How to Quote an Article in an Essay

If you believe you can effortlessly create an assess paper by simply making an evaluation of the things that are alike and the ones that vary, you are patently wrong. This type of paper has much more to take into consideration. Your main aim will be to establish relevant connections to some bigger issue, using your comparison and contrasts to argue a problem.

Choose Your Style

You can organize your opinions in an assess paper choosing either the alternative or tandem style. There are basically no regulations as to which style to opt for. However, in the case of papers which are over 5 or 6 pages, it is advisable to choose an alternative style. The tandem style is used for shorter papers.

The Alternative Style

This style is also known as the purpose-by-point style and as a rule, it is organized in five or more sentences. For example, if you compose a paper evaluating the variations between studying in a prestigious college versus a local college, you should start by providing an introduction with a thesis.

Then dedicate one paragraph to discuss the first distinction between these two educational institutions within the same sentence. For example, a prestigious college has an esteemed course study and a local college may have smaller sized classes and less expensive tuition. Discuss the purpose, evaluating forward and backward between your college and also the college in every sentence. Your next paragraph will be dedicated to the differences and similarities.

The Tandem Style

The tandem style, also known as the block style, is usually organized in four sentences. We will show you how it works basing on the example of studying in a prestigious college versus local college. Begin with your introductory part which also contains a thesis. Afterward, discuss studying in a prestigious college in the second paragraph and opting for a local college in the third one. If you provide any information about the college within the paragraph, you need to make it within the paragraph sticking to the same order.

Your conclusion will restate your thesis in new words and helps guide you have proven it.

Back up your analysis by providing textual support for each point you make. You can use direct quotes from the text but do not forget to cite each source properly.

How to Quote from an Article in an Essay

According to academic writing style rules, you need to provide in-text citations to give reference to the source when you use someone else’s work. The majority of college assignments presuppose using either MLA or APA style.

MLA Style

To adjust your citations to the MLA style, you need to put the author’s last name in a signal phrase in the sentence you cited or in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Put the page number following the sentence unless the work contains no page number. For example, in his essay Social Change,” Dr. John Smith states, “Positive social change gives people the ability to improve the future” (27). A parenthetical citation looks as follows: “Positive social change gives people the ability to improve the future” (Smith 27).

APA Style

APA in-text style presupposes the author-date method. The author’s last name and the publication year should also be mentioned in the text. It contains the page number when inserting direct quotations. In practice, it looks as follows: Smith (2010) stated in his essay, “Positive social change gives people the ability to improve the future” (p. 27). A parenthetical citation looks as follows: Positive social change can improve a person’s future (Smith, 2010). An example of a parenthetical citation with a direct quotation looks like: “Positive social change gives people the ability to improve the future” (Smith, 2010, p. 27).

Q. What are the requirements for referring to an article using an APA style? Should I use quotations or italics?

If you refer to the name of the journal, you should provide it using italics. However, if you refer to the name of an article, it should appear in quotations.

How To Quote Sources In An Essay

Apart from arranging other’s ideas by means of quoting, you can also opt for such methods, as paraphrasing and summarizing.

A method of quoting is applied when you cite a passage of someone else’s work word for word.

How To Use Quotes

Quotes are usually placed in the literature review section of your essay or paper. In order to create a literature review, you need to analyze available literature that helped you to define concepts, back up your ideas, or present alternative views.

The assessment of your paper will be based on this analysis and processing of the available sources. Thus, you should make an evaluation of each source by means of the CRAAP test. While assuring this, you can come across some sources or passages that will make your essay more valuable.

In fact, you will then need to sum up, paraphrase, and quote all the literature you used in your essay. Thus, you need to keep track of your sources and jot down some passages that may come in handy later.

Why Quoting Is Important?

Quotes can help you to define a concept
Quotes can put across the original idea precisely whereas paraphrasing can diminish its quality.
Quotes can serve as evidence or back up an argument

How To Quote

You can present your quotes in an essay or paper by means of these three main ways:

First, mention the author’s name and then insert the quote:
Levring (2018) indicates that the Danish people are increasingly becoming more supportive of the European Union, and “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters.”
Insert the quote into the paragraph:
A lot of countries in Europe have also provided increasing support of the European Union in the light of “Brexit” vote. Just for the record in Denmark, “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters” (Levring, 2018).
Mention the study or article itself:
In his the article “Brexit Triggers a Surge in Danish Backing to Stay Inside the EU,” Levring indicated that “A membership referendum held today would be backed by 55 percent of Danish voters.”

