Block quotation

How it is used

In APA style, quotations of 40 words or more become block quotations, indented 0.5 inch, with the citation after the final punctuation. MLA uses them for prose longer than four lines. Use them sparingly and always comment on the quoted text afterward.

Example sentences

1. Quotations longer than 40 words should be formatted as a block quotation.

2. Your essay has three block quotations on one page; paraphrase some of them instead.

Common collocations

• format as a block quotation
• block quote
• indented quotation
• introduce a block quotation

Related terms

• direct quotationThe exact words of a source copied into your text, marked with quotation marks or set as an indented block, and followed by a citation with a page number.
• APA styleThe writing and citation rules of the American Psychological Association, based on author-date citations and widely used in the social sciences, education and psychology.
• paraphraseTo express an author's idea in your own words and sentence structure while keeping the original meaning; the source still needs a citation.
• in-text citationA short reference inside the main text, such as (Yılmaz, 2021) or a number [3], that points the reader to the full entry in the reference list.

More terms: Citing and Referencing

• cite
• citation
• reference list
• et al.
• bibliography
• DOI
• reporting verb
• footnote
• reference manager
• Harvard referencing
• secondary citation
• ibid.