aftermath of the hound sighting, Sherlock Holmes keeps his cool:

   Sir Henry lay insensible where he had fallen. We tore away his collar, and Holmes breathed a prayer of gratitude when we saw that there was no sign of a wound and that the rescue had been in time. Already our friend's eyelids shivered and he made a feeble effort to move. Lestrade thrust his brandy-flask between the baronet's teeth, and two frightened eyes were looking up at us.

   "My God!" he whispered. "What was it? What, in heaven's name, was it?"

   "It's dead, whatever it is," said Holmes. (Doyle 82)

Just as for prose, poetry block quotations (3+ lines) should begin on a new line. Unless the quotation involves unusual spacing, format it as you would prose:  indent each line one-inch from margin and double-space the lines. Do not add any quotation marks that do not appear in the source:

Gwendolyn Brooks’ poem “To John Oliver Killens in 1975” addresses another African American writer of the day:

look at our mercy, the massiveness that it is not.

look  at our “unity,” look at our

“black solidarity.”

Dim, dull, and dainty. (1-5)

A line of poetry in a block quote that is too long to fit within the right margin of the page should be continued on the next line and indented an additional ¼ inch:

Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem “Howl” begins:

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,

dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,

angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo

   in the machinery of night, (9)

When quoting dialogue from a play, begin each part with the appropriate character’s name indented 1-inch from the left margin and written in all capital letters followed by a period. Then, start the quotation and indent all subsequent lines an additional ¼ inch. In the parenthetical reference at the end of the quote, include the act, scene, and line(s) of your quote, instead of the page number(s):

At the beginning of Shakespeare’s The Tempest , chaos erupts on a ship at sea before the cast of characters ends up on Prospero’s island:

MARINERS. All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!

BOATSWAIN. What, must our mouths be cold?

GONZALO. The king and prince at prayers! let’s assist them,

For our case is as theirs.

SEBASTIAN.                                        I’m out of patience.

ANTONIO. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards:

This wide-chapp’d rascal,—would thou mightst lie drowning

The washing of ten tides!

GONZALO.                                          He’ll be hang’d yet,

Though every drop of water swear against it,

And gape at widest to glut him.

A confused noise within: “Mercy on us!”—“We split, we

split!”—“Farewell my wife and children!”—“Farewell,

brother!”—“We split, we split, we split!” (1.5.3-14)

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Referencing a Play in an MLA paper

I've gone through several different resources that appeared in the Google search bar when I asked this question, but the sources give different answers to this question:

When referencing a play name in an MLA-formatted essay, should I underline it, put it in quotes, or italicize it?

I have a final draft of an essay due in a few days, but I can't figure out which one I should use. Most sources point to underlining or italicizing; not quotes. However, that's still two different answers I'm receiving. If any of you know for sure what is expected in an MLA paper, your response is greatly appreciated.

Edit : The most reliable and sensible answer I found so far mentioned that back in the age of typewriters, it was underlined, but nowadays it is italicized. If any of you can confirm this notion, please feel free to do so.

2 Answers 2

Italicized:

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet . Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square-Pocket, 1992.

I just searched for examples. I found this site: http://www.mystfx.ca/resources/writingcentre/MLA_Citing%20Sources.pdf , and I used that info. I think that most scripts of plays are republished in books or collections (which are books). You can always add more info after the date, in parentheses, if you think it's useful. I would probably add "play" at the end, so I could jump to it using a find feature in a text editor. The safer bet would be to add the info at the end, but my preference would be to add it after the title. I doubt I would receive any complaints, either way.

Also, most of the names of works in the works cited section are italicized, articles and sections being the big exception. I also remember finding some works-cited example pages at .edu websites doing a keyword search for +hamlet site: .edu or something similar. I found a site that told how to cite a "live play" .

This is a quote from that site:

Hamlet . By William Shakespeare. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Perf. Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacoby, and Julia Christie. The Globe Theatre, London. 27 Dec. 1991. Performance.

• Given that the questioner has already found numerous non-authoritative sources, this doesn't seem like a very useful answer without a link to the authoritative source where you found this. –  Peter Taylor Oct 11, 2011 at 6:15
• As long as you are sure of it, then it is accepted. –  Mxyk Oct 11, 2011 at 12:06
• @MikeGates and PeterTaylor My bad. I'll edit. –  Wolfpack'08 Jan 5, 2012 at 1:56

I agree with Wolfpack. For future reference, the general rule is that if the work comes in multiple parts, (chapters, acts, scenes... whatever) then the title is italicized. If it comes in only one part (short story, article, etc.) then it gets quotation marks. Of course, there are articles that have multiple parts, and plays that have only one scene, so it's not an absolute rule.