What Is An Optimum Length For A Quote?

The insertion of quotes does not testify to original thinking. Thus, you should not give too lengthy quotes. The optimum length is no longer than a few sentences.

For academic writing, it is advisable to insert quotes sparingly. However, there are no fixed rules concerning the required word count. Mind that a quote which contains more than 40 words is regarded as long. In situations like this, it is better to sum up the information and not resort to quoting.

Learn How To Use In-text Citations

All students know that they should not incorporate information they found in a book or online into their essay without giving the authors credit, which includes in-text citations or footnotes and full name of the source in bibliography. However, not many students know how to quote an article in an essay correctly.

In-text citations help your readers immediately see sentences, information, or ideas that are not your own and are taken from an outside source. This is exactly why students are supposed to know how to quote in an essay or research paper.

There are two ways of giving credit to the sources in your paper: by including a signal phrase with a citation or by using only a citation. To find out how to quote an article in an essay, look at the explanation below.

A signal phrase is a phrase that informs the reader that the subsequent sentence presents the information that was taken from another source.

Here is an example of a quote in APA: According to Paul Williams (2018), the author of Procrastination Ruins Everything, “people who procrastinate demonstrate 24% lower productivity at work when compared to their colleagues” (p. 89).

Notice that I placed the words I copied from Williams’ book in quotation marks. The citation starts with a signal phrase that explains where the subsequent quote comes from, who its author is, and when it was published, so the readers can easily locate this source should they need more information. Knowing how to cite a quote in an essay is a valuable skill not only because it helps you avoid plagiarism but also because it helps you establish credibility.

In-text citation: This method of quoting information is appropriate when you do not want to provide some idea verbatim but rather retell it in your own words, for example, when including some facts, statistics, and arguments that support your own claims.

How to use quotes in an essay formatted according to MLA: When analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of pursuing a college degree one should consider the rate of turn on investment, which is high and allows warranting the financial burden associated with obtaining a diploma (McMillan, 55)

Notice that since I used the author’s name at the end of my sentence, it becomes clear that I relied on McMillan’s ideas to arrive at my conclusions. Page number allows locating the source to do fact checking or to learn more.

How Many Quotes Should You Use?

Since inserting many quotes does not add more value to your essay, it is sensible to limit the usage of quotes in your paper. Moreover, if you insert too many quotes, you can come across as lazy, as though you did not get the source adequately or like you did not read the whole text.

Many academic sources advise that quotes should make up around 10% of your paper; we suggest that you should limit it to 5% or even less. Avoid an overabundance of quotes, your own voice carries more weight in your paper.

The number of quotes you should use also depends on the subject of study. For instance, more quotes are usually used in humanities research as opposed to scientific study, which as a rule, aims to sum up the experiments and results.

The percentage of quotes may vary in different educational institutions. Thus, check with your university to ensure you stick to this required percentage.

Example Of A Quote

An example of a short quote: Although some therapists agree that dreams reflect ‘the subtleties of one’s personality’ (Edwards, 184), yet others have a differing opinion.

How to use quotes that are long: Ms Malkovich demonstrates poor character, particularly, when she dehumanizes her cousin:

She entirely refused to accept Mary’s reasoning, but Robert had more sense, so he left it on the stairs, hoping someone would take it on the morrow. By mistake or attracted to Lily’s voice, it crept into her room and showed no intention of leaving it any time soon. Rebecca later made enquiries as to how it got there and Robert felt obliged to tell her the truth. Lily could not forgive him his cowardice till the end of her life. (Oldcliff 85)

How to use quotes in an essay when you need to add or remove words: In a paper about citations and referencing, J. Brunewald explains that “knowing how to quote an article in an essay is an indispensable skill for anyone hopes to finish college” (90).

If you still have some difficulties with in-text citations, contact the cheapest article writing service that will help you to ensure that all the articles are referenced properly.