Paraphrasing vs. Quoting: When to Use Each
Quote when the exact words are the evidence; paraphrase when you need the idea in your own syntax. Both still need a citation. This page follows the APA Style quotations and paraphrases pages (Publication Manual, 7th ed., §§8.23–8.35), MLA Handbook 9th edition §§4.5–4.11, Chicago Manual of Style 18 §§12.9–12.10 and 13.1, the UW–Madison quoting and paraphrasing handbook, and the UNC quotations handout. It is the sentence-level choice. Ethics live in how to avoid plagiarism; block indent rules live in how to format a block quote; locators live in do you need a page number when paraphrasing.
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How to Choose Between Paraphrasing and Quoting: Quick Answer
APA Style tells student writers to paraphrase most of the time and to quote only when a definition, a memorable sentence, or the exact wording itself is what you need to discuss. MLA 9 §4.9 says the same in different words: quote only what is particularly apt, keep every quotation short, and explain why it is there. Chicago 18 §13.1 requires a citation for the quotation and for the paraphrase. If you can say the idea in your own syntax, paraphrase. If changing the words would change the claim, quote. If you only need the gist of a long passage, summarize.
Decision templates (cite the edition you actually read)
Quote when:
- The wording is the evidence (a statute, a definition, a coined term, a line of verse).
- You will analyze diction, tone, or rhetoric.
- A short, famous sentence would lose its force if rewritten.
Paraphrase when:
- You need the finding, method, or argument, not the writer's phrasing.
- You can rebuild the sentence so both the words and the syntax are yours.
- You can explain the point more clearly than the original sentence does.
Summarize when:
- You need the main idea of a long passage, not its supporting details.
- You are synthesizing several sources into one claim.
Always:
Cite both the paraphrase and the quotation. New words do not transfer ownership of the idea.
The American Psychological Association states the preference in two sentences this page follows. University reprints of the APA Style quotations page (Oral Roberts, University of Valley Forge, and the Education University of Hong Kong EGAP guide) carry the same wording:
APA Style, “Quotations”
It is best to paraphrase sources rather than directly quoting them because paraphrasing allows you to fit material to the context of your paper and writing style.
Use direct quotations rather than paraphrasing: when reproducing an exact definition (see Section 6.22 of the Publication Manual), when an author has said something memorably or succinctly, or when you want to respond to exact wording (e.g., something someone said).
What Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing Actually Are
A quotation copies words verbatim and marks them. APA Style: "A direct quotation reproduces words verbatim from another work or from your own previously published work." A paraphrase restates the idea in new words and a new sentence structure. APA Style: "A paraphrase restates another’s idea (or your own previously published idea) in your own words." MLA 9 §4.5 adds why that rewrite matters:
MLA Handbook 9 §4.5
Paraphrasing allows you to maintain your voice while demonstrating that you understand the source because you can restate its points in your own words and with your own sentence structure.
Swapping a few synonyms while keeping the original syntax is not a paraphrase. It is patchwriting, and writing centers treat it as plagiarism even when a citation is attached. A summary is shorter still: it keeps the claim and drops the supporting detail. The MLA Style Center lesson on integrating quotations (written for the 8th edition; the 9th edition keeps the same three jobs) splits the work this way: quote to emphasize distinctive opinion, tone, or style; paraphrase to emphasize facts rather than style; summarize to emphasize main ideas rather than supporting details. All three still need a citation.
| Test | Quotation | Paraphrase | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wording | Exact words from the source | Your words, not a thesaurus overlay | Your words, compressed |
| Sentence shape | Kept, except for marked cuts or [clarifications] | Rebuilt so the syntax is yours | Rebuilt and shortened |
| Marks | Quotation marks, or a block with no marks | No quotation marks | No quotation marks |
| Citation | Required, with a page, paragraph, line, or timestamp | Required; add a locator when you point to a passage | Required |
| Job in the paper | Evidence you will discuss | An idea absorbed into your argument | The gist of a longer passage |
When to Quote
MLA 9 §4.10: quote when the exact wording is important to your claim, the phrasing is particularly compelling, or you want to focus on the language in the source. Do not quote as a substitute for understanding. UW–Madison adds four research-paper reasons that match the handbooks: to show that an authority supports your point; to present a position you will critique; to include historically significant language; or to keep a passage whose meaning would change if rewritten.
