Stuckey and Nobel (2010) noted, "it has been shown that music can calm neural activity in the brain, which may lead to reductions in anxiety, and that it may help to restore effective functioning in the immune system." |
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Note: This example is a direct quote. It is an exact quotation directly from the text of the article. All direct quotes should appear in quotation marks: "...."
Try keeping direct quotes to a minimum in your writing. You need to show your understanding of the source material by being able to paraphrase or summarize it.
List the author’s last name only (no initials) and the year the information was published, like this:
(Dodge, 2008 ). ( Author , Date).
IF you use a direct quote, add the page number to your citation, like this:
( Dodge , 2008 , p. 125 ).
( Author , Date , page number )
Credit these sources when you mention their information in any way: direct quotation, paraphrase, or summarize.
What should you credit?
Any information that you learned from another source, including:
● statistics
EXCEPTION: Information that is common knowledge: e.g., The Bronx is a borough of New York City.
Quick help with apa 7 citations.
Download the In-text Citations presentation (above) for an in-depth look at how to correctly cite your sources in the text of your paper.
Paraphrasing activity from the excelsior owl, in-text citation quiz.
When writers use an outside source, they must give credit to the original writer or creator of that source. This also allows a reader to easily make note of the source’s bibliographic entry. Just as each style guide has rules for creating a citation in a bibliography at the end of a text, each guide also has certain rules for citing the use of sources within the text of the essay.
The following are basic guidelines for citing sources in the text of your paper when using the MLA, APA, Chicago, ASA, or Turabian style guides. These guidelines may not account for every citation situation. Since citing sources is not a creative enterprise, you should consult the appropriate print version of the style guide when you have questions about citation.
MLA citation style requires that writers cite a source within the text of their essay at the end of the sentence in which the source is used.
General Guidance on in-text citations (or reference to your source) The parenthetical reference should be inserted after the last quotation mark but before the period at the end of the sentence.
General Form: (Author Last Name Page #)
Example: (Smith 42)
If two quotations from different sources are used in the same sentence The in-text citation associated with a particular quote should be placed as close to the quotation as possible without interrupting the flow of the sentence.
Example for two sources in one sentence: According to one researcher, “the design thinking process is not meant to be a formula,” (Spencer 58) whereas others might argue that steps and formulas are in fact important like Walker suggests: “following a specific path towards design success is necessary for achieving outlined goals,” (21).
If a paragraph includes several quotations from a single source A single in-text citation may be placed at the end of the paragraph. Page numbers should be included for each quotation organized by placement in the paragraph. In the following example, the first quotation from Smith appeared on page 43 of the text. The second quotation used in the paragraph came from page 12.
Example: (Smith 43, 12)
If the author is included more than once on the Works Cited page The following form should be used. Note that the format of the title on the Works Cited sheet should be mirrored in the in-text citation.
General Form: (Author Last, “Title Fragment” Page #) or (Author Last, Title Fragment Page #)
Examples: (Smith, “Who Moved” 42) or (Smith, Big Changes 172)
If you have more than one author:
Two: (Brown and Sullivan 42)
Three: (Brown, Sullivan, and Grayson 158)
Four or more: (Brown, et al. 38)
If there is no author A title fragment should be used to make a connection between the use of the source and the citation for the source on the Works Cited page.
General Form: (“Title Fragment” Page #) or ( Title Fragment Page #)
Examples: (“Library Links” 13) or ( Building a Bookshelf 42)
For more information related to MLA in-text citations, see the MLA Handbook , 8th ed. (pages 54-58). This title is on reserve at the circulation desk at the front of the library on the 3rd floor near the main entrance.
To cite a source in the text of an essay, APA advocates two methods: in-text citations and attribution within the essay’s content. in-text citations should be included immediately after the quotation marks used in direct quotations or immediately after the use of the source, even if this means including the parenthetical reference in the middle of the sentence.
The following is the general form for parenthetical citations in APA style:
In-text citation: (Author Last Name, Year of Publication) Example: (Smith, 1988)
To make the citation of the source less distracting The APA also suggests mentioning the author in the essay’s content so that only the year of publication and page number may be required in the parenthetical reference.
Attribution in text: Author Last Name (Year of Publication) has argued this point. Example: Smith (1988) has argued this point.
Page numbers are not required in APA in-text citations. However, it is highly suggested that these be included. To include references to a specific part of the text, add the page number or chapter number after the year.
Examples: Smith (1988, p. 244) has written that… or Smith (1988, chap. 5) has written that…
When a work has two authors Both names should be cited every time the reference is required. Use an ampersand (&) to separate the names of authors. If a text has been authored by more than five individuals, the full listing of authors is not required in the first reference or any subsequent in-text references.
The first mention of the reference: Johnson, Smith, and Brown (1999) agree that… Subsequent mention: Johnson et al. (1999) agree that…
If a group or corporation is the author The full name of the group or corporation should be included in place of the author’s name. If an organization has a recognizable abbreviation, this may be used in subsequent references.
The first mention of the reference: (American Medical Association, 2002) Subsequent mention: (AMA, 2002)
If no author is given for a specific text Use the first couple of words of the title in place of the author’s last name. Title fragments should be formatted using the same punctuation as titles on the References page.
Examples of attribution in the text:
The recent publication Plagiarism and You (2002) offers some explanation…
In “Five Ways to Protect Yourself” (2000) one can find…
Examples of attribution at the end of the sentence: ( Plagiarism and You , 2002) or (“Five Ways to Protect Yourself,” 2000)
When no date is given for the publication of a text (as is the case with many websites) Include the abbreviation “n.d.” (which stands for “no date”) in place of the year of publication.
Example: In the article “Five Ways to Protect Yourself” (n.d.) one can find…
For more information related to in-text citations (or in-text referencing) using the APA format, see the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , 7th ed. pages 261-269. A copy of this manual is available on the 3rd floor of the library at the circulation desk.
In Chicago’s Documentation Style 1, also known as notes form, the use of research sources is indicated in the text with a numerical subscript that corresponds to an entry at the end of the paper. These are called endnotes. Although footnotes (or notes at the bottom of the page) are sometimes required, endnotes have become the predominant form of notes citations.
When using endnotes to indicate the use of research sources, writers must also include a bibliography at the end of the essay. The note and the bibliographic entry include almost identical information but in a different format.
As the formats for notes are contingent on the format of the source for which the note is written, examples of note formats are included with the bibliographic examples available through the Citing Sources link. The B: entry would be included in the Bibliography at the end of the paper, while the N: entry gives examples to be used in footnotes or endnotes.
For further information on note format or other issues related to citing sources using the Chicago style, see The Chicago Manual of Style , 16th ed.
Chicago: Author/Date Style
Documentation 2, also called the Author-Date style, requires the use of parenthetical references in the text of the essay as well as a list of References.
Parenthetical references should be placed at the end of the sentence, before the period, when a resource has been used. If the sentence is either long enough or complex enough so that the cited portion of the sentence is not obvious, the parenthetical reference may instead be inserted immediately after the use of information from the source. Page numbers should be included whenever possible.
General Form: (Author Last Name Year of Publication, Page #)
Example: (Smith 1992, 142)
The following examples illustrate parenthetical reference formats for works with more than one author.
(Smith and Johnson 1998, 14)
(Smith, Johnson, and White 2001, 42)
(Smith et al. 1998, 203)
(National Alliance for Social Consideration 1932, 11)
When organizations or corporate authors are the author of a text, the name of the organization may be shortened to its most basic title. Abbreviations for the organization are not encouraged.