Maybe better to say that if the form of literature, in its most typical form, has more than one part, then italics.

Might also be better to say long gets italics, short gets quotations, but apparently somebody wanted to make the rule a little more complicated than that!

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How do I cite the prologue of a play?

When the prologue—or author’s preface—to a play is in prose, provide a page number for a quotation from or reference to the work if it is given. 

“Money is the most important thing in the world,” declares Shaw in his prologue to Major Barbara (19), as if we didn’t already know that. Work Cited Shaw, George Bernard. “First Aid to Critics.” Major Barbara , Brentano’s, 1917, pp. 5–48.

No number is needed if the work is online or otherwise available electronically.

In defiance, Shaw describes his play as “intensely and deliberately didactic.” Work Cited Shaw, George Bernard. Preface. Pygmalion . Project Gutenburg , 19 Jan. 2005, www.gutenberg.org/app/uploads/sites/3/3825/3825-h/3825-h.htm.

If the prologue is in verse, you have the option of providing a line number instead of a page number.

In the play’s prologue, Shakespeare tells his audience upfront how long Romeo and Juliet will take: “the two hours’ traffic of our stage” (line 12). Shakespeare tells his audience in the prologue that in Henry V Harry is now “warlike” (line 5).

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How to Put a Quote in an Essay

Last Updated: November 28, 2022 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Danielle Blinka, MA, MPA . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 2,645,720 times.

Using a direct quote in your essay is a great way to support your ideas with concrete evidence, which you need to support your thesis. To select a good quote , look for a passage that supports your argument and is open to analysis. Then, incorporate that quote into your essay, and make sure you properly cite it based on the style guide you’re using.

Sample Quotes

Incorporating a Short Quote

• For instance, let's say this is the quote you want to use: "The brown leaves symbolize the death of their relationship, while the green buds suggest new opportunities will soon unfold."
• If you just type that sentence into your essay and put quotes around it, your reader will be disoriented. Instead, you could incorporate it into a sentence like this: "The imagery in the story mirrors what's happening in Lia's love life, as 'The brown leaves symbolize the death of their relationship, while the green buds suggest new opportunities will soon unfold.'"

• "Critic Alex Li says, 'The frequent references to the color blue are used to suggest that the family is struggling to cope with the loss of their matriarch.'"
• "According to McKinney’s research, 'Adults who do yoga at least three times a week have lower blood pressure, better sleeping patterns, and fewer everyday frustrations.'"
• "Based on several recent studies, people are more likely to sit on the park benches when they're shaded by trees."

• You still need to use quotation marks even if you're only quoting a few words.
• If you're in doubt, it's best to be cautious and use quotes.

• For example, let’s say you used the quote, “According to McKinney’s research, ‘Adults who do yoga at least three times a week have lower blood pressure, better sleeping patterns, and fewer everyday frustrations.’” Your commentary might read, “This shows that yoga can have a positive impact on people’s health, so incorporating it into the workplace can help improve employee health outcomes. Since yoga makes employees healthier, they’ll likely have reduced insurance costs.”

• When you use a paraphrase, you still need to provide commentary that links the paraphrased material back to your thesis and ideas.

Using a Long Quote

• The reader will recognize that the material is a direct quote because it's set off from the rest of the text. That's why you don't need to use quotation marks. However, you will include your citation at the bottom.

• "In The Things They Carried , the items carried by soldiers in the Vietnam war are used to both characterize them and burden the readers with the weight they are carrying: The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, and two or three canteens of water." (O'Brien 2)

Variation: When you're citing two or more paragraphs, you must use block quotes, even if the passage you want to quote is less than four lines long. You should indent the first line of each paragraph an extra quarter inch. Then, use ellipses (…) at the end of one paragraph to transition to the next.

• Your block quote will use the same spacing as the rest of your paper, which will likely be double-spacing.

• For example, “According to Li, “Rosa is the first sister to pick a rose because she’s the only one who’s begun to move on after their mother’s death” might become “According to Li, “Rosa is the first sister to pick a rose because she’s … begun to move on after their mother’s death.”
• Don’t eliminate words to change the meaning of the original text. For instance, it’s not appropriate to use an ellipsis to change “plants did not grow faster when exposed to poetry” to “plants did … grow faster when exposed to poetry.”

• For example, let’s say you want to use the quote, “All of them experienced a more relaxed, calmer disposition after doing yoga for 6 months.” This doesn’t tell the reader who you’re talking about. You could use brackets to say, “All of [the teachers in the study] experienced a more relaxed, calmer disposition after doing yoga for 6 months.”
• However, if you know the study is talking about teachers, you couldn’t use brackets to say, “All of [society experiences] a more relaxed, calmer disposition after doing yoga for 6 months.”

