Paraphrases and quotations are commonly used in academic writing. This page presents the specific APA (7th ed.) requirements as they relate to formatting. To learn about how to create paraphrased material and best practices for using quotations, check out our page, “Avoiding Plagiarism: Paraphrasing & Quoting Sources."
Paraphrases
A paraphrase is a restatement of another's idea presented in your own words. Since the idea itself is another's, paraphrased material requires proper in-text citations. This may be done using parenthetical or narrative citations (as described on the page “In-Text Citations"). Paraphrased material may extend for several sentences. When this happens, simply cite the work when it is first mentioned. Any following references within that paragraph do not require further citation. However, if the paraphrase expands to another paragraph, the citation needs to be reintroduced.
In some cases, a paraphrase may incorporate multiple sources or may alternate between sources. When this approach to paraphrasing is used, you should repeat the citations so that it is clear to the reader what content is credited to which source.
Quotations
When using direct quotations, the author utilizes the words from another source word-for-word. According to the APA Manual, it is best to paraphrase sources and direct quotes should be used strategically (see Sections 8.23–8.25 of the APA Manual, 7th ed.).
Short Quotations
Short quotations are those that are less than 40 words in length. These quotations should be formatted by incorporating them into the text and placing quotation marks around them. Always set up the quotation by using transitional devices. For parenthetical citations, the author, year, and page number should be included at the end of the sentence. For narrative citations, the author and year should be included in the sentence and the page number should be located after the quote. Place the period after the parenthetical information in both cases. For example:
Effective teams can be difficult to describe because “high performance along one domain does not translate to high performance along another" (Ervin et al., 2018, p. 470).
OR
Biebel et al. (2018) noted that “incorporating the voice of students with psychiatric disabilities into supported education services can increase access, involvement, and retention" (p. 299).
Block Quotations
Block quotations (or block quotes) are necessary when the quote contains 40 words or more. Quotation marks are not to be used for block quotes. Rather, the block quote should start on a new line and the quote should be indented 0.5 in. from the left margin. For student papers, block quotes should be double spaced, as in the body of the paper. Do not add extra spaces before or after the block quote. Place the final period before parenthetical citation. For parenthetical citations, include all the source information at the end of the quote. For narrative citations, cite the author and year in the narrative prior to the quote and include the page number in parenthesis after the quote. For example:
Block Quotation With Parenthetical Citation
Researchers have studied how people talk to themselves:
Inner speech is a paradoxical phenomenon. It is an experience that is central to many people's everyday lives, and yet it presents considerable challenges to any effort to study it scientifically. Nevertheless, a wide range of methodologies and approaches have combined to shed light on the subjective experience of inner speech and its cognitive and neural underpinnings. (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015, p. 957)
Block Quotation With Narrative Citation
Flores et al. (2018) described how they addressed potential researcher bias when working with an intersectional community of transgender people of color:
Everyone on the research team belonged to a stigmatized group but also held privileged identities. Throughout the research process, we attended to the ways in which our privileged and oppressed identities may have influenced the research process, findings, and presentation of results. (p. 311)
Block Quotation Consisting of Two Paragraphs
Regarding implications for chronic biases in expectation formation,
in order to accurately estimate whether people are likely to form positive or negative expectations on any given occasion, it is necessary to go beyond simply considering chronic individual differences and identify the factors that make people more likely to form expectations in line with one bias or the other.
The present research sheds light on this issue by identifying a crucial distinction in the operation of these two trait biases in expectation formation. Specifically, people's valence weighting biases and self-beliefs about the future appear to shape expectations via qualitatively distinct processes. (Niese et al., 2019, p. 210)