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Quoting
When you are researching a topic, sometimes you want to include the exact words of another author or speaker in your own work — this is called quoting, or including a direct quote.
When to quote
Quoting is the way to include the exact words of others in our own work.
Here are some points to note about quoting:
- Use them sparingly. The person marking your work would much rather that you use paraphrases where possible because paraphrases are made up of your own words.
- Save direct quotes for particularly clear, powerful, or eloquent writing from the source text, for data and for when a paraphrase could possibly change the meaning of the original text.
How to insert a direct quote
Follow these steps to use direct quotes in your written assignments.
- Copy the exact words from the original source. (If your quote is 40 words or longer, see the section below on using a block quote).
- Use quotation marks " " at the beginning and end of the copied text.
- Cite the quote following the citation format for your referencing style. This often means including information such as the author’s surname, year of publication, and the page number where the quote appears.
Written example
While no single description exists for the concept of procrastination, it has been defined as "delaying tasks to the point where personal discomfort is felt" (Chin & Grey, 2023, p. 81).
If you are reading a direct quote as part of an oral or multimedia presentation, you'll want to include the same citation information. You might say something like the example below.
Spoken example
While no single description exists for the concept of procrastination, Solomon and Rothblum defined the concept in their 1984 study, page 503, as "the act of needlessly delaying tasks to the point of experiencing subjective discomfort".
Using a block quote
A block quote is a long direct quote, usually more than 30-40 words. Block quotes begin on a new line, and the entire quote is indented. Different referencing styles have different rules for exactly how to format block quotes within a larger text and where to place the citation.
If direct quotes should be used infrequently, block quotes should be used even more sparingly. Many academic papers contain no block quotes at all.
Tips for quoting
- Where possible, keep direct quotes short rather than using full sentences. You can do this by using key words from the original sentence as the direct quote. For example:
According to Ivanov (2024), introducing continuing with the current manufacturing process would be a "one-way ticket to failure" (p. 11).
- Direct quotes need to be integrated into a sentence; they should not be a sentence on their own.
For example, change:"Green spaces are essential for the mental and physical wellbeing of residents" (Moretti, 2025, p. 6).
To:
Moretti (2025) points out that "[g]reen spaces are essential for the mental and physical wellbeing of residents" (p.6).
If you need to make any changes to the original text, put the change inside square brackets, as can be seen in the previous example where the "g" in green has been changed to a lowercase letter.
- If you need to make any changes to the original text, put the change inside square brackets, as can be seen in the previous example where the "g" in "green" has been changed to a lowercase letter.
Please note: The examples on this page use the APA referencing style. Check your course handbook or speak to your instructor about the referencing style required in your area of study.
References
Solomon, L.J., & Rothblum, E.D. (1984). Academic procrastination: Frequency and cognitive-behavioral correlates. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31(4), 503-509. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0167.31.4.503
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