The wording is the evidence
Legal text, official definitions, and coined terms have to be copied. Paraphrasing the First Amendment into "Congress should not pick a national church" drops the clauses a court actually reads. The National Archives transcription of Amendment I is the source to quote:
Exact wording that should stay quoted
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
APA in-text:
The First Amendment opens by stating that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" (U.S. Const. amend. I).
MLA 9 §4.11 uses Michael Agar's coined term the same way. If you borrow the word, the word goes in quotation marks and the page goes in the citation:
MLA Handbook 9 §4.11 (Agar)
Passage in source:
Everyone uses the word language and everybody these days talks about culture. . . . “Languaculture” is a reminder, I hope, of the necessary connection between its two parts. . . .
Incorrect (term stolen, no citation):
At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that has been called “languaculture.”
Correct:
At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that Michael Agar calls “languaculture” (60).
Work cited:
Agar, Michael. Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation. HarperCollins Publishers, 2016.
The sentence is memorable, and rewriting it would flatten it
A paraphrase of a famous line can be accurate and still be the wrong choice. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 16 April 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail, as transcribed by the University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center, is the sentence students actually need. Cite the edition you read — that Penn text, the Stanford King Institute summary, or the 1964 book Why We Can't Wait.
Quote when the phrasing is the claim
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
Weak paraphrase (accurate, toothless):
King argued that injustice in one city endangers justice in others because communities are connected.
Better use of the quote:
King refuses the "outside agitator" charge by collapsing the distance between cities: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
John F. Kennedy's 20 January 1961 inaugural address, as transcribed by the American Presidency Project, is the same kind of case. The chiasmus is the evidence:
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.
Paraphrase (loses the turn):
Kennedy asked Americans to think about national service instead of personal benefits (Kennedy, 1961).
You are analyzing language
In literary analysis the words on the page are the data. Quote the line, then spend at least as many of your own words on what it does. The Folger Shakespeare Library text of Romeo and Juliet 2.2 prints "word," not the proverbial "name":
MLA run-in verse (two lines, one slash)
Juliet tests the difference between a person and a label: "What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet" (2.2.46–47).
You need the speaker's exact claim
The UNC Writing Center quotations handout uses Harriet Jacobs this way: when a first-person witness states a distinction your argument depends on, quote the distinction. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), chapter XIV, after the birth of a daughter; UNC cites the 1987 Yellin edition:
UNC Writing Center (Jacobs)
Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own.
UNC’s integrated sentence:
Harriet Jacobs, a former slave from North Carolina, published an autobiographical slave narrative in 1861. She exposed the hardships of both male and female slaves but ultimately concluded that “slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.”
When to Paraphrase
APA Style's paraphrases page, as reprinted by Alamo Colleges and Oral Roberts, is blunt: published authors paraphrase most of the time. MLA 9 §4.6 lists the jobs a paraphrase is for: condense a long passage, stay in control of your argument, and show that you know the conversation. UW–Madison adds the science-and-social-science habit: summarize methods and findings; quote the rare sentence whose wording is the point.
APA Style, “Paraphrases”
Paraphrasing allows you to summarize and synthesize information from one or more sources, focus on significant information, and compare and contrast relevant details.
Published authors paraphrase their sources most of the time, rather than directly quoting the sources; student authors should emulate this practice by paraphrasing more than directly quoting.
Official APA worked paraphrase
The Style Center's own narrative paraphrase, reprinted on the Alamo Colleges APA guide, is the pattern to copy: name the source, restated idea, then a locator because the passage sits in a long book.