In the Chicago style, daily newspapers are rarely included in a list of References. Instead, attribution may be given to information from a daily newspaper in a parenthetical reference.
General Form: ( Newspaper Name , Day Month Year of Publication, Section and Page #)
Examples: ( San Antonio Express-News , 2 June 2005, B2)
( New York Times , 2 June 2005, A2)
( Durant Daily Democrat , 2 June 2005, 3)
The Chicago style guide does not offer examples for creating parenthetical references when there is no given author. Standard practice has been to include the title of the work in place of the author. The title should be formatted in the same manner as the formatting in the References list entry.
( Plagiarism and You 2002, 142)
(“Five Ways to Protect Yourself” 2000, 33)
Electronic sources commonly lack a date of publication, as do other sources. When there is no date of publication listed for a source, include the abbreviation “n.d.” in place of the date.
(Statistics for Water Rights n.d.)
For further information on citing sources using the Chicago style, see The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed.
If the author’s name is mentioned in the text, use a parenthetical reference to show the year of publication at the end of the sentence.
…Welch contends that this is not the case (1991).
If the author’s name is not mentioned in the text, it should be included with the year of publication within parentheses.
…but it has been argued that this was not the case (Welch 1991).
Page numbers should be included within parentheses after the year of publication. These are separated by a colon and no spaces.
…but it has been argued that this was not the case (Welch 1991:136).
The following forms should be used for multiple authors:
A recent study confirmed her belief (Johnson and Smith 1995:34).
This was reinforced by recent research on the topic (Johnson, Smith, and Marcus 1999)
If a text has more than three authors, the term “et al.” with no additional punctuation marks may be used after the first author listed in the publication credits.
This was not accurate according to a recent study (Johnson et al. 2003).
If multiple sources are cited for the same statement, the author and publication year should be distinguished from other texts with a colon. Cited texts should be arranged by author name or by date; arrangement should be consistent throughout the paper.
Some studies have refuted these arguments (Benson 1993; Nguyen 1999; Brown and Goggans 2000).
For additional information on in-text citation using the ASA style, see the American Sociological Association Style Guide , Third ed., pp. 45-47.
In the Turabian citation style, writers may use one of two forms in citing their resources: endnotes or author/date parenthetical references. Writers using the Turabian style may use the Chicago formats for both endnotes as references and for parenthetical references. Refer to Kate L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers , 7th ed., pp. 143-145 (notes style) and pp. 217-220 (author-date style) for more information.
Including a list of Works Cited at the end of an essay is not enough. Learn how to cite the use of a source in the text of your paper.
Review five different methods for including the words of another writer or information from a research resource into the text of your paper.
Find models and suggestions for citing Creative Commons images, video clips, music, or other materials.
Find books, articles and websites which deal with academic integrity issues.
Learn how to create an annotated bibliography for a class assignment or for your own use as a researcher and writer.
Learn more about Zotero – a citation management tool to help you keep track of and organize various references for papers and projects.
See Trinity University’s definitions of plagiarism and consider how to avoid these situations.
Information and links for faculty members and others to use in detecting plagiarized materials.
Writing a solid and well-crafted essay is crucial for students and researchers, as it involves presenting arguments clearly and succinctly. Whether you are writing a paper for an assignment, a scientific journal, or a personal statement, understanding the correct essay format is pivotal. This meticulously collated guide covers key features of essay formatting and provides tips to refine your writing.
An essay format is a blueprint for shaping your written assignment, comprising the work’s headings, the title page, paragraphs, and references. Accurate structuring enhances readability and professionalism, thus adhering to academic standards. Instructors across disciplines may specify paper-formatting styles to apply, for instance, Chicago, APA, or MLA formatting, each with unique guidelines tailored to various academic fields.
The essay structure serves as the framework for effectively building and conveying ideas. It is the roadmap that leads the audience via the writer's reflection process, securing coherence, precision, and logical progression of supporting arguments.
Struggling to craft a refined and captivating essay? Want to know how to format an essay? Consider using Aithor's AI writing assistant. The AI Essay Generator is a revolutionary tool designed to streamline the writing procedure, offering assistance in editing, refining, and generating content. With its advanced algorithms, this tool assists in enhancing overall flow and consistency in your projects.
Composing a well-structured piece is crucial for scholastic success and leaves a long-lasting impression on the audience. Structuring your text includes several key components to guarantee its clarity and coherence:
Following these basic guidelines will guarantee an A-level presentation, increasing the readability and effectiveness of your piece.
Learning the essentials of correct essay formatting required by standard styles like MLA and APA is pivotal for scholastic success. While both are broadly used, they significantly differ in their arrangement and requirements. Knowing these distinctions ensures your assignment meets disciplinary standards and effectively communicates ideas.
In summary, mastering both MLA and APA organizations is essential for educational settings. Comprehending their unique rules and adhering to their specific guidelines will ensure that your pieces are well-crafted and effectively convey your message to the audience.
Generating an effective title page is crucial for arranging an academic paper as it briefly introduces the content, sets the writing tone, and demonstrates crucial identification details. Yet, the particulars vary conditional on the assigned essay style format, with preferred MLA or APA organization styles requiring distinct approaches.
In MLA structure, the cover page is generally unnecessary for standard papers unless specified. If you decide to generate it, then center the composition’s title at the top of the opening page. Below it, indicate yours with the lecturer’s name, the discipline, current date, all centered.
In an APA-based organization, designing the title page is obligatory. Center the article’s or research’s heading at the top half of the opening page. Below that, put your name, and the educational institution's title, then in the header section, put a title’s shortened form. Additionally, set the page number correctly in the sheet’s top right corner.
Largely, MLA and APA differ in title sheet settings and layout. By sticking to the particular rules of each scholarly writing style, you can be confident that your notion is presented professionally and accurately mirrors educational standards.
The opening page of the scholarly composition acts as the first encounter with your concept, offering a prospect to engage your audience and provide essential details about your subject matter and text organization style.
The MLA-based structure includes a left-aligned heading on the opening page. The proper heading for essay must contain your and the educator’s name, the related discipline with the current date. The composition’s title is adjusted centrally on the opening page, and the intro of your assignment is placed below without added introductory sections.
In contrast, APA organization begins with the document’s title aligned centrally at the page’s upper section. Under the title, indicate your name and indicate the educational institution. APA also entails a running head with a summarized title and page number located in the header. The intro paragraph commences below the title.
In essence, adhering to educational MLA or APA standards for the opening page of your written task is vital for establishing its content, tone, and format. By complying with the fixed procedures of each style, you can effortlessly generate an engaging and professional opening that effectively introduces your thoughts to the audience.
As writers, we navigate a labyrinth of words, constructing compositions that captivate our readers' minds. The fundamental structure of paragraphs leads us through the maze of ideas, functioning as the backbone of our message. Here's how each section contributes:
A solid intro is vital, establishing the setting and a captivating hook to engage the audience. Present your topic, add background data, and state your central idea, or thesis statement concisely.
Each body section must focus on a single aspect of your viewpoint, supported by illustrations and evidence. Use transitional phrases for smooth shifts, maintaining unity and clarity. Reinforce your points with facts and details to enhance credibility.
Recap your key points, reiterate the thesis, and offer a final perspective. Summarize the strongest arguments without introducing new details. The last paragraph provides closure and underlines your composition’s relevance.
