In terms of punctuation, you can introduce a quote with:


You can use a quote to emphasize or support your arguments. Moreover, quotes are added to provide additional insights to the topic of the paper. It is up to you how you are going to incorporate a quote into your essay. My advice to you is to use them intelligently.
Having an in-text citation in your paper prevents you from being accused (or being charged) of plagiarism by your instructor. The next section will tackle how you can properly quote a quote. You asked, how can I quote a quote? I’ll give you a simple answer — by having an in-text citation. In APA, you have to write the following in an in-text citation: 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. A quote or a quotation means you repeat the author’s words without introducing any changes to it. It is usually indicated by a double or a single quotation marks depending on the circumstance. For example, a quote within a quote uses a single quotation mark. When quoting, the author is cited to attribute the text to its original source. This example is from Paul F. Boller, Jr. and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions (Oxford University Press, 1989). There may be times when you need to quote long passages. However, you should use block quotations only when you fear that omitting any words will destroy the integrity of the passage. If that passage exceeds four lines (some sources say five), then set it off as a block quotation.

Learn how to use and punctuate quotations in essays

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.

Here’s an example of over-use of quotes in paragraphs:

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.

There’s a simple rule for how many quotes should be in an essay.

Well, you can’t just blindly incorporate a quote in your paper without properly introducing it. Really, it would look weird. Don’t leave your quote hanging! Some common signal phrases are:

Prose Block Quote Chicago Example

Have you ever wondered how to put a quote in your essay? If your answer is “yes”, then I got your back! This is the main focus of today’s session.

Verse Chicago Block Quote Example:

If you use other signal phrases other than the ones listed here, then you are free to incorporate those phrases in your paper. I would give you more words to introduce a quote in the next section.

Begin a new paragraph to show each change of speaker.

Sometimes I would even add the occupation of the author (Ex: Professor, director, and etc.) or the title of the book/article if I know it would help my reader understand my paper more. In a nutshell, you can’t go wrong by making the proper introduction to your quote.

Introducing and Explaining Quotes

Avoid relying too heavily on quotes in . To , it’s often best to , which means putting the passage in your own words. This helps you integrate information smoothly and keeps your own voice dominant.