APA Style Center paraphrase (Webster-Stratton)
Webster-Stratton (2016) described a case example of a 4-year-old girl who showed an insecure attachment to her mother; in working with the family dyad, the therapist focused on increasing the mother’s empathy for her child (pp. 152–153).
Official worked example: MLA 9 §4.7
The handbook's own unacceptable/acceptable pair is the one to memorize. The source is Walter A. McDougall, Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World since 1776 (Houghton Mifflin, 1997), page 37. Synonym-swapping is not enough because it keeps McDougall's sentence:
MLA Handbook 9 §4.7 (McDougall)
Passage in source:
American Exceptionalism as our founders conceived it was defined by what America was, at home. Foreign policy existed to defend, not define, what America was.
Unacceptable (same skeleton):
American exceptionalism as the founding fathers envisioned the concept was given meaning by America as a homeland. Programs focused on other countries were there to protect America, not delineate it.
Acceptable:
As conceived, American exceptionalism was based on the country’s domestic identity, which foreign policy did not shape but merely guarded.
In your prose, with credit:
As Walter A. McDougall argues, for the founding fathers American exceptionalism was based on the country’s domestic identity, which foreign policy did not shape but merely guarded (37).
Work cited:
McDougall, Walter A. Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World since 1776. Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
MLA's next sentence is the exception students skip: some terms cannot be paraphrased. American exceptionalism, capitalism, and democracy stay. Quote a coined word; keep a field's ordinary vocabulary.
How to write the paraphrase: structure first
UW–Madison's method and the usual writing-center sequence are the same procedure. It also matches the note labels in how to take research notes: mark the line as a paraphrase before you walk away from the book. Change the structure first. Then change the words. UW's teaching passage is Ellen Ross, Love and Toil: Motherhood in Outcast London, 1870–1918 (Oxford University Press, 1993), page 9:
- Read the passage until you can explain it without looking.
- Close the source. Write the idea as if you were telling it to a classmate.
- Change the structure first (start in a different place, split or combine sentences), then the words.
- Open the source again. If more than a distinctive term still matches, rewrite.
- Cite. If you kept a striking phrase, put that phrase in quotation marks inside the paraphrase.
UW–Madison: Ross, Love and Toil, p. 9
Passage in source:
Love and Toil maintains that family survival was the mother’s main charge among the large majority of London’s population who were poor or working class; the emotional and intellectual nurture of her child or children and even their actual comfort were forced into the background. To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence. (p. 9)
UW’s finished paraphrase:
According to Ross (1993), poor children at the turn of the century received little mothering in our sense of the term. Mothering was defined by economic status, and among the poor, a mother’s foremost responsibility was not to stimulate her children’s minds or foster their emotional growth but to provide food and shelter to meet the basic requirements for physical survival. Given the magnitude of this task, children were deprived of even the “actual comfort” (p. 9) we expect mothers to provide today.
Patchwriting: The Failure That Looks Like a Paraphrase
MLA 9 §4.7 already showed the McDougall skeleton. UW–Madison gives the longer diagnostic students actually fail: a real nursing study, three student rewrites, and a shared-language exception. The source is Susan K. Chase, "The social context of critical care clinical judgment," Heart and Lung 24 (1995): 154–162, page 156. The student's assignment was a paper on experts versus nonexperts.
UW–Madison: Chase 1995 source sentence
Critical care nurses function in a hierarchy of roles. In this open heart surgery unit, the nurse manager hires and fires the nursing personnel. The nurse manager does not directly care for patients but follows the progress of unusual or long-term patients. On each shift a nurse assumes the role of resource nurse.
The nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist are the designated experts. They do not take patient assignments. The resource nurse is seen as both a caregiver and a resource to other caregivers. . . . Staff nurses have a hierarchy of seniority. . . . Staff nurses are assigned to patients to provide all their nursing care. (Chase, 1995, p. 156)
Word-for-word plagiarism
UW's first rewrite keeps Chase's order and most of Chase's phrases, and it names no source. Even if a citation were added, the unmarked sentences would still be plagiarism:
UW–Madison: word-for-word plagiarism
Critical care nurses have a hierarchy of roles. The nurse manager hires and fires nurses. S/he does not directly care for patients but does follow unusual or long-term cases. On each shift a resource nurse attends to the functioning of the unit as a whole, such as making sure beds are available in the operating room, and also has a patient assignment.
A cited patchwork is still plagiarism
The second rewrite does name Chase. That is not enough. UW's verdict: the underlined phrases are still Chase's language, rearranged, without quotation marks.
UW–Madison: patchwork paraphrase
Chase (1995) describes how nurses in a critical care unit function in a hierarchy that places designated experts at the top and the least senior staff nurses at the bottom. The experts — the nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist — are not involved directly in patient care. The staff nurses, in contrast, are assigned to patients and provide all their nursing care. Within the staff nurses is a hierarchy of seniority in which the most senior can become resource nurses: they are assigned a patient but also serve as a resource to other caregivers. The experts have administrative and teaching tasks such as selecting and orienting new staff, developing unit policies, and giving hands-on support where needed.
A legitimate paraphrase
The successful rewrite changes the job of the paragraph (experts versus nonexperts across professions), rebuilds the sentences, cites Chase, and puts the one borrowed phrase in quotation marks:
UW–Madison: legitimate paraphrase
In her study of the roles of nurses in a critical care unit, Chase (1995) also found a hierarchy that distinguished the roles of experts and others. Just as the educational experts described above do not directly teach students, the experts in this unit do not directly attend to patients. That is the role of the staff nurses, who, like teachers, have their own “hierarchy of seniority” (p. 156). The roles of the experts include employing unit nurses and overseeing the care of special patients (nurse manager), teaching and otherwise integrating new personnel into the unit (clinical nurse specialist and nurse clinician), and policy-making (nurse clinician). In an intermediate position in the hierarchy is the resource nurse, a staff nurse with more experience than the others, who assumes direct care of patients as the other staff nurses do, but also takes on tasks to ensure the smooth operation of the entire facility.
Shared language you do not quote
UW's last move is the one students overcorrect. Nurse manager, clinical nurse specialist, resource nurse, and staff nurses appear in the legitimate paraphrase without quotation marks. Those are conventional designations in the field, not Chase's unique phrasing. Quote a coined word such as Agar's "languaculture." Do not quote the ordinary vocabulary of the discipline.
UW–Madison: shared language you need not mark
Conventional designations: e.g., physician’s assistant, chronic low-back pain
Preferred bias-free language: e.g., persons with disabilities
Technical terms and phrases of a discipline or genre: e.g., reduplication, cognitive domain, material culture, sexual harassment
How Each Style Formats a Quotation
The decision to quote is shared. The length test is not. APA counts words. MLA counts lines on the page. Chicago counts words and paragraphs. Do not apply the APA 40-word block rule to an MLA paper. The indent, spacing, and citation-after-the-period rules live on how to format a block quote.
| Style | Keep the quote in the sentence | Set it as a block | Locator |
|---|---|---|---|
| APA 7 §§8.25–8.27 | Fewer than 40 words, in quotation marks | 40 words or more: indent 0.5 in, no quotation marks, double-space | Page, paragraph, or other location in the same sentence |
| MLA 9 (Style Center / ch. 6) | Prose that stays under four lines; verse of one to three lines with slashes | More than four lines of prose, or verse you need to show as lines: indent 0.5 in, no quotation marks | Page, line, act.scene.line, or timestamp after the sentence |
| CMOS 18 §§12.9–12.10 | Short run-in quotations in quotation marks | About 100 words or more (roughly 6–8 lines), two or more paragraphs, or specially formatted text (lists, letters, two-plus lines of verse) | Note or author-date citation with the page or other locator |
Short quotations
APA Style, as reprinted by the Education University of Hong Kong EGAP guide: "For quotations of fewer than 40 words, add quotation marks around the words and incorporate the quote into your own text—there is no additional formatting needed." Do not add an ellipsis at the start or end unless the source itself has one. "For a direct quotation, always include a full citation (parenthetical or narrative) in the same sentence as the quotation, including the page number (or other location information, e.g., paragraph number)."