Essay writing is akin to navigating a literary labyrinth, where structure guides comprehensibility and impact. A well-structured text that leaves a lasting impression is essential for academic accomplishment. By keeping to readability, organizing your thoughts reasonably, and supporting key arguments with evidence, your text becomes a powerful tool for conveying message and persuasion.
Scholarly essays require precise citation practices to demonstrate utilized sources and uphold the integrity of your ideas. Citing materials is needed for crediting them and promoting original writing.
Adhering to the referencing rules leads to scholarly rigor and ethical integrity. Accurately citing used sources is a winning approach to increase the integrity of your points and demonstrate academic integrity.
In research, precise source citation is critical for demonstrating the integrity of your study and preventing plagiarism. A well-ordered Works Cited (in MLA) or References (in APA) list is a way to showcase the depth of your investigation and respect for any intellectual property.
Here’s how to format the bibliography list:
A meticulously curated Works Cited or References page heightens your proficiency, bolstering your composition’s overall reliability.
Using templates and formatting-related tools can greatly simplify the process of crafting academic works. Word processing programs offer templates for MLA, APA, or Chicago styles to meet academic standards. Additionally, online tools and bibliography generators like Aithor AI streamline the creation of accurate citations with reference lists, saving your time and ensuring precision.
It's essential, however, to always review AI-generated content for accuracy and logic, as automated tools may occasionally introduce errors. For more comprehensive guidelines, consult authoritative sources such as Wikipedia's formatting guidelines, official academic style manuals, and scholarly publications.
Following the mentioned essay-formatting tips enables students, writers, and researchers to create clear, well-organized compositions that meet demanding academic standards. Proficient formatting not only enhances your readability and professionalism but also underscores your commitment to scholarly excellence.
By mastering specific style guidelines, organizing content efficiently, and employing correct citation practices, your pieces will resonate with clarity and flow. Upholding these standards ensures your assignment not only meets academic criteria but also communicates your notions effectively to readers.
How to make an essay longer: 7 useful tips.
Are you having trouble getting your essay to the right length? Do you look at your essay and think, "It's too short!" but don't know what to do? Don't worry, we've got some great ideas on how to make an essay longer without making it worse. Why is it Important to Make an Essay Longer? When you're writing an essay, it's important to make sure it's long enough. If your essay isn't as long as required, you might get a lower grade, even if the content of your essay is exceptional. By making your ...
When writing a persuasive essay, having a well-structured outline is critical to effectively presenting your argument and convincing your audience. An outline serves as a roadmap for your essay, organizing your thoughts and supporting evidence in a logical sequence that flows cohesively. In this guide, we will explore the essential components of a persuasive essay outline and provide tips on how to craft a compelling structure for your writing. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned writer, ma ...
Imagine stepping into a classroom on the first day and being asked to write an essay. This exercise, commonly referred to as a diagnostic essay, is a common tool used by instructors to gauge their students' writing proficiency. Interestingly, in a study exploring the effectiveness of evaluation papers, over 70% of participants reported that these tasks significantly improved their understanding of their writing strengths and challenges. This finding underscores the assessment assignment's role i ...
The art of writing involves multiple types of materials, which makes both writing and reading a pleasure that is informative and conducive to conveying knowledge and experience. However, when it comes to academic writing, there is a need to distinguish between the many types of materials based on their appropriateness to a certain kind of information. Each type of material with its own structure and manner of writing is best suited for certain types of topics. The latter can range from anything ...
In academic writing, creating an impactful text that can deftly relay your opinion and persuade your audience is one of the key skills. That’s why it is essential to learn how to write a strong thesis statement. In this article, you will find all you need to know for creating a persuasive thesis statement. What is an essay thesis? In academic essays, a thesis is a part of the introduction that expresses the main idea and purpose of the essay. It aims to give the audience a brief overview of t ...
Every essay requires a proper conclusion. It is particularly important in academic writing where texts can be several dozen pages long. A conclusion helps the audience remember the contents of your essay and retain important information. In this article, you will learn how to write a conclusion for an essay. Why the conclusion matters When writing essays, we always strive to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the topic. We do our research, present different perspectives, and provide examples ...
What is an appendix in a research paper? An appendix is a supplementary section at the end of a research paper after the list of references. It contains more information that helps explain the main ideas in the paper. It's not needed in the main part because it would make the paper too long or go “off-topic." The appendix gives readers more details to help them understand the research better without making the main argument hard to follow. The length of an appendix can differ depending on what ...
Is your assignment to prepare a fine and well-structured expository essay but you don't know what point to start with? This material lends a helping hand to you. Here we discuss how to begin an expository essay, what parts should be in the text, and what linguistic means a person should use when creating a project mentioned above. We also introduce you a few tips on how to sharpen your skills in informative writing. So be ready to read and learn, the adventure to the land of expository papers ge ...
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Starting from when I entered high school, the importance of submitting assignments in a particular format became a top priority. I quickly realized the significance of adhering to these guidelines, as they remained essential throughout my academic journey. You never know when the need for proper formatting will arise. At first, it may seem overwhelming, but in this simple guide, I'll show you how to write an essay in MLA format [For Students].
MLA format is created by the Modern Language Association which is a standardized way to format academic papers and cite sources. It’s mainly used for subjects in the humanities, like literature, philosophy, and the arts. Unlike APA or Chicago formats, which are used for social sciences and history, MLA puts a strong emphasis on the authorship of sources.
Most students will need to use MLA format at some point, especially in humanities courses. It’s essential for essays, research papers, and other assignments in these subjects.
The first step to learning how to write an essay in MLA format for students is to get familiar with the general guidelines. It's all about following the rules to get your paper formatted in the MLA style:
Margins and Font:
Set 1-inch margins on all sides.
Choose a readable font such as Times New Roman, 12-point size.
Double-space the entire document, including block quotes (quotes longer than four lines), notes, and the works cited page.
Paragraph Indentation:
Indent the first line of each paragraph by 0.5 inches (press Tab key once).
Punctuation:
Utilize standard punctuation marks and maintain consistency with punctuation, italics, and quotation marks throughout your paper.
Quotations:
Use double quotation marks (" ") for direct quotes.
For quotes longer than four lines, format as a block quote: start on a new line, indent 0.5 inches from the left margin (without quotation marks), and keep double-spacing.
Here is an essay MLA format template for your reference:
So we have seen the general guidelines in the above example and also saw an essay MLA format example/sample showing what our final MLA format will look like. However, going through guidelines is not enough when you're learning how to write an essay in MLA format in Word or PDF format. You need a professional writing software that not only provides the tools but also allows you to use them easily.
Therefore, I will be using WPS Writer as my partner in writing an essay in MLA format, and I would recommend students to download WPS Writer from their website so that you can easily follow this guide. And yes, it is completely free. So let's begin formatting an essay to MLA format in WPS Writer:
So the first step is to ensure that our page margins are set to 1 inch on every side. Setting the margins first would help you avoid any formatting errors if you do this at a later stage. To set page margins in WPS Writer:
Step 1: Open WPS Writer and visit the “Page Layout” tab in the toolbar.
Step 2: Find the Page Margin options on the far left of the Page Layout ribbon.
Step 3: Set all the margin fields—top, bottom, left, and right—to 1 inch.
Next, we need to ensure that the line spacing is set to double spacing . This helps improve readability and ensures your paper meets MLA formatting standards. To set double line spacing in WPS Writer:
Step 1: In WPS Writer, go to the “Home” tab in the toolbar.
