Short quotes
Put the exact words in double quotation marks and cite straight after, with the page. The full stop goes after the bracket.
- APA: Kahneman describes this as “a machine for jumping to conclusions” (Kahneman, 2011, p. 79).
- MLA: Kahneman describes this as “a machine for jumping to conclusions” (79).
- Chicago: …“a machine for jumping to conclusions.”¹ with the page in the footnote.
Block quotes
APA: 40 words or more. MLA: more than four lines of prose. Start the quote on a new line, indent the whole block 0.5 inch, drop the quotation marks, and put the citation after the final full stop: …of their own making. (Kahneman, 2011, p. 85)
Changing a quote
- Leaving words out: use an ellipsis with spaces: “a machine . . . for jumping” (MLA writes three spaced dots; APA writes three unspaced dots…).
- Adding or changing words: put your words in square brackets: “[System 1] is a machine for jumping to conclusions.”
- Errors in the original: keep them and add [sic] after the error.
- Adding emphasis: italicise, then add [emphasis added] (APA) or (emphasis added) after the citation (MLA).
No page numbers?
APA: use a paragraph number (para. 4), a section heading (Discussion section) or a timestamp for audio and video. MLA: give only the author, or a timestamp for time-based media; don’t count paragraphs unless the source numbers them.