How to Cite a Quote in MLA, APA & Chicago
Quoting is the most exposed thing you do in a paper: you are putting another writer’s exact words on the page and claiming them as evidence. Get the citation wrong and it reads as carelessness at best and plagiarism at worst. The good news is that citing a quote is mechanical once you know two things — whether the quote is short enough to run into your sentence or long enough to set off as a block, and where the locator and punctuation go. This guide covers both for MLA, APA, and Chicago.
The shortest answer: wrap a short quote in quotation marks and follow it with an in-text citation that includes a page number; set a long quote off as an indented block with no quotation marks and put the citation after its final punctuation. The only thing that changes between styles is the length threshold and what goes inside the parentheses.
Short quotes vs. block quotes
Every style draws a line between a short quotation you run into your own sentence and a long one you set off as a block quotation — indented from the left margin, no quotation marks, with the citation after the closing punctuation. The line sits in a different place in each style.
| Style | Becomes a block quote when… | Short-quote format |
|---|---|---|
| MLA 9 | prose runs more than four lines (3+ lines for poetry) | quotation marks, run into your sentence |
| APA 7 | quotation is 40 words or more | quotation marks, run into your sentence |
| Chicago 18 | quotation runs five or more lines (≈100+ words) | quotation marks, run into your sentence |
A quotation that lands exactly on the boundary follows the wording of the rule: MLA’s cutoff is “more than four lines,” so a four-line quote is still a run-in quote. When in doubt, count, because reviewers do.
Citing a short (run-in) quote
For a quotation below the block threshold, keep the borrowed words in your sentence, inside double quotation marks, and attach the in-text citation. The only difference across styles is what the parentheses hold — and all three share the same punctuation logic: the citation comes before your sentence’s closing period.
MLA
MLA uses author and page, no comma, no p.:
Chen describes working memory as “a flexible mental workspace, not a fixed bin of slots” (47).
When you have not already named the author, put the surname in the parentheses: (“a flexible mental workspace, not a fixed bin of slots” (Chen 47).).
APA
APA adds the year and an abbreviated p. (or pp. for a range):
Chen (2021) characterizes working memory as “a flexible mental workspace, not a fixed bin of slots” (p. 47).
Fully parenthetical, that is (Chen, 2021, p. 47) — note the commas, which MLA omits.
Chicago
Chicago’s author–date system uses author, year, and a bare page number — no comma between author and year, no p.:
Working memory is “a flexible mental workspace, not a fixed bin of slots” (Chen 2021, 47).
In Chicago’s notes–bibliography system you would instead drop a superscript footnote after the quotation and put the page number in the note. Pick one Chicago system and use it throughout.
Citing a block quote
Once a quotation crosses the threshold, set it off: start it on a new line, indent the whole block, drop the quotation marks, and place the citation after the closing punctuation. Because there are no quotation marks to close, the period moves before the parenthetical — the reverse of a run-in quote.
MLA block quote:
Working memory is a flexible mental workspace, not a fixed bin of slots. It holds the partial products of thought just long enough for the next operation to use them, and discards them the moment they stop being useful. (Chen 47)
APA and Chicago format the block identically; only the parenthetical changes — (Chen, 2021, p. 47) for APA, (Chen 2021, 47) for Chicago author–date. Note that there is no period after the closing parenthesis in any of the three.
Quoting a source with no page numbers
Websites, e-books, and videos often have no page numbers, but a direct quote still needs a locator. Substitute what the style allows: APA accepts a paragraph number (para. 4) or a section heading; MLA uses paragraph or section numbers when the source provides them; Chicago accepts a heading, a chapter, or a timestamp. The full substitute-locator rules — and the exact punctuation for each style — live in the in-text citations guide.
Build the reference entry too
An in-text citation is only half of a quote’s citation — it points to a full entry on your Works Cited, References, or bibliography page. Quoting from a book? Build that entry with how to cite a book. For the underlying mechanics across all seven styles, start with in-text citations, and let the citation generator assemble the reference entry so you only have to get the quotation and its locator right.