Step 2: Find and click the “Line Spacing” option in the Home ribbon.
Step 3: In the Line Spacing drop-down, click on More.
Step 4: The Paragraph window will pop up. Visit the Spacing section and in the Line Spacing field, select “Double”.
Step 5: After that, click on OK to exit the Paragraph window.
Note: We can also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + 2 to quickly change the line spacing to double.
After setting the page settings, let's move on to the content of the essay, starting with the header in the following order:
Student's Name
Professor's Name
Course and Course Code
Due Date in the format DD Month, Year
Step 1: Follow the order to enter the header into your essay.
Step 2: To make the Header left aligned, visit the Home tab and then click on the “Align Text Left” icon.
Step 3: After entering the header, make sure the Font is set to "Times New Roman" in the Fonts field in the Home ribbon.
Step 4: After the font, the font size should also be set to "12." Therefore, make the change in the "Font Size" field in the Home ribbon.
MLA Format requires a running header that includes your last name along with the page number on the top right corner of every page. Let's see how we can create our running header for the MLA Format:
Step 1: Double-click on the Header area to open the Header/Footer in WPS Writer.
Step 2: Now type your last name and set its alignment to right by clicking on the “Align Text Right” icon in the Home ribbon.
Step 3: To add the page number, click on the "Page Number" option in the Header/Footer ribbon and select the "Header right" option to insert a page number in the right corner.
Once the running header has been added, it is important to set the font size of the running header to 12 and the font to "Times New Roman".
Step 4: Simply select your running header and click on the Home tab.
Step 5: In the Home tab, change the Font to "Times New Roman" in the Fonts field.
Step 6: To change the font size, in the Home ribbon, enter "12" in the Font size field.
The last setting for the running header is to set the header margin to "0.5 inches":
Step 7: Head over to the Header/Footer tab.
Step 8: In the Header/Footer ribbon, enter "0.5 in" in the “Header Height” field to set the header margin to 0.5 inches.
After the header and running header, let's begin our essay with the title of our essay. Remember the rules:
The title should be center aligned.
The title should not be bolded, italicized, or placed in quotation marks unless it includes the title of a source (e.g., a book or movie title).
Step 1: Insert the title right below the header and visit the Home tab.
Step 2: In the Home ribbon, click on the “Center” icon to center align the title.
Headings and subheadings are important as they give reference to the reader. There are no hard and fast rules for their formatting, except that they need to be center aligned. You can set the font style to bold to help the reader distinguish them.
Step 1: Enter your heading below the title of the essay and visit the Home tab.
Step 2: In the Home ribbon, click on “Center” to align the heading to the center.
Step 3: To change the font style to bold, in the Home ribbon, click on the “Bold” icon right below the font field.
In MLA format, in-text citations use parenthetical references to indicate quotes or ideas from another author. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to do in-text citations:
Step 1: When you quote or paraphrase from a source, use the author's last name and the page number where the information is found.
Step 2: After the quote or paraphrase, place the citation in parentheses. The citation should include the author's last name followed by the page number without a comma between them.
Step 3: The parenthetical citation should be placed before the period at the end of the sentence.
Finally, you will need to cite all the sources you took assistance from in writing your paper. Follow the following steps to understand how to cite your work in MLA format.
Step 1: Use a page break to start a fresh new page with the title "Works Cited." The heading "Works Cited" will follow similar heading guidelines as before.
Step 2: Double-space all entries and do not add extra spaces between entries.
Step 3: Use a hanging indent for each entry. The first line of each citation is flush with the left margin, and subsequent lines are indented by 0.5 inches simply using the “Tab” key..
Step 4: List entries in alphabetical order by the author's last name. If a work has no author, alphabetize it by the first significant word in the title.
Step 5: Format your sources as mentioned below for respective source medium:
Books Format: Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year of Publication.
Articles in Journals Format: Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Journal, vol. number, no. number, Year, pages.
Websites Format: Author's Last Name, First Name (if available). "Title of Webpage." Title of Website, Publisher, Date of Publication, URL.
Once you finish writing your essay, the next challenge is converting it from Microsoft Word to PDF without losing formatting. This can be frustrating because sometimes the formatting doesn't stay the same.
To avoid this issue, use WPS Office . It offers strong PDF features and keeps APA and MLA formatting intact. On the other hand, Microsoft Word 365, though widely used, may occasionally struggle to keep formatting consistent when converting to PDF. It's important to choose tools that prioritize preserving the look and structure of your academic work.
Here is how you can use WPS PDF to convert your essay documents to PDF without compromising on the quality:
Step 1: On WPS Writer, click on the Menu button on the top left corner of the screen.
Step 2: Now simply click on the “Export to PDF” option in the Menu.
Step 3: The Export to PDF window will open. Here, you can alter a few settings such as the output path. After going through the settings, simply click on Export to PDF to save the essay document as a PDF.
1. how to cite an image in mla.
To cite an image in MLA style, you need to format the citation based on where the image was viewed. For online images, the citation should follow this structure:
MLA format:
Creator’s last name, First name. “Image Title” or Description of the image. Website Name in italics, Day Month Year, URL.
MLA Works Cited entry:
Smith, Jamie. “Vintage Cars.” Travel With Us, 15 Mar. 2023, www.travelwithus.com/vintage-cars.
MLA in-text citation:
(Smith) Note: If you discover an image through a search engine such as Google, ensure that you credit and link to the website that hosts the image, rather than the search engine.
In most instances, an MLA-formatted essay does not necessitate a separate title page unless instructed otherwise by your instructor. Instead, begin your essay with a header and center the title on the subsequent line.
To cite a website in MLA style, you should include the author’s name (if known), the title of the page in quotation marks, the name of the website in italics, the publication date, and the URL without "https://". If the identity of the author is not known, start with the title of the page. If the publication date is unavailable or if there's a possibility of content modifications, include an access date at the end.
Author’s last name, First name. “Title of Page.” Website Name, Day Month Year, URL.
Adams, John. "Explore with us." Random Discoveries, 15 Sept. 2023, www.randomdiscoveries.com/explore-with-us.
It’s so easy! The great thing about MLA format is that it’s not vastly different from APA and Chicago formats. There are only a few distinctions, and once you learn how to write an essay in MLA format [For Students], everything will become much easier for your academic life. Also, WPS Office is an incredibly handy tool for students. Not only can you format comfortably, but it’s also designed to be student-friendly, avoiding complex procedures. Simple yet advanced, and best of all, free. Get WPS Office today and write essays with ease and comfort!
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Citation Examples
11 min read
Published on: Jun 18, 2024
Last updated on: Jun 23, 2024
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Ever felt stuck while writing a school paper because of those confusing rules for citing books? Remembering how to write the author's name, the title, and other details can be a real headache.
Many students go through this struggle. School is tough enough without having to stress about the little details of citing books. It's like having an extra worry on your plate when you're just trying to do your best.
Good news! This guide is here to help!
We'll break down the process of citing books in different citation styles with examples. By the end, you'll know how to cite a book correctly without the worry of citation mistakes.
So, let’s dig in!
In the American Psychological Association (APA) style , citing a book involves specific rules to ensure accurate and consistent referencing in your academic work.
