Think of a student who has always been exceptional. His essays were well-researched, well-structured, and perfectly written. When he submitted his latest literature analysis, he was confident it would receive top marks. However, his professor returned the paper with a bold red “Revision”. He scanned the feedback and regretted not knowing how to cite a quote in an essay.
Failing to cite quotations appropriately while following the guidelines of various referencing styles is common for many students. According to the University of Virginia, if you don’t cite quotes in your essay, regardless of their brevity, it will be called plagiarism.
Do you also have a similar question related to the citations of quotes in essays? In this detailed guide, we will learn about all the major referencing styles, including APA, MLA, and Chicago, and how to follow them to cite quotes.
How to Quote in an Essay Using MLA, APA, and Chicago? 5 Best Practices!
Writing an essay for any subject isn’t an ordinary task requiring simple and easy tricks. A lot of students face issues related to continuous suggestions on revising their essays. Usually, they don’t cite speeches, ideas, thoughts, and quotes accurately. If they do, they miss following specific guidelines set by a referencing style.
If you don’t know how to quote an essay in APA, spending time writing one will be a waste because the inability to cite quotes in essays is known as plagiarism. Plagiarism isn’t tolerated in essays, research papers, or assignments, leading to penalties. Therefore, some experts recommend getting help from London-based essay writing services as they know how to compose a paper without errors in in-text citations and bibliographies.
Here, we are going to mention the best practices for students to cite quotes and other sources accurately while considering the guidelines defined by APA, MLA, and Chicago. Let’s know about these practices to make your essay a success!
1. Understand the Styles First
Before adding quotes, you need to decide on which citation style is required. MLA is commonly used in the humanities, and APA is preferred in social sciences and media studies. Chicago is common in history and business. Each style has different rules for quoting and citing sources.
- MLA: According to the University of Canterbury, it focuses on author-page citations. Let’s say we want to cite this quote: “Education is the only power to conquer the world”. The author of this quote is Alex, and we will cite it like this: (Alex 23).
- APA: Uses author-date citations with page numbers for direct quotes. Considering the previous example for the MLA style, we will cite it in APA like this: (Alex, 2020, p. 20).
- Chicago: This style incorporates footnotes or endnotes with full citations. Chicago is usually used in historical and business writing.
Understanding which style to use is crucial for formatting quotes correctly and avoiding plagiarism. Professors and institutions typically specify the required style. If you have any ambiguity, you can consult your instructor multiple times to clear your concepts.
2. Use Signal Phrases Accurately
Do you know about signal phrases and how important it is to cite them accurately in your essays? As per Scribbr, signal phrases are short quotes or sentences that belong to others’ creativity or thoughts. Failing to cite them can lead to issues in your essays, such as plagiarism. Therefore, you must cite every signal phrase without making a mistake.
Usually, students make mistakes while collecting the data. During the data collection, they didn’t write down the authors’ names of various quotes. They fail to attribute every sentence appropriately when giving a final touch to their essays. You must avoid this practice in order to prevent penalties and make your essays a success.
Here are some examples that you can follow for signal phrases:
- MLA: This is a quote: “Only those survive in this world who are the fittest”. We will use this example for these three styles. Let’s assume the author of this quote is Smith. Following the guidelines of the MLA style, we will cite it like this: According to Smith, “Only those survive in this world who are the fittest” (45).
- APA: The way of citing this quote in the APA style will be slightly different. In APA, we will cite this way: Smith (2020) states that “Only those survive in this world who are the fittest” (p. 45).
- Chicago: Citing the above-mentioned quote in the Chicago style will be entirely different from MLA and APA. Smith argues, “Only those survive in this world who are the fittest” (2020, 45). This is how we cite this quote in Chicago.
3. Pay Attention to Formatting for Short Quotes
Ignoring formatting for various styles is another common issue for students. For instance, they sometimes keep the same format for these referencing styles: APA, MLA, and Chicago. However, this is a fundamental mistake every student must avoid. Inappropriate formatting always leads to problems, such as repetitive revisions and event rejections.
In the beginning, when you are a novice to research, it’s completely fine if you don’t know how to quote in an essay following the rules of APA. After spending time on multiple research journals and books, you will get in-depth expertise about all the rules related to formatting and citation. In addition, you can also engage in discussions with your supervisor to learn about the nitty-gritty. Your fellow students can also guide you in overcoming this issue. All you need to do is to pay attention and remain dedicated until your essay is complete.
These are some formatting guidelines for APA, MLA, and Chicago referencing styles:
- MLA: You will always focus on placing a quote within quotation marks in addition to including the writer’s name and page number in parentheses. You can get an idea from the examples described in the previous section.
- APA: Following the rules of the APA style, a student must include the author’s last name, the year in which the paper was published, and the page number of the book or the research article.