APA 7 short quotation (official Ervin sample)
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).
Narrative template:
Name (2020) argues that "quoted words" (p. 12).
Parenthetical template:
The study reports that "quoted words" (Name, 2020, p. 12).
Block quotations
A block is a formatting consequence, not a virtue. APA drops the quotation marks and puts the parenthetical citation after the final punctuation. MLA and Chicago do the same. Red Deer Polytechnic's CMOS 18 teaching page restates §12.10: a quotation of about a hundred words (at least 6–8 lines) can generally be set off as a block, and a quotation of two or more paragraphs should be. Introduce the block with a complete sentence and a colon, then spend the next sentence on why those lines matter. If you only need two clauses, cut the block and quote those clauses.
APA 7 official block (Alderson-Day and Fernyhough)
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)
Page numbers, notes, and long paraphrases
APA requires a locator on every quotation and recommends one on a paraphrase of a specific passage. MLA 9 §4.8 wants an in-text citation that points to the works-cited entry and, for a paginated book, to the page. Chicago 18 §13.1 treats the citation as an ethical requirement for quotations and paraphrases; §13.20 then asks the note for a particular passage to carry only the pages of that passage. The old classroom shortcut "quotes need pages, paraphrases do not" is false in Chicago and incomplete in APA and MLA. The locator table lives on do you need a page number when paraphrasing.
APA Style, long paraphrases (§8.24)
A paraphrase may continue for several sentences. In such cases, cite the work being paraphrased on first mention. Once the work has been cited, it is not necessary to repeat the citation as long as the context of the writing makes it clear that the same work continues to be paraphrased.
If the paraphrase continues into a new paragraph, reintroduce the citation. If the paraphrase incorporates multiple sources or switches among sources, repeat the citation so the source is clear.
The Style Center's own multi-sentence paraphrase, reprinted by Alamo, is Velez and colleagues on workplace discrimination. One citation at the first mention covers the rest of the paragraph:
APA Style Center long paraphrase (Velez et al.)
Velez et al. (2018) found that for women of color, sexism and racism in the workplace were associated with poor work and mental health outcomes, including job-related burnout, turnover intentions, and psychological distress. However, self-esteem, person–organization fit, and perceived organizational support mediated these effects. Additionally, stronger womanist attitudes—which acknowledge the unique challenges faced by women of color in a sexist and racist society—weakened the association of workplace discrimination with psychological distress. These findings underscore the importance of considering multiple forms of workplace discrimination in clinical practice and research with women of color, along with efforts to challenge and reduce such discrimination.
Brackets, ellipses, and [sic]
Quotes must be exact. The allowed edits are marked. APA 7 §§8.30–8.31: change capitalization or the end punctuation to fit your sentence without a note; use square brackets for words you add or alter; use an ellipsis for words you drop from the middle. MLA and Chicago use the same marks. CMOS 18 §12.7, as restated by Red Deer Polytechnic, allows a silent fix of an obvious typographic error in a modern source; keep older spelling and mark a real error with [sic].
Marked changes (templates and a verified cut)
Brackets add or change a word: "The[se] findings apply only to the second cohort."
Ellipsis drops material from the middle: "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality . . . Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
[sic] flags an error you are not correcting: keep the original spelling, then [sic].
