People quote other people for different reasons: to tell a joke, share an interesting fact, or seem smart. However, while in an oral speech there is no need to cite your quotations examples according to the formatting rules, you must obey the MLA or APA examples of in-text quotations in writing.
This article is going to convince you that the guidelines of various academic writing styles regarding quotations will not limit student’s flexibility as a writer. Due to the space restrictions, most of the style points shown in the MLA or MLA Publication manual/handbook have up to two examples of quotes.
We will take a look at several quote examples of how properly cited in-text quotations may look like. Also, you will find an example of Works Cited page in addition to in-text quotes (a.k.a. as References page in APA or simply Bibliography). Works Cited page and quotations are not the only parts of the academic paper. You can find information on all other sections here.
Similarities and Differences in Adding Quotes Using Various Academic Writing Styles
What all sources have in common when referencing quotations are:
- Author’s name and last name
- Title
- Publisher
- City of publishing
- Date (often, just a publication year)
- Page number
However, some of the paper formats have these elements in a different order. The example might be a comparison between MLA and APA quotes. While the author’s details remain first, the publication date/year goes at the end of the line in MLA, and it follows the author’s details in APA. While in MLA and APA writers insert quote source’s details in front of the cited quotes, in Chicago/Turabian example, the writer has to write down footnotes for each quote at the end of each page. It is more time consuming to add quotations in Chicago and Harvard styles due to these specifications.
Here are the examples of direct in-text quotations cited in MLA and APA respectively. You may get more information on inserting quotes from the official guides on Purdue Online Writing Lab.
MLA style quote example: The article also briefly covers the importance of implementing “patient education as much as possible in a group environment” (p. 213).
APA format quote sample: The article also briefly covers the importance of implementing “patient education as much as possible in a group environment” (Suhrheinrich 2011).
As you can see, an example with the quote cited in MLA includes the only page number in parentheticals. Most probably, it means that only one source is being used in that paper. In MLA, it is enough to include the full information on the used sources only on Bibliography/Works Cited page. As for APA format, you can notice that it should have the author’s last name and publication year in any case. The rest of the information goes on the References page.
Creating the List of References with All Cited Quotes
What if you need to make a citation for some quotations from the official report published by some organisation? You need to write the source information in a similar way, according to the overall style of your paper. Use abbreviations, but make sure to include a full organisation’s name on Works Cited page or References page.
The example in APA: This program covers the demands, objectives, and life experiences of the individual with diabetes “and is guided by evidence-based standards” (ADA 2013).
As far as ADA appears to be the American Diabetes Association, study how to put the whole reference for quotations by its members on the example below:
American Diabetes Association. (2013). “National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management
Education.” Diabetes Care. 31(1), S97-S104. Retrieved from
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/31/Supplement_1/S97.extract
The last line of the reference means that you were using an online resource to find proper quotations. As you may notice in this example, a full reference does not have to be placed in parentheticals. However, in APA, you should place the year of publication in parentheticals.
There are a lot of wordings you can use for the same in-text quote. You may either start with the brief introduction using the words like “According to statistics,” “As reported by company ABC,” “Based on the data from Organization One,” etc. You may insert quotations as the whole sentences without adding any words from the author.
Anyway, you need to understand why you waste your time on inserting quotes properly.
When Should You Be Using Quotations?
The examples of correctly cited quotations usage include:
- Need to support thesis statement
- Need to write evidence for the paper’s arguments
- Study academic writing and formatting standards
- Make your own examples based on the examples from credible sources
- Include information on the author to distinguish him
- Avoid plagiarism with the help of properly cited in-text quotations
- Avoid plagiarism with the help of correct references (the acceptable level of plagiarism is 3%)
- Show how well a writer can work with different resources
- Earn better marks
Hopefully, these are more than enough reasons to start downloading excellent essay examples to study different writing style guidelines.
You need to include striking quotes with interesting facts or statistics to earn maximum marks on your academic papers. Sometimes, you don’t understand how to cite quotations in your Word. If you have any problems with formatting or content of your essay, make an order at the professional academic writing, editing, and formatting website with the most affordable prices on the market!