- Chicago: In the Chicago referencing style, a student or research professional will always enclose in quotation marks. Moreover, they will include a footnote or in-text citations to help readers understand who the original author of the quote, idea, or passage is.
4. Don’t Compromise on Long Quotes
Let’s learn about the basic difference between short/signal quotes and long quotes, and the way to cite them differently. You always ensure putting a short quotation between quotation marks, no matter what referencing style you are following. However, this rule will not remain the same if a quote is long or consists of three to four lines.
According to the Academic Resource Center, the way a student mentions a long quote in his essay will remain the same for MLA, APA, and Chicago, meaning quotation marks will not enclose a quotation. These are guidelines you must follow when putting a long quote in your writing, regardless of your subject:
- MLA: You will indent the quote and cite it at the end. Usually, this type of quote will contain more than four lines.
- APA: If your quote contains more than forty words, you will also indent it in addition to adding a parenthetical citation after the period.
- Chicago: You will ensure accuracy in using a block format and adding footnotes for source referencing.
Please remember that adding quotes to essays isn’t easy for students, especially those working on a research project for the first time. Ensuring accuracy not only in quotations but also in the citation style is a must to make your essay error-free. Supervisors and educational institutions pay special attention to formatting and citation methods. Therefore, going beyond the mile to ensure accuracy will go in your favour.
An Additional Tip: Always use the indent button to indent long quotes. Some novice researchers use the space bar for indenting and believe that it will fulfill the purpose of indenting. However, this approach will lead to mistakes in the formatting and referencing style.
5. Focus on Adding a Page Number
Just mentioning the author’s name in a quotation isn’t the only aspect you should be focusing on when writing an essay or assignment. It will be difficult for a reader to track down the quote. Even adding a detailed bibliography at the end will not help the reader because they would not know on which page to find a particular quote, idea, or passage.
In addition, adding page numbers incorrectly will also lead to severe problems in your essays. You can’t follow the style of mentioning a page number of APA in MLA and vice versa. Here is how you can add a page number for quotes in the MLA, APA, and Chicago referencing styles:
- MLA: The page number will come after the name of the author. However, this rule or guideline may change according to the latest edition of MLA.
- APA: In the APA referencing style, the publication year will appear following the name of the author (a comma will separate the author’s name and the year). After the name and the year, a student will mention the page number.
- Chicago: The writer’s name and the publication year will appear combined (a comma will not separate them), and then there will be the page number of a particular reference.
How to Quote in an Essay From a Website?
When quoting from a website, you must include the author’s name (subject to availability), publication year, and paragraph number for APA. MLA requires the writer’s name and paragraph number in case a page number isn’t present.
- MLA: We will learn here how to quote from a website in an essay. This is a quote: “Online earning has replaced traditional jobs”. This is how we will quote it: (Alex, par. 5).
- APA: Alex (2020) stated, “Online earning has replaced traditional jobs” (para. 5).
- Chicago: “Online earning has replaced traditional jobs.”¹ You will include a footnote with full citation.
How to Quote in an Essay from a Book?
Quoting from a book needs the writer’s name and page number in MLA. However, the APA style adds the year of publication. There is a quote, “The Next Era Belongs to AI”, from Miller. This is how you will cite a quote from a book in your essay:
- MLA: “The Next Era Belongs to AI” (Miller 23).
- APA: Miller (2020) states, “The Next Era Belongs to AI” (p. 23).
- Chicago: “The Next Era Belongs to AI”¹ (footnote citation).
How to Quote in an Essay from a Poem?
Quoting poetry in an essay is a complex task for students because the citation is solely based on the referencing style, and it is difficult to format it correctly. A student can use line breaks (/) for short quotes and block format for longer quotes. Here is how you will quote from a poem in an essay:
- MLA: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / and sorry I could not travel both” (Frost 1-2).
- APA: Frost (1916) wrote, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, / and sorry I could not travel both” (lines 1-2).
- Chicago: Use a footnote for citations and format long quotes as a block.
Final Thoughts
Citing quotes from a book, research article, website, or poem always remains challenging for students. Referencing styles, including APA, MLA, and Chicago, require different guidelines for adding quotations. For instance, the rules for citing a quote from a book, research paper, or poem will differ even within the APA style.
There is a high chance of making mistakes when including quotes in your essay and not citing them appropriately. In such cases, hiring the best essay writing agencies in the UK can help you avoid quotation errors related to the formatting style. These platforms have experienced writers who know the guidelines of the latest referencing style editions. So, write an essay with trusted guidance and achieve high grades in your class.
Author Bio
Margo Frank has been an experienced essay writer for over five years, writing over 400 detailed and argumentative essays for students of every level. With a dedication to writing according to the latest guidelines of various referencing styles, she loves helping students enhance their academic performance.
