Direct quotation
Also called: quotation, quote
Reproducing a source's exact words inside quotation marks or as a block, with a citation that includes a locator.
A quotation must be exact. Any change is marked: square brackets for insertions and alterations, an ellipsis for omissions, [sic] for an error you are preserving. Every style requires a page number or equivalent locator, because you are pointing at a specific place.
Quote when the wording is the evidence. New writers over-quote, usually because quoting feels safer than restating — but a paragraph of stitched-together quotations shows you collected sources, not that you understood them.
Do it on CitationEasy
See also
Block quotationA long quotation set off from the body text as its own indented paragraph, without quotation marks.ParaphraseRestating a specific passage from a source in your own words and structure, at roughly the same length, with a citation.sicLatin for “thus” — inserted in brackets inside a quotation to show that an error or oddity is the original author's, not yours.Ellipsis in quotationsThree spaced or unspaced dots showing that you have cut words out of the middle of a quotation.LocatorThe part of a citation that points to the exact spot inside a source: a page, paragraph, timestamp, section, or line.