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See the MLA Handbook (4.9-4.11) for more information.
When you incorporate a direct quotation into a sentence, you must cite the source and ensure the quote is recorded exactly. Fit quotations within your sentences, making sure the sentences are grammatically correct:
Examples:
Gibaldi indicates, “Quotations are effective in research papers when used selectively” (109).
Remember that “[q]uotations are effective in research papers when used selectively” (Gibaldi 109).
Block Quotations
See the MLA Handbook (6.35, 6.38, 6.40-6.42) for more information.
If the quotation will run to more than 4 lines in your paper, use a block format in which the quotation is indented 1/2 an inch from the left margin, with no quotation marks.
Example (MLA Handbook 6.35):
In Moll Flanders, Defoe follows the picaresque tradition by using a pseudoautobiographical narration:
My true name is so well known in the records, or registers, at Newgate and in the Old Bailey, and there are some things of such consequence still depending there relating to my particular conduct, that it is not to be expected I should set my name or the account of my family to this work . . . (1)
See the MLA Handbook (6.58-6.61, 6.65-6.67, 6.54-6.57) for more information.
If you need to leave out part of a quotation to make it fit grammatically or because it contains irrelevant/unnecessary information, insert ellipses (. . .) to mark the omission. Ensure that by omitting information you are not fundamentally altering the intent of the quote.
Example:
Claims have been made that "fruit cake is an underrated dessert...that many people enjoy" (Ratcliff 151).
If you must add clarifying words or statements or alter existing words within a quotation for reasons of grammar or clarity, one option is to use square brackets. .
Examples:
Shaw admitted, "Nothing can extinguish my interest in Shakespear [sic]."
Milton's Satan speaks of his "study [pursuit] of revenge."
See the MLA Handbook (4.5-4.8) for more information.
When you put information into your own words by summarizing or paraphrasing, you must still cite the original author or researcher as well as the page or paragraph number(s).
Example:
Within the research paper, quotations will have more impact when used judiciously (Gibaldi 109).