Here's a breakdown of the key guidelines along with examples for how to cite a book - APA 7th edition in different scenarios:
1: Single Author Book
(Smith, 2019) Smith, J. K. (2019). Academic Press. |
2: Two Authors Book
(Johnson & White, 2020) Johnson, M., & White, S. L. (2020). XYZ Publications. |
3: Multiple Authors Book
(Brown et al., 2018) Brown, P., Davis, R., Turner, L., & Miller, A. (2018). Academic Books. |
4: No Author Book
("Understanding APA," 2021) (2021). Educational Press. |
5: Book Chapter
(Johnson, 2018, p. 45) Johnson, M. (2018). Writing Techniques. In S. L. Editor (Ed.), (pp. 40-60). Academic Publications. |
6: Edited Collection
(Johnson, 2017) Johnson, S. L. (Ed.). (2017). Scholarly Press. |
7: Translated Book
Examples:
(Garcia, 2015, p. 75) or (Smith, Trans., 2015, p. 75) Garcia, M. (2015). (J. R. Smith, Trans.). Global Books. |
In Modern Language Association (MLA) format , citing a book involves specific guidelines to ensure accurate and consistent referencing in your academic work.
Here's a breakdown of the key rules of MLA citation along with examples for different scenarios:
(Smith 45) Smith, John K. Academic Press, 2019. |
(Johnson and White 58) Johnson, Mary, and Steven L. XYZ Publications, 2020. |
3: Three or More Authors Book
(Brown et al. 32) Brown, Peter, et al. Academic Books, 2018. |
20) Educational Press, 2021. |
In Chicago style , there are two main citation styles: the Notes and Bibliography system (commonly used in humanities) and the Author-Date system (commonly used in social sciences).
Here's a guide on how to cite a book in both systems:
1: Single Author Book
(Smith J, (New York: Academic Press, 2019), 45) Smith, John K. New York: Academic Press, 2019. |
2: Two or Three Authors Book
(Johnson, White, and Davis (Chicago: XYZ Publications, 2020), 58) Johnson, Mary, Steven L. White, and Robert Davis. Chicago: XYZ Publications, 2020. |
3: Multiple Authors Book
(Brown et al., (Boston: Academic Books, 2018), 32) Brown, Peter, et al. Boston: Academic Books, 2018. |
1: Single Author Book (Author-Date System)
(Smith 2019, 45) Smith, John K. New York: Academic Press, 2019. |
2: Two or Three Authors Book (Author-Date System)
(Johnson, White, and Davis 2020) Johnson, Mary, Steven L. White, and Robert Davis. . Chicago: XYZ Publications, 2020. |
3: Four or More Authors Book (Author-Date System)
(Brown et al. 2018, 32) Brown, Peter, et al. Boston: Academic Books, 2018. |
In Harvard referencing style , the reference list format citation includes the following elements: author(s) or editor(s), publication year, title of the book (in italics or underlined), place of publication, and the name of the publisher.
Here's how you can cite a book in Harvard style:
1: Book with a Single Author
(Smith 2019) Smith, J.K. (2019) . New York: Academic Press. |
2: Book with Two or Three Authors
(Johnson, White, and Davis 2020) Johnson, M., White, S.L., and Davis, R. (2020) . Chicago: XYZ Publications. |
3: Book with Four or More Authors
(Brown et al. 2018) Brown, P., Davis, R., Turner, L., et al. (2018) Academic Books. |
4: Book with an Editor
(Smith 2017, ed.) Smith, J.R. (ed.) (2017) Scholarly Press. |
5: Book with an Organization as the Author
(Educational Association 2021) Educational Association. (2021) Academic Press. |
Check out our blog on citation examples to get various other examples of citations according to different citation styles.
Ready to simplify your citation process? Try out PerfectEssayWriter.ai's Citation Machine now!
Say goodbye to the citation headaches and hello to accurate, effortless referencing.
Try it out to make your citations perfect and your writing stress-free!
Cathy Aranda (Mass communication)
Cathy is a highly dedicated author who has been writing for the platform for over five years. With a Master's degree in Mass Communication, she is well-versed in various forms of writing such as articles, press releases, blog posts, and whitepapers. As an essay writing guide author at PerfectEssayWriter.ai, she has been helping students and professionals improve their writing skills by offering practical tips on research, citation, sentence structure, and style.
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What are the most common errors in student and ai-generated text, did ai write this comparing words in ai and student writing, the most common phrases in student essays, how do you spot ai-generated text asking the experts, methodology.
As the line between human-generated and AI-generated content blurs, it’s becoming drastically harder to work out where a piece of work originates. That’s why Preply has analyzed how AI has started to impact essay writing and learning today.
More than half of UK undergraduates have admitted to using AI in their essays, while colleges and high schools in the US have seen a 76% rise in school assignments containing AI-generated content in a year. It’s clear students are becoming more savvy about how these tools can assist them in everyday learning and, despite negative press around these tools, many professors support using generative AI tools in research assistance.
To investigate this trend, Preply has looked into the differences between human-written and computer-generated essays. By analyzing over 12,000 essays, we’ve created an analysis of the most frequent words, phrases, and errors in both human-written and computer-generated works. These results include pieces written by students (gathered from the writing database IvyPanda) and those written by ChatGPT.
We also spoke to professors from the University of Edinburgh to understand how AI impacts studies and academia, and whether it’s truly possible to detect AI writing in a student’s work.
So, what patterns can we see when analyzing student-written essays against AI-generated text? Here’s what we found.
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Human error is impossible to avoid when writing essays, even if you’re studying with the best professors or investing in private English lessons . But, when it comes to AI-generated text, spelling and grammar mistakes are unsurprisingly, rarer.
We found a huge difference in the overall number of errors when comparing human writing with AI. With over 45,000 errors across 12,000 student-written essays, there were only 15 overall errors in the 115 ChatGPT-produced essays. That means while there’s an average of three errors per essay in student-written work, there was only one error in every ten essays written by AI.
Digging into which school or department has the most errors, we split the number of mistakes by subject to see who’s most likely to slip up in their assignments.
We recommend those in the science department proofread their work often, as student-written science assignments were found to have the most blunders. With an average of five mistakes per essay, students studying this subject appear to be the most error-prone – likely due to tricky terminology. Following closely behind with the most errors were essays in economics, tourism, and religion.
On the other end of the spectrum came essayists studying environment, sociology, and media, whose essays had the lowest frequency of faults. Although these three subjects had the least mistakes, there was still an average of at least three errors per essay. So, ensure you’re proofreading regardless of the subject you study.
While it’s easy enough to pinpoint who makes the most mistakes, we also investigated the most frequent types of errors through punctuation and phrasing mistakes.
The most common punctuation error was missing commas with at least one comma missing per essay. Over 40% of essays contained this mistake in our analysis, with hyphen errors and missing spaces closely behind.
Generic phrasing mistakes were the most frequently flagged by proofreading tools, followed by repetitive words.
How differently does ChatGPT write when compared to humans? Looking into the patterns between the two, we identified the number of unique words in student essays, compared to those written by ChatGPT.
Without a doubt, we found much greater diversity in the language used by people. According to our research, ChatGPT uses 35% fewer unique words compared to student-written essays. With over 11,000 unique words totaled from students, technology-written essays used around 7,000 different words.
The only word that appears frequently in both human essays and AI-generated texts is ‘social’ . As a key adjective, both human and machine-learned research mentions this regularly. Both are likely to focus on this word when referencing human interactions and social behavior in analysis.
However, the differences between these two data sets are much more pronounced than their similarities. The most frequent human terminology is more generic, including common nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, with a balance of words that focus on content and function. In the ChatGPT data set, though, we see a focus on ideas and concepts like ‘culture’ and ‘economics’ engaging with social issues. The only transitional language we see from AI is ‘moreover’ , unlike human writing where we see ‘also’ and ‘however’ feature too.
