Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources is essential for substantiating your arguments in scholarly work. However, rather than weaving shorter quotes into sentences, lengthier passages require special block quote formatting to ensure clarity and readability. Precise block quoting guidelines vary across citation styles, so understanding the nuances is crucial for academic writing.
Let’s cover everything you need to know about block quote length requirements, introducing quotes, formatting rules for different styles, and best practices for strategic quote usage.
How long is a block quote?
The point at which a quote becomes long enough to warrant block formatting differs between citation styles. Some provide a specific word count threshold, while others judge by the number of lines:
| Citation style | Block quote minimum length |
|---|---|
| APA, Vancouver | 40 words |
| Chicago, APSA | 100 words |
| MLA | 4 lines of prose / 3 lines of verse |
| Harvard | 30 words |
| AAA | 4 lines |
Rather than trying to count words or lines exactly, a general best practice is to block quotes anything longer than roughly 2-3 complete sentences. Doing so enhances readability by visually separating the external source material from your own analysis.
Step 1: Introduce the block quote
Before displaying a block quote, you must provide a brief introduction connecting your thoughts to the external source material. Integrate the quote fluidly by:
- Introducing with a signal phrase naming the source:
- “Renowned education scholar Lev Vygotsky posits:”
One of the most important principles of modern psychology is that any upbringing is ineffective if it does not take into account the current level of the child’s development. Only aligning upbringing to the level of a child’s development can ensure the success of the upbringing itself. (Vygotsky, 1926, p. 191)
Or starting a sentence where the quoted material will continue.
“A compelling perspective on the value of diversity is expressed in the following quote:”
Differences within a community are as important as the commonalities that bind it together, for those differences are a source of Energy and vitality. They keep the community alive. What could be more deadening than the notion that everyone should conform to one way of being? (Appiah, 2006, p. 113)
A clear lead-in establishes the context for how the quote relates to your discussion and analysis.
Step 2: Format the block quote
After your introduction, the block quote itself should be formatted to stand out from your regular text through indentation, spacing, and citation placement. Specific guidelines vary by style:
APA Block Quote Formatting:
- Start on a new line
- Indent 0.5 inches from the left margin
- Double-space the full block
- Include author(s), date, and page/paragraph number after ending punctuation
Example:
Cognitive biases profoundly shape decision-making processes in ways people rarely recognize:
Cognitive biases are tendencies to think in certain ways that can lead to systematic deviations from a standard of rationality or good judgment…These biases are thought to persist because of issues related to memory or information processing limits. (Wilke & Mata, 2012, p. 531)
MLA Block Quote Formatting
- Start on a new line
- Indent 1 inch from the left margin
- Double space or use standard paragraph spacing
- Include author(s) name(s) in parentheses after ending punctuation
- No quotation marks around block quote text
Example:
Her poetic writing evokes the relentless human yearning for self-discovery:
We all have that inner voice that, from time to time, whispers about lusting, craving, and desiring something more. We crave love, acceptance, approval, status, and even wealth as an end and a means to help us find ourselves and gain a deeper sense of who we are and want to become. Yet, no amount of anything seems to entirely quell that inner voice. (Jonas 139)
Chicago Style Block Quote
- Start on a new line
- Indent 0.5 inches from left
- Single space or use standard paragraph spacing
- Include footnote/endnote number after ending punctuation
Example:
The author critiques manipulative mid-20th-century advertising tactics:
By hiring competent psychologists, anthropologists, and social scientists or employing their own staff of such individuals and using their personal motivation data, corporations can increasingly access consumers’ deeper motivations. Previously remote from conscious control, many of our thoughts and behavior patterns have become legitimate areas for probing, testing and influencing by business firms.
No matter which style you follow, double-check the specific formatting rules, as block quotes may require special indentation, line spacing, font sizes, and more.
Multi-paragraph block quotes
Keep the excerpted text as one blocked unit when directly quoting multiple consecutive paragraphs. The first lines of newly quoted paragraphs should be indented with an additional indent:
Example in MLA format:
The opening to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice satirizes the entrenched social attitudes she sought to upend through her writing:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighborhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families that he is considered the rightful property of someone or other of their daughters. (Austen 1)
The humorous irony and incisive social commentary immediately draw the reader into the absurdities and harsh realities of Regency-era British life.
Step 3: Analyze the quote’s significance
After displaying the full block quote, you must follow with a substantive analysis that ties the quote back to your overarching thesis or argument. Exploring the quote’s meaning and relevance to your point enhances your paper’s flow.
For example:
This passage underscores Austen’s mastery of using biting wit and sarcasm to expose social ills. Through her novels’ comedy of manners, she aimed the cultural obsession with marrying for wealth and status rather than genuine compatibility…
Or:
The author’s perspective exposes how corporate interests have long leveraged psychological manipulation in pursuit of profits, prioritizing wealth over societal costs like rampant consumerism, which undermines human well-being.
Step 4: Use block quotes judiciously
While powerful for elucidating key ideas, block quotes should serve a supporting role and never overshadow your own voice. Aim to use them sparingly, only when:
- The specific phrasing is so articulate that paraphrasing could diminish its meaning or impact.
- Providing the full context across multiple sentences is essential for proper analysis.
- Incorporating the passage into your own written flow would be prohibitively awkward.
Over-quoting disrupts your paper’s narrative cohesion and clarity. Prioritize weaving shorter quotes or paraphrasing whenever possible, using block format selectively to highlight only the most pivotal source material.