• If you don't explain your quote well, then it's not helping your ideas. You can't expect the reader to connect the quote back to your thesis for you.

• For instance, you may prefer to use a long block quote to present a passage from a literary work that demonstrates the author's style. However, let's say you were using a journal article to provide a critic's perspective on an author's work. You may not need to directly quote an entire paragraph word-for-word to get their point across. Instead, use a paraphrase.

Tip: If you’re unsure about a quote, ask yourself, “Can I paraphrase this in more concise language and not lose any support for my argument?” If the answer is yes, a quote is not necessary.

Citing Your Quote

• An MLA citation will look like this: (Lopez 24)
• For sources with multiple authors, separate their names with the word “and:” (Anderson and Smith 55-56) or (Taylor, Gomez, and Austin 89)
• If you use the author’s name in your lead-in to the quote, you just need to provide the year in parentheses: According to Luz Lopez, “the green grass symbolizes a fresh start for Lia (24).”

• An APA citation for a direct quote looks like this: (Ronan, 2019, p. 10)
• If you’re citing multiple authors, separate their names with the word “and:” (Cruz, Hanks, and Simmons, 2019, p. 85)
• If you incorporated the author’s name into your lead-in, you can just give the year and page number: Based on Ronan’s (2019, p. 10) analysis, “coffee breaks improve productivity.”

• For instance, a Chicago Style citation will look like this: (Alexander 2019, 125)
• If you’re quoting a source with multiple authors, separate them with the word “and:” (Pattinson, Stewart, and Green 2019, 175)
• If you already incorporated the author’s name into your quote, then you can just provide the year and page number: According to Alexander, “the smell of roses increases feelings of happiness” (2019, 125).

• For MLA, you'd cite an article like this: Lopez, Luz. "A Fresh Blossom: Imagery in 'Her Darkest Sunshine.'" Journal of Stories , vol. 2, no. 5, 2019, p. 15-22. [17] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• In APA, you'd cite an article like this: Lopez, Luz. (2019). A Fresh Blossom: Imagery in "Her Darkest Sunshine." Journal of Stories , 2(5), 15-22. [18] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• For Chicago Style, your article citation would look like this: Lopez, Luz. "A Fresh Blossom: Imagery in 'Her Darkest Sunshine.'" Journal of Stories 2 no. 4 (2019): 15-22. [19] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

Selecting a Quote

Tip: Quotes are most effective when the original language of the person or text you’re quoting is worth repeating word-for-word.

• If you’re struggling to explain the quote or link it back to your argument, then it’s likely not a good idea to include it in your essay.

• Paraphrases and summaries work just like a direct quote, except that you don’t need to put quotation marks around them because you’re using your own words to restate ideas. However, you still need to cite the sources you used.

Community Q&A

• Always cite your quotes properly. If you don't, it is considered plagiarism. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.ursinus.edu/live/files/1160-integrating-quotespdf
• ↑ https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/undergraduates/writing-guides/how-do-i-incorporate-quotes-.html
• ↑ https://helpfulprofessor.com/quotes/
• ↑ https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/using-sources/quotations/
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_quotations.html
• ↑ https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/apaquickguide/intext
• ↑ https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-2.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_articles_in_periodicals.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/periodicals.html
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/quotations/

About This Article

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The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, examination, diagnosis, or treatment. You should always contact your doctor or other qualified healthcare professional before starting, changing, or stopping any kind of health treatment.

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To put a quote in an essay, incorporate it directly into a sentence if it's shorter than 4 typed lines. For example, you could write "According to researchers," and then insert the quote. If a quote is longer than 4 typed lines, set it off from the rest of the paragraph, and don't put quotes around it. After the quote, include an in-text citation so readers know where it's from. The right way to cite the quote will depend on whether you're using MLA, APA, or Chicago Style formatting. For more tips from our English co-author, like how to omit words from a quote, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Cite a Play in MHRA Referencing

• 4-minute read
• 15th September 2021

If you are citing a play in your writing , you will need to know how to reference it correctly. In this post, we will demonstrate how to cite either a standalone play or a play from a collection using MHRA referencing.

Citing a Single Play in MHRA Referencing

In MHRA referencing, you cite sources in footnotes. To do this, you will need to add a superscript footnote number in the place where you are citing your source:

We see this in Shakespeare’s tragic romance about the Egyptian queen. 1

You will then need to provide source information in the accompanying footnote.