To expand on this, we looked at the ratio of words that were present in human language compared to ChatGPT and vice versa. We wanted to see if there was a bias towards a certain category of words that appeared in one and not the other.
For instance, the word ‘would’ is used the most in student-written essays, but rarely by ChatGPT. For every 217 times humans used this word, the machine only used it once. As a modal verb, it describes hypothetical situations as well as expresses speculation, which is likely to be found in essays, but something AI is known to struggle with.
Looking at both lists side-by-side, there are clear differences between the two. Students were far more likely to use concrete nouns and verbs like ‘man’ and ‘country’ , while ChatGPT leaned towards abstract concepts like ‘identities’ and ‘boundaries’ . With two very different tones, students are more likely to write practical vocabulary whereas AI is far more likely to indulge in vague and figurative phrasing.
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The most frequent phrases used by student writers are prepositions like ‘in order to’ and ‘based on the’ . These markers within sentences are used to expand on points and direct the reader toward analysis. This pattern is seen throughout the human side of the data, illustrating that people are more inclined to expand on our points in long-form copy.
As well as these prepositions, we also see connecting conjunctions like ‘as well as’ and ‘is one of’ appearing frequently in essays to expand on points and deepen arguments. These expressions help to build up longer sentences and follow on to introduce points, which is exactly what you should expect to see in essays.
What about longer sentences and phrases we see pop up the most? Again, we see a similar pattern of explanatory and connecting expressions. Providing context in essays helps for clarity and justifications, so it’s no surprise that these once again are popular with students.
We see this in phrases like ‘it is important to know that’ – which was the most frequent long phrase – as well as ‘it is possible to say that’ or ‘this is due to the fact that’ , which are common ways of extending sentences.
The only phrases that differ slightly include ‘in different parts of the world’ , which is a geographical explainer, and ‘the purpose of this paper is to’ which is typical to see in the introduction of an authentic essay.
Whilst it’s good to know that humans are good at directing and summarizing for the reader, it may be good to have a more varied way of phrasing these sections, to avoid sounding too much like other writers.
So, what did professors have to say about using AI? We spoke to Dr. Vaishak Bell, Reader at the School of Informatics, and Professor Judy Robertson, Chair in Digital Learning at the University of Edinburgh, to see how they feel about the rise of AI and its current impact on student research.
Dr. Bell: The trouble we’re seeing right now is that in some cases these systems do fabricate certain things and if you haven’t studied the material very comprehensively, it’s very difficult to spot what the mistake is.
I think it makes it challenging for both the examiners and the students because students think there’s a shortcut to understanding some concept and they’re constantly struggling, but the analysis that comes out of ChatGPT could likely be somehow superficial or fabricated, and if you don’t know it, you can’t spot it.
Prof. Robertson: I’m trying to remove the incentive to cheat using AI, because if you can use it and acknowledge it then why wouldn’t you? And there’s stuff in the marking scheme as well to say if students have overused it or if there’s misinformation in there, then they’ll get marks off. Still, the highest parts of the marking scheme are for when the student has used human creativity and come up with something I haven’t seen before.
Dr. Bell: I would say it depends on the context. In some cases, no. So, for instance, certainly, in scholarly writing, you often speak in a passive voice and there are no adjectives, you don’t really embellish statements. You are trying to remain factual. I have seen re-phrasing by ChatGPT writing it, and the difference is very marginal.
I don’t think we can really beat it purely on syntactic structure. It would have to be some semantic analysis of the topic, right? So, it’s actually pretty hard. I don’t think it’s easy to do.
Prof. Robertson: Even experienced teachers can’t tell if you just give them a database of essays and they’ve never met the authors. They can’t distinguish between human-written essays and AI-written essays. But because mine is a small class and I know the students, I think I’d have a higher chance of doing that – because if you know somebody and the way they speak and what they’ve been working on, then it is kind of easier to tell.
I think that human connection is what will save us from AI plagiarism. It’s teachers knowing the people that they work with.
Dr. Bell: I don’t think it’s a bad idea to have some sort of artificial or virtual agent, to cross-check certain things for you, or you could say, ‘This is what I wrote. Does it feel like this conveys the point?’.
Previously, many people didn’t know who to turn to, so it was a very isolating process. Now you have a companion who can answer some intermediate questions and give you feedback. Again, the extreme version of this is instead of asking your flatmate or your fellow students, we rely completely on this. I mean, that’s the worst-case outcome but I think as a tool – provided you use it within limits – I don’t see anything fundamentally problematic about it.
Prof. Robertson: I think it’s kind of exciting. It’s like a challenge of, well, how do we do better assessments so that it doesn’t make an advantage for the students to cheat with AI? Why don’t we teach the students to use AI and then we’re going to take that as expected on their assignment that they probably will have used it?
I think it’s about switching and understanding what it is that we’re expecting students to learn now. We’ve got AI machines and AI tools, and we’re finding ways to assist that rather than something a machine could have done. And so, we’re going to have to switch what we think about with assessment and probably switch for what we’re looking for in terms of graduate attributes and what it is we’re expecting them to be able to do.
Whilst it’s clear that student essays use more diverse language than those generated by AI (with over 35% more unique words than ChatGPT), how easy is it to check when something is written by AI? Here are some top signs and AI giveaways.
Misinformation: Noticed that a fact or statistic doesn’t sound quite right? Chances are that AI has picked up a false statement and rewritten it into a piece of copy. If there are unexplained falsities and inaccuracies within the piece, a student should have a strong enough understanding of the topic to be able to spot these. It’s key to double-check any hard facts or context to ensure you don’t have false statements in your essay.
Monotonous language: As proven by our findings, humans have a far more diverse vocabulary, so if the piece seems to be dull in its diction (often sounding a bit clunky and even robotic ) this is a big sign it’s computer-generated. If you’re struggling with monotonous language in your own work, conversational English lessons can be an easy way to upgrade your flow and structure.
Redundant explanations: AI writing often sounds like it’s trying too hard to reach the word count without much meaning. Excessive explanation of concepts without many hard facts or evidence can indicate that an AI has written that piece of work, as these networks don’t have as much capacity to explain findings concisely. Of course, this can sometimes happen in human work too, so try your best to pack as much detail into each point to avoid sounding machine-like.
With AI content tools becoming more and more popular, there has also been a growth in AI-detection tools, like Turnitin, Copyleaks, and UniPapers. While they tend not to give much away about how they do it, these techy tools can help to identify how much AI-written text is in student essays.
As explained by our experts, it can be hard to nail down what is an AI-generated piece of copy, unless it sounds particularly robotic, repetitive, or uses misinformation. How to check if something was written by AI is becoming harder for those marking, even though the results of longer pieces of work are very different.
By analyzing the patterns of both human-created content and essays written by ChatGPT, we have identified the differences in the words and terminology used by both. AI will learn English online through web pages, blogs, and articles written before. Students should approach using AI with caution, and refrain from using these tools to write long pieces of text to avoid false statements and content lacking detail. It’s key to strike a balance between creating a high-quality piece of work, and using the tools effectively, to avoid the territory of plagiarism.
If you’re looking to expand your vocabulary, you can learn languages online with Preply, from conversational English to classic Spanish lessons . Take French lessons with confidence or learn a business language in our courses.