The Quote Sandwich — and the Misquote Trap
UNC's handout is the clearest classroom version of a rule every handbook assumes: a quotation cannot sit alone. Give context, name the speaker, quote, then say what the line does in your argument. The Style Center's four moves are the same sequence: introduce, quote or paraphrase, cite, connect. Franklin Roosevelt's first inaugural (4 March 1933) is UNC's worked line:
UNC Writing Center sandwich (Roosevelt)
Context:
When Franklin Roosevelt gave his inaugural speech on March 4, 1933, he addressed a nation weakened and demoralized by economic depression.
Quote + citation:
Roosevelt declared, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (Roosevelt, Public Papers, 11).
Analysis:
With that message of hope and confidence, the new president set the stage for his next one-hundred days in office and helped restore the faith of the American people in their government.
Dropped quotes fail that test. UNC's Hamlet pair is the diagnostic: a quoted sentence standing by itself does not tell the reader why it is there. Lead with a colon, attach a speaking verb, or fold the words into your grammar — then comment.
UNC: do not leave the quote as its own sentence
Awkward:
Hamlet denies Rosencrantz’s claim that thwarted ambition caused his depression. “I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space” (Hamlet 2.2).
Integrated:
Hamlet denies Rosencrantz’s claim that thwarted ambition caused his depression: “I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space” (Hamlet 2.2).
The other failure is quoting accurately and still lying. UNC's John Adams example, from Paul F. Boller, Jr. and John George, They Never Said It (Oxford University Press, 1989), is the one to keep next to every famous line. Adams did write the short sentence. The next sentence reverses it:
UNC: a true sentence can still be a misquote
The line people repeat:
This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it.
The sentence after it:
Twenty times, in the course of my late reading, have I been on the point of breaking out, ‘this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!!!!’ But in this exclamation, I should have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in public company—I mean hell.
Secondary Sources and Your Own Translation
APA Style: if you read a paraphrase of a primary source in someone else's paper, "it is best to read and cite the primary source directly if possible; if not, use a secondary source citation." Name the original in the sentence and put the source you actually opened in the citation ("as cited in"). Put only that second source in the reference list. MLA uses "qtd. in" and Chicago uses "quoted in" for the same situation. Do not pretend you held the 1861 Jacobs if you only read UNC's excerpt.
Secondary-source templates
APA 7 official pattern (Rabbitt via Lyon):
(Rabbitt, 1982, as cited in Lyon et al., 2014)
APA 7, year of the original unknown:
Allport’s diary (as cited in Nicholson, 2003)
MLA 9:
Agar calls the link "languaculture" (qtd. in Later Writer 10).
APA's translation rule surprises multilingual writers: "If you translate a passage from one language into another on your own in your paper, your translation is considered a paraphrase, not a direct quotation." You still cite the original. If you need the original words as well, quote them and then give your translation.
APA Style, translations
If you translate a passage from one language into another on your own in your paper, your translation is considered a paraphrase, not a direct quotation.
Discipline Habits, Not Hard Caps
There is no handbook rule that "quotes must stay under 10 percent of the paper." APA Style says instructors, programs, editors, and publishers may set their own limits — ask the person who will grade the paper. What is consistent is the habit of the field:
| Field | Default | Quote anyway when |
|---|---|---|
| Sciences and engineering | Paraphrase methods, results, and prior findings | A definition is being fixed, or a result is being disputed in the writer's words |
| Social sciences (APA, ASA) | Paraphrase findings; quote a key theoretical sentence | You are answering a specific claim or reproducing an instrument item |
| History and law (Chicago, Bluebook) | Quote primary documents; paraphrase secondary analysis | The statute, opinion, or letter is the exhibit |
| Literature and languages (MLA) | Quote the primary text; paraphrase criticism | Every close-reading claim needs the line |
Common Failures
- Patchwriting. You changed "founders conceived" to "founding fathers envisioned" and kept the rest of McDougall's shape, or you rearranged Chase's phrases and added a citation. MLA 9 and UW–Madison both call that unacceptable. Rewrite the sentence or quote it.
- Uncited paraphrase. New words do not transfer ownership. Chicago 18 §13.1 and APA §8.1 both require credit.