For the first citation of a single play (i.e. a play published as a standalone book or work), you should use the following format:

n. Playwright Name(s), Play Title , ed. by Editor Name(s) (Place of publication: Publisher, Year), Act. Scene. Line no. OR p. x.

The final part of the citation here is the specific part of the play you’re citing. How you note this in the citation will depend on how the play is formatted:

• For plays that are divided into acts and scenes, list the act numbers with small capital Roman numerals, and scene and line numbers with Arabic numerals.
• For plays without acts and scenes, or parts of a play that don’t use these divisions (e.g. an introduction before the script begins), use the abbreviations ‘p.’ or ‘pp.’ followed by the relevant page number or page range, respectively.

You can see how this would look in practice via the example below:

1. William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra , ed. by Emrys Jones (London: Penguin Books, 1977), V . 2. 180–189.

Here, for example, we’re citing act five, scene two, lines 180 to 189 of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra , with full bibliographic detail of the source provided.

Citing a Play from an Edited Collection

The footnote format for citing a play from a collection is slightly different:

n. Playwright Name(s), ‘Play Title’, in Collection Title , ed. by Editor Name(s) (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), pp. X–X (Act. Scene. Line no. OR p. x).

The key here is that the play name is given in quotation marks, not italics, after which we give the publication details of the container volume.

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In addition, we include the page range for the full play after the publication details, and then a pinpoint citation is provided in parentheses afterwards.

In practice, then, the first citation for a play from a collection would look like this:

2. Henrik Ibsen, ‘An Enemy of the People’, in A Doll’s House and Other Plays , trans. by Deborah Dawkin and Erik Skuggevik, ed. by Tore Rem (London: Penguin Books, 2016), pp. 309–320 ( III . 21).

Here, for instance, we’re citing act three, line 21 from ‘An Enemy of the People’, which appears in A Doll’s House and Other Plays between pages 309 and 320.

Citing a Play More than Once

If you cite the same play more than once in your writing, you can use a shortened footnote citation for each citation after the first. Typically, this means using the author’s surname and a new pinpoint citation for the part of the text being cited. For instance, to cite the play above again we would write:

3. Shakespeare, IV . 4. 11–21. 4. Ibsen, II . 10–11.

If you are citing more than one play by the same author, though, you may need to use a shortened play title as well as or instead of the author’s surname in repeat citations. For more information, see our blog post on repeat citations in MHRA .

Adding a Play in an MHRA Bibliography

Every source you cite should also be added to your bibliography . The format here is largely the same as in the first footnote citation, except:

• The author’s surname and first name should be reversed. This ensures that sources are listed alphabetically by the author’s surname.
• You don’t need any pinpoint citations (e.g. page or line numbers).
• There are no full stops at the end of MHRA bibliography entries.
• Each entry should use a hanging indent for each line after the first.

For example, the plays above would be referenced accordingly:

Ibsen, Henrik, ‘An Enemy of the People’, in A Doll’s House and Other Plays , trans. by Deborah Dawkin and Erik Skuggevik, ed. by Tore Rem (London: Penguin Books, 2016), pp. 309–320

Shakespeare, William, Antony and Cleopatra , ed. by Emrys Jones (London: Penguin Books, 1977)

Hopefully, this has helped you understand how to cite plays using MHRA referencing. For more support, try our expert MHRA proofreading service !

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Reference Examples

More than 100 reference examples and their corresponding in-text citations are presented in the seventh edition Publication Manual . Examples of the most common works that writers cite are provided on this page; additional examples are available in the Publication Manual .

To find the reference example you need, first select a category (e.g., periodicals) and then choose the appropriate type of work (e.g., journal article ) and follow the relevant example.

When selecting a category, use the webpages and websites category only when a work does not fit better within another category. For example, a report from a government website would use the reports category, whereas a page on a government website that is not a report or other work would use the webpages and websites category.

Also note that print and electronic references are largely the same. For example, to cite both print books and ebooks, use the books and reference works category and then choose the appropriate type of work (i.e., book ) and follow the relevant example (e.g., whole authored book ).

Examples on these pages illustrate the details of reference formats. We make every attempt to show examples that are in keeping with APA Style’s guiding principles of inclusivity and bias-free language. These examples are presented out of context only to demonstrate formatting issues (e.g., which elements to italicize, where punctuation is needed, placement of parentheses). References, including these examples, are not inherently endorsements for the ideas or content of the works themselves. An author may cite a work to support a statement or an idea, to critique that work, or for many other reasons. For more examples, see our sample papers .

Reference examples are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Chapter 10 and the Concise Guide Chapter 10

Related handouts

• Common Reference Examples Guide (PDF, 147KB)
• Reference Quick Guide (PDF, 225KB)

Textual Works

Textual works are covered in Sections 10.1–10.8 of the Publication Manual . The most common categories and examples are presented here. For the reviews of other works category, see Section 10.7.

