Using Quotations: How to Cite a Quotation

Last updated 5/6/2020

 

Visual: Screen opens to a background image with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The title Walden University Writing Center and tagline “Your writing, grammar, and APA experts” appears on the screen. The screen changes to show the series title “Using Quotations” and the video title “How to Cite a Quotation.”

Audio: Guitar music

 

Visual: Slide changes to the title “How to Cite a Quotation” and the following:

Similar to a paraphrase:

  • Author
  • Year

Different from a paraphrase:

  • Quotations are word for word exactly from the source
  • Page or paragraph number

Horwitz (2016) found that “17% of respondents did not vote due to a lack of appropriate identification” (p. 34).

Audio: One of the first questions students have about integrating sources using quotations is the format for citing those quotations. The formatting is quite similar to citing a paraphrase, in that you’re always going to include the author and year. However, citing quotations is different from a paraphrase in that quotations are word for word, exactly from that source, and with that, you need to surround the quotation with quotation marks and include a page number or a paragraph number. These quotation mark and page/paragraph number elements are required additions to citing quotations, and so it’s important to remember to add them as well when citing quotations.

When citing quotations, one tip we have is to always to make sure to add quotation marks and some notation of what source the quotation is from as you write. You don’t necessarily need to format the citation perfectly when writing your first draft, and you can come back to apply that formatting, but it is important to add those quotation marks and a notation so you don’t forget that what you’ve included is a quotation and you don’t forget where it came from.

 

Visual: The screen changes to an ending slide with slide a background image with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The email address writingsupport@mail.waldenu.edu appears on the screen.