We have collected 12,346 student-written essays from the platform IvyPanda. The essays were categorized according to the genres on IvyPanda, with 25 subjects included. The data was broken down into:
We only included essays that had a minimum of 600 words.
To compare the student-written essays with AI-generated essays, we tasked ChatGPT with composing 115 essays covering 25 subjects.
To detect mistakes in the student-written essays, we used LanguageTool, a linguistic analysis tool, to find out which errors were most common in essays.
Analysis is accurate as of April 2024.
Nadiia is a Marketing Specialist with 7 years of experience in digital communications. In the past, she co-founded an educational organization for teachers in Ukraine and helped educators all over the country integrate blended learning methodology in their classrooms. Nadia speaks English, French, Ukrainian, and is currently learning Spanish on Preply.
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Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.
Published on April 15, 2022 by Shona McCombes and Jack Caulfield. Revised on May 31, 2023.
Quoting means copying a passage of someone else’s words and crediting the source. To quote a source, you must ensure:
The exact format of a quote depends on its length and on which citation style you are using. Quoting and citing correctly is essential to avoid plagiarism which is easy to detect with a good plagiarism checker .
How to cite a quote in apa, mla and chicago, introducing quotes, quotes within quotes, shortening or altering a quote, block quotes, when should i use quotes, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about quoting sources.
Every time you quote, you must cite the source correctly . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style you’re using. Three of the most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .
To cite a direct quote in APA , you must include the author’s last name, the year, and a page number, all separated by commas . If the quote appears on a single page, use “p.”; if it spans a page range, use “pp.”
An APA in-text citation can be parenthetical or narrative. In a parenthetical citation , you place all the information in parentheses after the quote. In a narrative citation , you name the author in your sentence (followed by the year), and place the page number after the quote.
Punctuation marks such as periods and commas are placed after the citation, not within the quotation marks .
Citing a quote in mla style.
An MLA in-text citation includes only the author’s last name and a page number. As in APA, it can be parenthetical or narrative, and a period (or other punctuation mark) appears after the citation.
Citing a quote in chicago style.
Chicago style uses Chicago footnotes to cite sources. A note, indicated by a superscript number placed directly after the quote, specifies the author, title, and page number—or sometimes fuller information .
Unlike with parenthetical citations, in this style, the period or other punctuation mark should appear within the quotation marks, followed by the footnote number.
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Complete guide to Chicago style
The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:
Make sure you integrate quotes properly into your text by introducing them in your own words, showing the reader why you’re including the quote and providing any context necessary to understand it. Don’t present quotations as stand-alone sentences.
There are three main strategies you can use to introduce quotes in a grammatically correct way:
The following examples use APA Style citations, but these strategies can be used in all styles.
Introduce the quote with a full sentence ending in a colon . Don’t use a colon if the text before the quote isn’t a full sentence.
If you name the author in your sentence, you may use present-tense verbs , such as “states,” “argues,” “explains,” “writes,” or “reports,” to describe the content of the quote.
You can also use a signal phrase that mentions the author or source, but doesn’t form a full sentence. In this case, you follow the phrase with a comma instead of a colon.
To quote a phrase that doesn’t form a full sentence, you can also integrate it as part of your sentence, without any extra punctuation .
When you quote text that itself contains another quote, this is called a nested quotation or a quote within a quote. It may occur, for example, when quoting dialogue from a novel.
To distinguish this quote from the surrounding quote, you enclose it in single (instead of double) quotation marks (even if this involves changing the punctuation from the original text). Make sure to close both sets of quotation marks at the appropriate moments.
Note that if you only quote the nested quotation itself, and not the surrounding text, you can just use double quotation marks.
Note: When the quoted text in the source comes from another source, it’s best to just find that original source in order to quote it directly. If you can’t find the original source, you can instead cite it indirectly .
Often, incorporating a quote smoothly into your text requires you to make some changes to the original text. It’s fine to do this, as long as you clearly mark the changes you’ve made to the quote.
If some parts of a passage are redundant or irrelevant, you can shorten the quote by removing words, phrases, or sentences and replacing them with an ellipsis (…). Put a space before and after the ellipsis.
Be careful that removing the words doesn’t change the meaning. The ellipsis indicates that some text has been removed, but the shortened quote should still accurately represent the author’s point.
You can add or replace words in a quote when necessary. This might be because the original text doesn’t fit grammatically with your sentence (e.g., it’s in a different verb tense), or because extra information is needed to clarify the quote’s meaning.
Use brackets to distinguish words that you have added from words that were present in the original text.
The Latin term “ sic ” is used to indicate a (factual or grammatical) mistake in a quotation. It shows the reader that the mistake is from the quoted material, not a typo of your own.
In some cases, it can be useful to italicize part of a quotation to add emphasis, showing the reader that this is the key part to pay attention to. Use the phrase “emphasis added” to show that the italics were not part of the original text.
You usually don’t need to use brackets to indicate minor changes to punctuation or capitalization made to ensure the quote fits the style of your text.
If you quote more than a few lines from a source, you must format it as a block quote . Instead of using quotation marks, you set the quote on a new line and indent it so that it forms a separate block of text.
Block quotes are cited just like regular quotes, except that if the quote ends with a period, the citation appears after the period.
To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself outside, without a hat, a walking-stick or any money, or anything that he usually took when he went out; leaving his second breakfast half-finished and quite unwashed-up, pushing his keys into Gandalf’s hands, and running as fast as his furry feet could carry him down the lane, past the great Mill, across The Water, and then on for a mile or more. (16)
Avoid relying too heavily on quotes in academic writing . To integrate a source , it’s often best to paraphrase , which means putting the passage in your own words. This helps you integrate information smoothly and keeps your own voice dominant.
However, there are some situations in which quoting is more appropriate.
If you want to comment on how the author uses language (for example, in literary analysis ), it’s necessary to quote so that the reader can see the exact passage you are referring to.
To convince the reader of your argument, interpretation or position on a topic, it’s often helpful to include quotes that support your point. Quotes from primary sources (for example, interview transcripts or historical documents) are especially credible as evidence.
When you’re referring to secondary sources such as scholarly books and journal articles, try to put others’ ideas in your own words when possible.
But if a passage does a great job at expressing, explaining, or defining something, and it would be very difficult to paraphrase without changing the meaning or losing the weakening the idea’s impact, it’s worth quoting directly.
If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.
Plagiarism
A quote is an exact copy of someone else’s words, usually enclosed in quotation marks and credited to the original author or speaker.
In academic writing , there are three main situations where quoting is the best choice:
Don’t overuse quotes; your own voice should be dominant. If you just want to provide information from a source, it’s usually better to paraphrase or summarize .
Every time you quote a source , you must include a correctly formatted in-text citation . This looks slightly different depending on the citation style .
For example, a direct quote in APA is cited like this: “This is a quote” (Streefkerk, 2020, p. 5).
Every in-text citation should also correspond to a full reference at the end of your paper.
A block quote is a long quote formatted as a separate “block” of text. Instead of using quotation marks , you place the quote on a new line, and indent the entire quote to mark it apart from your own words.
The rules for when to apply block quote formatting depend on the citation style:
If you’re quoting from a text that paraphrases or summarizes other sources and cites them in parentheses , APA and Chicago both recommend retaining the citations as part of the quote. However, MLA recommends omitting citations within a quote:
Footnote or endnote numbers that appear within quoted text should be omitted in all styles.
If you want to cite an indirect source (one you’ve only seen quoted in another source), either locate the original source or use the phrase “as cited in” in your citation.