• Journal Article References
• Magazine Article References
• Newspaper Article References
• Blog Post and Blog Comment References
• UpToDate Article References
• Book/Ebook References
• Diagnostic Manual References
• Children’s Book or Other Illustrated Book References
• Classroom Course Pack Material References
• Religious Work References
• Chapter in an Edited Book/Ebook References
• Dictionary Entry References
• Wikipedia Entry References
• Report by a Government Agency References
• Report with Individual Authors References
• Brochure References
• Ethics Code References
• Fact Sheet References
• ISO Standard References
• Press Release References
• White Paper References
• Conference Presentation References
• Conference Proceeding References
• Published Dissertation or Thesis References
• Unpublished Dissertation or Thesis References
• ERIC Database References
• Preprint Article References

Data and Assessments

Data sets are covered in Section 10.9 of the Publication Manual . For the software and tests categories, see Sections 10.10 and 10.11.

• Data Set References
• Toolbox References

Audiovisual Media

Audiovisual media are covered in Sections 10.12–10.14 of the Publication Manual . The most common examples are presented together here. In the manual, these examples and more are separated into categories for audiovisual, audio, and visual media.

• Artwork References
• Clip Art or Stock Image References
• Film and Television References
• Musical Score References
• Online Course or MOOC References
• Podcast References
• PowerPoint Slide or Lecture Note References
• Radio Broadcast References
• TED Talk References
• Transcript of an Audiovisual Work References
• YouTube Video References

Online Media

Online media are covered in Sections 10.15 and 10.16 of the Publication Manual . Please note that blog posts are part of the periodicals category.

• Facebook References
• Instagram References
• LinkedIn References
• Online Forum (e.g., Reddit) References
• TikTok References
• X References
• Webpage on a Website References
• Clinical Practice References
• Open Educational Resource References
• Whole Website References

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• Knowledge Base
• Working with sources
• How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago

How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago

Published on April 15, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Jack Caulfield. Revised on May 31, 2023.

Quoting means copying a passage of someone else’s words and crediting the source. To quote a source, you must ensure:

• The quoted text is enclosed in quotation marks or formatted as a block quote
• The original author is correctly cited
• The text is identical to the original

The exact format of a quote depends on its length and on which citation style you are using. Quoting and citing correctly is essential to avoid plagiarism which is easy to detect with a good plagiarism checker .

Table of contents

How to cite a quote in apa, mla and chicago, introducing quotes, quotes within quotes, shortening or altering a quote, block quotes, when should i use quotes, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about quoting sources.

Every time you quote, you must cite the source correctly . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style you’re using. Three of the most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

Citing a quote in APA Style

To cite a direct quote in APA , you must include the author’s last name, the year, and a page number, all separated by commas . If the quote appears on a single page, use “p.”; if it spans a page range, use “pp.”

An APA in-text citation can be parenthetical or narrative. In a parenthetical citation , you place all the information in parentheses after the quote. In a narrative citation , you name the author in your sentence (followed by the year), and place the page number after the quote.

Punctuation marks such as periods and commas are placed after the citation, not within the quotation marks .

• Evolution is a gradual process that “can act only by very short and slow steps” (Darwin, 1859, p. 510) .
• Darwin (1859) explains that evolution “can act only by very short and slow steps” (p. 510) .

Complete guide to APA

Citing a quote in mla style.

An MLA in-text citation includes only the author’s last name and a page number. As in APA, it can be parenthetical or narrative, and a period (or other punctuation mark) appears after the citation.

• Evolution is a gradual process that “can act only by very short and slow steps” (Darwin 510) .
• Darwin explains that evolution “can act only by very short and slow steps” (510) .

Complete guide to MLA

Citing a quote in chicago style.

Chicago style uses Chicago footnotes to cite sources. A note, indicated by a superscript number placed directly after the quote, specifies the author, title, and page number—or sometimes fuller information .

Unlike with parenthetical citations, in this style, the period or other punctuation mark should appear within the quotation marks, followed by the footnote number.

Complete guide to Chicago style

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Make sure you integrate quotes properly into your text by introducing them in your own words, showing the reader why you’re including the quote and providing any context necessary to understand it.  Don’t  present quotations as stand-alone sentences.

There are three main strategies you can use to introduce quotes in a grammatically correct way:

• Add an introductory sentence
• Use an introductory signal phrase
• Integrate the quote into your own sentence

The following examples use APA Style citations, but these strategies can be used in all styles.

