Research Paper Process:BLOCK QUOTES

Citing BLOCK QUOTESin Research Paper (quotes that areOVER 4 typewritten lines)

To cite text of MOREthan four lines of text, remember:

  • Passages must be indented extra on the left from the 1” margin (example below is in accordance with MLA style).
  • Quotation marks are not used. (Start each line of Block Quote 2 tabs/10 spaces from the left margin, and OMIT quote marks. This extra indenting “blocks” off the quote.
  • Place quote’s end punctuation BEFORE the parenthetical documentation. (note: this is different placement)

For example:

The women who populate the television program, The Sopranos, are for the most part wonderful examples of multidimensional characters so rarely seen in the media. According to Barreca,

Carmela and Dr. Melfi do not pretend to foolishness, helplessness, or innocence, those twinned weapons of the

traditional passive-aggressive feminine script perfected by Livia Soprano, Tony’s mother. Unlike more ordinary

heroines, most of the women in The Sopranos do not offer up a gooey reservoir of sympathy, vulnerability, and

virginity but instead offer in their place a sense of intelligent awareness, emotional skill, and a sense of

shamelessness about their own competence. They do not, in other words, apologize for being good at what they

do. (32)

Block Quotations

“For quotations that extend to more than four lines of prose: place quotations in a free-standing block of text and omitquotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented one inch from the left margin; maintain double-spacing. Your parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your essay.)

For example:

Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her narration:

They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so,

I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else

attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his

chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for

my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

"Quotations are effective in research papers when used selectively. Quote only words, phrases, lines, andpassages that are particularly interesting, vivid, unusual, or apt, and keep all quotations as brief as possible. Overquotation can bore your readers and might lead them to conclude that you are neither an original thinker nor askillful writer".

Block quotes are required with longer quotations. “If a quotation extends more than four lines when typed into thetext” set it off as a block quote. Block quotes are continuously indented from the left margin one inch. Double spaceblock quotes. Do not place the quote inside quotation marks.

• "If you quote only a single paragraph or part of one, do not indent the first line more than the rest" (MLA 94).

• "If you need to quote two or more paragraphs, indent the first line of each paragraph an additional quarter inch. . . .

If the first sentence quoted does not begin a paragraph in the source, however, do not indent it the additionalamount. Indent only the first line of successive paragraphs" (MLA 94).

Quotations are the exact words of an author, copied directly from the source word for word.

Quotations must be cited!

Why use quotes in your paper? Use quotations when:

• You want to add the power of an author’s words to support your argument

• You want to disagree with an author’s argument

• You want to highlight particularly eloquent or powerful phrases or passages

• You are comparing and contrasting specific points of view

• You want to note the important research that precedes your own

Sample Paragraph with Citation for a BLOCK QUOTE Lead-inPHRASE for Block Quote

In their examination of students’ acquisition of learning strategies, Simpson, Stahl, and Francis stress

that students will use a strategy if they understand how, why, and when to use it (3). They add that this knowledge

is important “if students are expected to abandon their usual approaches such as rereading and/or highlighting” (3).

Information on study strategies is readily available on the internet (for example, the web page “How to Study”).

Lee argues that, once students have acquired a repertoire of study strategies, they should be taught critical thinking

skillsto evaluate and modify their use of specific strategies (82-83). Peter Foley, a professor at North London

University, has observed that motivation is strongly linked to students’ use of learning strategies. Motivation, in

turn, can be influenced by students’ beliefs about learning. Simpson, Stahl, and Francis comment on such beliefs:

[I]t is not atypical for college freshmen to believe that learning should be easy, completed quickly (i.e.

the night before in a cramming session) and should happen to them because of what others do for

them (i.e. the professor did not teach me to solve that problem) . . . [, and they] have formed their

personal theories and opinions about reading and learning by the time they graduate from high school.

For many college freshmen, reading is something they do without “thought” and most rate them-

selves as “good readers,” even though they put minimal effort/thought into their reading. (4)

The reading of academic/work related material should be different than pleasure reading, but too many

college freshmen see little to no difference between the two types of reading. With no real thought given to the

(page number isused here alone, without author’s last name, because author’s name given in Lead-in)

Lead-ins to quotes with a PHRASE – NOT a sentence!!!!!