- Quote dump. A paragraph that is mostly other people's sentences has no argument. Cut to the clause you will discuss.
- Missing locator. "(King, 1963)" after a quotation is incomplete in APA if a page or paragraph exists.
- Invented smoothness. Do not fix grammar inside the quotes without brackets. Do not silently drop a hedge ("suggests" → "proves").
- Wrong block rule. Forty APA words is not four MLA lines and is not Chicago's hundred-word guideline.
- Secondary source dressed up as primary. If you have not opened Agar, do not cite Agar alone.
- True sentence, false context. Adams's short line is real and still a misquote once the next sentence is cut. Read past the clause you like.
- Over-quoting shared language. Do not put quotation marks around nurse manager or democracy.
Chicago's Reason to Cite Either Form
Widener University's CMOS 18 introduction quotes the manual's purpose statement as the reason this page treats paraphrase and quotation as one documentation problem:
Chicago Manual of Style 18 §13.1 (Widener reprint)
Ethics, copyright laws, and courtesy to readers require authors to identify the sources of direct quotations or paraphrases and of any facts or opinions not generally known or easily checked.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Do I have to cite a paraphrase?
- Yes. APA 7 §§8.23–8.24, MLA 9 §4.8, and Chicago 18 §13.1 all require a citation for a restated idea. Quotation marks are what you drop, not the credit.
- Is paraphrasing better than quoting?
- As a default, yes. APA Style says published authors paraphrase most of the time, and MLA 9 §4.9 says quotations work only when used selectively. Quote the definition, the coined term, the line of verse, or the sentence you are about to argue with.
- What is the difference between a paraphrase and a summary?
- A paraphrase restates a specific passage at roughly the same level of detail, in new words and a new sentence shape. A summary compresses a longer passage to its main claim. The MLA Style Center uses paraphrase for facts and summary for main ideas. Both still need a citation.
- How do I know my paraphrase is too close?
- Compare it to MLA's McDougall pair and UW–Madison's Chase trio. If a reader could overlay your sentence on the original and see the same clauses in the same order, you are still quoting without marks. Close the book and rewrite from memory, then check.
- Do I have to quote every technical term I reuse?
- No. UW–Madison's shared-language list is the rule: conventional designations (nurse manager, chronic low-back pain), preferred bias-free language, and a field's ordinary technical vocabulary stay unmarked. Quote a coined word such as Agar's "languaculture."
- When does APA require a page number?
- On every direct quotation (a page, paragraph number, heading, or timestamp). On a paraphrase, a locator is optional but recommended when you are pointing at one passage in a long work — the Webster-Stratton sample includes "pp. 152–153" for that reason. Chicago notes for a particular passage should carry that passage's pages.
- What is the difference between APA, MLA, and Chicago block quotes?
- APA blocks 40 words or more. MLA blocks prose longer than four lines (and verse you need to show as lines). Chicago generally blocks about 100 words, two or more paragraphs, or specially formatted text. All three indent and drop the quotation marks. See the block-quote guide for indents and citation placement.
- Can I quote a source I only saw quoted in another book?
- Prefer the original. If you cannot get it, APA uses "as cited in" (the official Rabbitt / Lyon pair), MLA uses "qtd. in," and Chicago uses "quoted in." The reference list or bibliography entry is for the source in your hand.
- Does my own translation count as a quotation in APA?
- No. APA Style treats your translation as a paraphrase. Cite the original work. If the original wording matters, quote that wording and then give the translation.
- How much of a paper may be quotations?
- No major manual sets a percentage. APA Style leaves limits to instructors and editors. UNC's rule of thumb is safer: quote as few words as possible, and let your own sentences carry the paper. Literature papers will quote more than lab reports; that is a field habit, not a loophole.
Cite the source you quoted or paraphrased
The choice on this page is the sentence. The bibliography still has to match the style your instructor named. Generate the reference, then go back and add the page or paragraph you actually used.