Introductory sentence

Introduce the quote with a full sentence ending in a colon . Don’t use a colon if the text before the quote isn’t a full sentence.

If you name the author in your sentence, you may use present-tense verbs , such as “states,” “argues,” “explains,” “writes,” or “reports,” to describe the content of the quote.

• In Denmark, a recent poll shows that: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• In Denmark, a recent poll shows that support for the EU has grown since the Brexit vote: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• Levring (2018) reports that support for the EU has grown since the Brexit vote: “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (p. 3).

Introductory signal phrase

You can also use a signal phrase that mentions the author or source, but doesn’t form a full sentence. In this case, you follow the phrase with a comma instead of a colon.

• According to a recent poll, “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• As Levring (2018) explains, “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (p. 3).

Integrated into your own sentence

To quote a phrase that doesn’t form a full sentence, you can also integrate it as part of your sentence, without any extra punctuation .

• A recent poll suggests that EU membership “would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” in a referendum (Levring, 2018, p. 3).
• Levring (2018) reports that EU membership “would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” in a referendum (p. 3).

When you quote text that itself contains another quote, this is called a nested quotation or a quote within a quote. It may occur, for example, when quoting dialogue from a novel.

To distinguish this quote from the surrounding quote, you enclose it in single (instead of double) quotation marks (even if this involves changing the punctuation from the original text). Make sure to close both sets of quotation marks at the appropriate moments.

Note that if you only quote the nested quotation itself, and not the surrounding text, you can just use double quotation marks.

• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “ “ Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, ” he told me, “ just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had ” ” (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had ” (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway introduces his narrative by quoting his father: “‘Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had’” (Fitzgerald 1).
• Carraway begins by quoting his father’s invocation to “remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (Fitzgerald 1).

Note:  When the quoted text in the source comes from another source, it’s best to just find that original source in order to quote it directly. If you can’t find the original source, you can instead cite it indirectly .

Often, incorporating a quote smoothly into your text requires you to make some changes to the original text. It’s fine to do this, as long as you clearly mark the changes you’ve made to the quote.

Shortening a quote

If some parts of a passage are redundant or irrelevant, you can shorten the quote by removing words, phrases, or sentences and replacing them with an ellipsis (…). Put a space before and after the ellipsis.

Be careful that removing the words doesn’t change the meaning. The ellipsis indicates that some text has been removed, but the shortened quote should still accurately represent the author’s point.

Altering a quote

You can add or replace words in a quote when necessary. This might be because the original text doesn’t fit grammatically with your sentence (e.g., it’s in a different verb tense), or because extra information is needed to clarify the quote’s meaning.

Use brackets to distinguish words that you have added from words that were present in the original text.

The Latin term “ sic ” is used to indicate a (factual or grammatical) mistake in a quotation. It shows the reader that the mistake is from the quoted material, not a typo of your own.

In some cases, it can be useful to italicize part of a quotation to add emphasis, showing the reader that this is the key part to pay attention to. Use the phrase “emphasis added” to show that the italics were not part of the original text.

You usually don’t need to use brackets to indicate minor changes to punctuation or capitalization made to ensure the quote fits the style of your text.

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If you quote more than a few lines from a source, you must format it as a block quote . Instead of using quotation marks, you set the quote on a new line and indent it so that it forms a separate block of text.

Block quotes are cited just like regular quotes, except that if the quote ends with a period, the citation appears after the period.

To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, a walking-stick or any money, or anything that he usually took when he went out; leaving his second breakfast half-finished and quite unwashed-up, pushing his keys into Gandalf’s hands, and running as fast as his furry feet could carry him down the lane, past the great Mill, across The Water, and then on for a mile or more. (16)

Avoid relying too heavily on quotes in academic writing . To integrate a source , it’s often best to paraphrase , which means putting the passage in your own words. This helps you integrate information smoothly and keeps your own voice dominant.

However, there are some situations in which quoting is more appropriate.

When focusing on language

If you want to comment on how the author uses language (for example, in literary analysis ), it’s necessary to quote so that the reader can see the exact passage you are referring to.

When giving evidence

To convince the reader of your argument, interpretation or position on a topic, it’s often helpful to include quotes that support your point. Quotes from primary sources (for example, interview transcripts or historical documents) are especially credible as evidence.

When presenting an author’s position or definition

When you’re referring to secondary sources such as scholarly books and journal articles, try to put others’ ideas in your own words when possible.

But if a passage does a great job at expressing, explaining, or defining something, and it would be very difficult to paraphrase without changing the meaning or losing the weakening the idea’s impact, it’s worth quoting directly.