In scientific subjects, the information itself is more important than how it was expressed, so quoting should generally be kept to a minimum. In the arts and humanities, however, well-chosen quotes are often essential to a good paper.
In social sciences, it varies. If your research is mainly quantitative , you won’t include many quotes, but if it’s more qualitative , you may need to quote from the data you collected .
As a general guideline, quotes should take up no more than 5–10% of your paper. If in doubt, check with your instructor or supervisor how much quoting is appropriate in your field.
If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.
McCombes, S. & Caulfield, J. (2023, May 31). How to Quote | Citing Quotes in APA, MLA & Chicago. Scribbr. Retrieved June 24, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/how-to-quote/
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When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, like, for example, (Jones, 1998). One complete reference for each source should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
The point of an in-text citation is to show your reader where your information comes from. Including citations: Avoids plagiarism by acknowledging the original author's contribution. Allows readers to verify your claims and do follow-up research. Shows you are engaging with the literature of your field.
In-text citations: Author-page style. MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number (s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the ...
APA in-text citations with multiple authors. If a work has two authors, separate their names with an ampersand (&) in a parenthetical citation or "and" in a narrative citation. If there are three or more authors, only include the first author's last name followed by "et al.", meaning "and others".
In-Text Citations: An Overview. In-text citations are brief, unobtrusive references that direct readers to the works-cited-list entries for the sources you consulted and, where relevant, to the location in the source being cited. An in-text citation begins with the shortest piece of information that directs your reader to the entry in the ...
In-text citations. Using references in text. For APA, you use the authors' surnames only and the year in text. If you are using a direct quote, you will also need to use a page number. Narrative citations: If an in-text citation has the authors' names as part of the sentence (that is, outside of brackets) place the year and page numbers in ...
In-text citations point the reader to the sources' information on the references page. The in-text citation typically includes the author's last name and the year of publication. If you use a direct quote, the page number is also provided. More information can be found on p. 253 of the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American ...
The following are guidelines to follow when writing in-text citations: Ensure that the spelling of author names and the publication dates in reference list entries match those in the corresponding in-text citations. Cite only works that you have read and ideas that you have incorporated into your writing. The works you cite may provide key ...
Create manual citation. The guidelines for citing an essay in MLA format are similar to those for citing a chapter in a book. Include the author of the essay, the title of the essay, the name of the collection if the essay belongs to one, the editor of the collection or other contributors, the publication information, and the page number (s).
Using In-text Citation. Include an in-text citation when you refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or quote from another source. For every in-text citation in your paper, there must be a corresponding entry in your reference list. APA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the year of publication, for example: (Field, 2005).
In Harvard style, citations appear in brackets in the text. An in-text citation consists of the last name of the author, the year of publication, and a page number if relevant. Up to three authors are included in Harvard in-text citations. If there are four or more authors, the citation is shortened with et al. Harvard in-text citation examples.
Let's look at these examples if they were written in text: An example with 1 author: Parenthetical citation: Following American Psychological Association (APA) style guidelines will help you to cultivate your own unique academic voice as an expert in your field (Forbes, 2020). Narrative citation: Forbes (2020) shared that by following American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines ...
An in-text citation is a reference to a source that is found within the text of a paper ( Handbook 227). This tells a reader that an idea, quote, or paraphrase originated from a source. MLA in-text citations usually include the last name of the author and the location of cited information. This guide focuses on how to create MLA in-text ...
Option 1: Author-date in-text citations. Author-date style places citations directly in the text in parentheses. In-text citations include the author's last name, the year of publication, and if applicable, a page number or page range: This style of Chicago in-text citation looks the same for every type of source.
An in-text citation appears in a written text and gives credit to a source's original author. They usually include information within a set of parentheses, like the author's name, the publication date of the source, and the page number the quote is from. Example: APA Style in-text citation (Brown, 1997, p. 188)
MLA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the page number from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken, for example: (Smith 163). If the source does not use page numbers, do not include a number in the parenthetical citation: (Smith). For more information on in-text citation, see the MLA Style Center.
These citations within the essay are called in-text citations. You must cite all quoted, paraphrased, or summarized words, ideas, and facts from sources. Without in-text citations, you are in danger of plagiarism, even if you have listed your sources at the end of the essay. In-text citations point the reader to the sources' information in ...
An in-text citation can be included in one of two ways as shown below: 1. Put all the citation information at the end of the sentence: 2. Include author name as part of the sentence (if author name unavailable, include title of work): Each source cited in-text must also be listed on your Works Cited page. RefWorks includes a citation builder ...
Note: In the rare case that "Anonymous" is used for the author, treat it as the author's name (Anonymous, 2001).In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author. Organization as an Author. If the author is an organization or a government agency, mention the organization in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source, just as you would an ...
When citing sources in the text of your paper, you must list: The author's last name. The year the information was published. Types of In-Text Citations: Narrative vs Parenthetical. A narrative citation gives the author's name as part of the sentence. Example of a Narrative Citation: According to Edwards (2017), although Smith and Carlos's ...
APA: Parenthetical In-Text Citations. To cite a source in the text of an essay, APA advocates two methods: in-text citations and attribution within the essay's content. in-text citations should be included immediately after the quotation marks used in direct quotations or immediately after the use of the source, even if this means including the parenthetical reference in the middle of the ...
In-Text Citation. Scholarly essays require precise citation practices to demonstrate utilized sources and uphold the integrity of your ideas. Citing materials is needed for crediting them and promoting original writing. In MLA-based style, quotes typically indicate in parentheses the writer's surname and book's page number, (e.g., Smith 23 ...
You should always include a citation for the sources you use to support any academic text. In-text citations must accompany any material that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized. The in-text citation should direct the reader to the full reference entry in the references list or bibliography.
7. In-text Citation. In MLA format, in-text citations use parenthetical references to indicate quotes or ideas from another author. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to do in-text citations: Step 1: When you quote or paraphrase from a source, use the author's last name and the page number where the information is found.
Scribbr offers citation generators for both APA and MLA style. Both are quick, easy to use, and 100% free, with no ads and no registration required. Just input a URL or DOI or add the source details manually, and the generator will automatically produce an in-text citation and reference entry in the correct format.
How to Cite a Book in Harvard Style. In Harvard referencing style, the reference list format citation includes the following elements: author(s) or editor(s), publication year, title of the book (in italics or underlined), place of publication, and the name of the publisher.
We only included essays that had a minimum of 600 words. To compare the student-written essays with AI-generated essays, we tasked ChatGPT with composing 115 essays covering 25 subjects. To detect mistakes in the student-written essays, we used LanguageTool, a linguistic analysis tool, to find out which errors were most common in essays.
In this essay, I explore how cognitive bias, rather than racial or ethnic bias, may inhibit the ability of school psychologists to advance social justice through research and practice. I begin with the argument that tests advance the cause of social justice because they define problems (i.e., disparities among groups) in objective, measurable ...
Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024) 19 B. ARRETT, J., dissenting . An agency must respond to " ' relevant ' and ' significant ' pub-lic comments," and that requirement is not "particularly de-manding"; the "agency need not respond at all to comments that are 'purely speculative and do not disclose the factual
Citing a quote in APA Style. To cite a direct quote in APA, you must include the author's last name, the year, and a page number, all separated by commas. If the quote appears on a single page, use "p."; if it spans a page range, use "pp.". An APA in-text citation can be parenthetical or narrative.