How to Cite a Short Passage
Citing short passages allows readers of your work to know that you're attributing a portion of the text in your paper to other authors. Citing passages is required whenever you are using someone's written or spoken word. Not only does it remove the liability of being accused of plagiarism, but it is also used to support facts which you present within the context of your paper. Many schools and institutions of higher learning accept the Modern Language Association or MLA guidelines in terms of citing passages.
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Instructions
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Place quotes around the entire quotation. The open quote should appear before the first letter of the first word. The close quote should appear after the last letter of the last word. If question marks or exclamation points are part of the passage, then the close quote should be placed after that piece of punctuation. For example if citing a passage by a fictitious author John Smith that read "By the 22nd century, the average United States income will be $100.000 per year" the quotes are placed around first and last word attributed to his words or work.
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Place the last name of the author and corresponding page number where the passage appears in parenthesis directly after the close quote. The actual work, inclusive of the title, author, publisher and year of publication will be given in greater detail in your "Works Cited" section at the very end of your paper. You are using the page number which the reader can refer to later in conjunction with that "Works Cited" page. Using the passage example from above, pretend it occurred on page 38 of a book listed on your "Works Cited" page. The citation now reads: "By the 22nd century, the average United States income will be $100.000 per year" (Smith 38).
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Place punctuation such as periods, commas and semicolons after the parenthesis. Using the same example as above, the citation reads: "By the 22nd century the average United States income will be $100.000 per year" (Smith 38).
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Make final adjustments to the short passage. Sometimes you want to cite part of a passage and omit some words. Place an ellipsis in place of the omitted words. For example, if citing the Gettysburg Address you might alter "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war" to "Now we are engaged in a great civil war...We are met on a great battle-field of that war."
If you are adding words to the passage, they should be placed in brackets. Using the same Gettysburg Address example, the passage might change from: "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure" to "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, [the United States of America] or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."
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