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• ChatGPT vs human editor
• ChatGPT citations
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Using ChatGPT for your studies
• What is ChatGPT?
• Chicago style
• Paraphrasing
• Critical thinking

 Plagiarism

• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Consequences of plagiarism
• Common knowledge

A quote is an exact copy of someone else’s words, usually enclosed in quotation marks and credited to the original author or speaker.

In academic writing , there are three main situations where quoting is the best choice:

• To analyze the author’s language (e.g., in a literary analysis essay )
• To give evidence from primary sources
• To accurately present a precise definition or argument

Don’t overuse quotes; your own voice should be dominant. If you just want to provide information from a source, it’s usually better to paraphrase or summarize .

Every time you quote a source , you must include a correctly formatted in-text citation . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style .

For example, a direct quote in APA is cited like this: “This is a quote” (Streefkerk, 2020, p. 5).

Every in-text citation should also correspond to a full reference at the end of your paper.

A block quote is a long quote formatted as a separate “block” of text. Instead of using quotation marks , you place the quote on a new line, and indent the entire quote to mark it apart from your own words.

The rules for when to apply block quote formatting depend on the citation style:

• APA block quotes are 40 words or longer.
• MLA block quotes are more than 4 lines of prose or 3 lines of poetry.
• Chicago block quotes are longer than 100 words.

If you’re quoting from a text that paraphrases or summarizes other sources and cites them in parentheses , APA and Chicago both recommend retaining the citations as part of the quote. However, MLA recommends omitting citations within a quote:

• APA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic (Jones, 2015; Sill, 2019; Paulson, 2020) shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).
• MLA: Smith states that “the literature on this topic shows no clear consensus” (Smith, 2019, p. 4).

Footnote or endnote numbers that appear within quoted text should be omitted in all styles.

If you want to cite an indirect source (one you’ve only seen quoted in another source), either locate the original source or use the phrase “as cited in” in your citation.

In scientific subjects, the information itself is more important than how it was expressed, so quoting should generally be kept to a minimum. In the arts and humanities, however, well-chosen quotes are often essential to a good paper.

In social sciences, it varies. If your research is mainly quantitative , you won’t include many quotes, but if it’s more qualitative , you may need to quote from the data you collected .

As a general guideline, quotes should take up no more than 5–10% of your paper. If in doubt, check with your instructor or supervisor how much quoting is appropriate in your field.

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McCombes, S. & Caulfield, J. (2023, May 31). How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago. Scribbr. Retrieved June 11, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/how-to-quote/

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I found my dad’s old report card. It taught me a lot about his struggle with addiction

When my first son was 3 years old, we moved from Los Angeles to the mountains of a small town in California. I was eight months pregnant with our second child and on a modified bedrest, but I did my best to entertain my son from the confines of a chair.

Our first night in the mountains, he looked up at the sunset in awe and asked why the sky was changing colors: red, purple, now orange. I told him that the sky was dancing, and he began dancing, too.

“Look, Mom!” he said. “I’m orange dancing!” He twirled and declared that he was “red dancing” and “purple dancing.”

I lifted my arms and danced along with him in my chair.

“Look, Mom,” he said. “We are all the colors!”

I sat there with one hand on my belly, the other hand waving in the air, amazed at how little difference my 3-year-old son saw between himself and the sky. He could feel the reality that he was majestic and vast. He wasn’t just one thing, black or white, good or bad, this or that. He was all the colors.

I thought of this moment again several years later, when I found my father’s kindergarten report card from 1959. A blue piece of cardstock folded in half indicated that Dad had performed well academically, with excellent marks in reading and math, but on the back of it, his teacher wrote: “Jeffrey is over-anxious to please his teacher and … often asks how to do things he already knows how to do. He would probably be a much happier child if he could learn to be a little less serious.” 

I knew what his teacher was saying, behind her polite cursive. My father believed he needed to be perfect to be loved. He was ruthlessly hard on himself all the way until the end. Harsh self-talk covered up the reality of my father’s inherent worth, blinding him to the fact that he, too, was all the colors.

My first word was “Dada.” My father’s last word was “water.” He pointed to a jar of small pink swabs. I took one and dipped it into a cup of ice-cold water and placed it in his mouth and moved it from one side to the other and let it rest on the inside of his right cheek. He closed his eyes and never spoke again.

He was 69 years old when he died due to the consequences of addiction , and I was 39. Many years earlier, when I was a kid, he took our family to Hawaii on a business trip. He held the hands of my sister and me as he guided us to the resort lagoon where we swam with dolphins. At one point, a dolphin jumped over us and hundreds of sparkling droplets reflected in the sun like a million shards of gold, and suddenly she dove back into the water behind us and swam into deeper and darker blues.

