Place quotes longer than four lines of prose or three lines of verse in a free-standing block of text and avoid quotation marks. Begin the quotation on a new line, with the full quotation indented 1 inch from the left margin and double spaced. End the quotation with another full stop/period, followed by a blank line.
For example:
The first six lines are normal paragraphs. The last line begins with a quote mark and ends with another quote mark. Any additional space after the last line but before the next paragraph is called for. For example, here's a quote that lasts more than one line:"Lincoln said, "I am not bound to win, but I am bound to try. "" This would be a good place to insert a footnote if there were other words in the original quotation besides Lincoln's.
Block quotations can get quite long so long as they don't exceed eight pages in Microsoft Word. If you need to quote more than eight pages please use page numbers instead of footnotes.
"My father is an alcoholic," she said.
Block quotes should be used for poetry quotations of more than three lines. Begin a new line and place it one inch from the left margin, without adding quote marks to the original. If the citation begins in the middle of a line of poetry, keep it there; don't move it to the left margin. End the quotation with a new line, an inch from the right margin.
To cite multiple poems by the same author, separate each quotation with a comma. The following is an example of a block quote:
Plato wrote, "The poet who can find out what happiness is will know everything."
John Milton wrote, "Anger breaks up human relationships and destroys harmony between man and wife as well as other problems between people."
William Shakespeare wrote, "Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."
The first two poets are cited here; the last two are unquoted. If you were writing this citation, you would begin with Plato because he's older than Shakespeare and still living at the time of the citation. You could also include John Milton as one of the authors who achieved greatness, since his work helped establish freedom of speech as a fundamental American value.
When quoting multiple sources, it is acceptable to use asterisks (*) to indicate that you are citing more than one source.
For direct quotations that are longer than 40 words, block quotes are utilized. They should be positioned apart from the main content and should not contain any quote marks. The full quotation should be indented by 1/2 inch or 5-7 spaces; the block quote can be single-spaced. Use italics for the quoted material.
For short quotations(up to 40 words), use parentheses. Keep in mind that these also function as ellipses if they go beyond 40 words. You do not need to indent them.
Generally speaking, avoid using long passages of text as quotes. If you do so, you will need to wrap the text in either parentheses or block quotes.
The block quotation should match the surrounding text and should not be surrounded by quotation marks. To place the block quote apart from the surrounding text, use the word processor's indentation tool to indent the whole quotation.
Begin the quotation on a new line, with the full quotation indented 1/2 inch from the left margin and double spaced. Your parenthetical citation should come after the final period. Maintain the original line breaks when citing verse. (Continue to use double spacing throughout your text.)
To cite a single line of poetry, put the line number in square brackets at the end of the quotation. For example, "Dylan wrote 'The Times, They Are A-Changin"'.
Citations are found by searching for the quoted material. Therefore, it is important that you use standard punctuation when quoting lines of poetry. Otherwise, your citations may not be found.
When quoting multiple lines of poetry, give each line a separate quotation mark for its own citation. For example, "Dylan wrote 'The Times, They Are A-Changing' ".
It is acceptable to quote only part of a line of poetry; for example, "the night time's candles are burned out" is acceptable as a citation for the first two words only. However, if you quote only part of a line, then place an asterisk (*) before the cited portion of the line.
See also our section on how to cite books below.
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