When we came home, my father framed pictures of my sister and me swimming with the dolphins and placed them on his desk alongside the other pictures of us in beautiful places: Hawaii, Costa Rica, Marco Island, New York City. During my late teens, when his drinking began to wreak havoc on our family, the promise of his sobriety became like a place on his desk, tropical blue water, a dream we wanted to make real.

Until the final decade of his life, I stayed close to him. Dad visited a total of 23 different drug and alcohol treatment centers over the years, staying for weeks or sometimes months before checking himself out. My sister, mother and I visited him at most of the centers, where the voice of his self-criticism was 10 times louder than any words of love and forgiveness that we — or anyone — could ever say.

Two months after Dad died, I dropped my children off at school and returned home, where my dog, a Terrier mix named Bella, greeted me with her normal celebratory dance. Bella never tried to remove any of my struggles. Instead, she made it possible for me to struggle — madly struggle in ways I never would never let another person see or know about — because her love was so pure.

I held Bella under one arm and walked into the living room and to the bookshelf where we kept our family’s most precious items: three bullet casings from my father-in-law’s military funeral, books of poetry, photos of our children, and a small glass jar with a lock of my father’s hair inside. I sat in the corner of the room with Bella nestled into my lap and opened the wooden cap of the tiny glass jar and turned it upside down. My father’s lock of hair fell into my fingers. How soft it was! I thought it might be dry, like straw, but it was softer than a feather.

Then, I reached beside the bookshelf and pulled out the box of my father’s belongings mailed to me after he passed. All that he owned fit into a cardboard box no bigger than four shoeboxes. The top layer of the box was filled with clothes: black sweatpants I was almost positive he wore while homeless on the streets. There was a Discman and CDs I’d given him, and below that, an old Timex in a plastic Ziploc bag. The watch was broken in three pieces and had a camel-colored leather strap, the leather scraped up and fraying all over so that you could see a darker layer of brown underneath. The face of the clock and its stainless frame was still intact. The seconds hand still moved. I watched the hand tick and the time change.

I held this broken watch in one hand, his soft hair in the other, and sobbed so hard I couldn’t breathe. A part of me blamed myself for not having done more. Maybe the boundaries I set against his addiction were too rigid. Maybe we should have elected to do the feeding tube. Maybe …

Just then, I felt Bella’s tongue on my cheek. She licked my tears and leaned closer into me. I set down the watch and put the lock of hair back into the jar, but the sensation of its softness on my pinky finger remained. 

A voice inside said that it was time to get up, time to go to work, time to get it together. But I didn’t move. I held Bella closer to my chest and lifted my gaze from my father’s things on the floor to outside the window. The sky was baby blue with wisps of clouds and sun. There was a thin layer of snow on top of the grass, white, glistening dust I imagined was the same texture as my father’s ashes.

Later that night, I wrote in my journal, “Gave myself space to grieve.” A few days later I wrote, “Made a mistake at work, told myself it was OK.” A few days after that I wrote, “Sent out an essay even though a voice said it wasn’t good enough.” I soon realized that I was tracking moments in which I was kind to myself or rebelling against an inner voice that told me I wasn’t good enough — the same harsh voice my father’s kindergarten teacher had noted back in 1959.

Perhaps I was jotting down these moments of self-compassion to heal my own heart, but also, certainly, for my children. Nothing seemed more important than teaching them to include themselves in the circle of kindness they extended, and that meant I needed to learn how to do so, too.

Nothing seemed more important than teaching them to include themselves in the circle of kindness they extended, and that meant I needed to learn how to do so, too.

One night at the dinner table when my husband was away on a work trip, my two sons and I played a game I’d seen on Instagram, “High, low, buffalo,” where we talked about the best, worst and silliest (buffalo) part of our day. I announced that my high was filling up an entire page of my journal with moments in which I was kind to myself. 

“Wet us see it!” my youngest said, just 3 years old and still adorably pronouncing his L’s as W’s.

I grabbed my journal and showed them the list. My eldest son, the one who danced with the sky and said we were all the colors, was now 6. He studied the page like a treasure map, tracking the words with their fingers.

“Wow, Mom. You were really kind to yourself,” he said.

“Thanks, honey,” I said. “I’m learning to do it more and more.”

After writing this essay, Shannon Kopp teamed up with her sister to create The Kindness Scouts , children’s books and early emotional learning tools to empower self-compassion. She is also the author of " Pound for Pound: A Story of One Woman’s Recovery and the Shelter Dogs Who Loved Her Back to Life " (HarperCollins) and the Founder and CEO of SoulPaws Recovery Project . 

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