In MLA Style, the format of quotations depends on the length of the text that you directly quote from the original source in your writing.
Short quotations
Short quotations are when you copy the exact wording from the work of others that has the length of four typed lines or fewer of prose or three lines of verse. Short quotations in your text should be enclosed with double quotation marks. You should indicate the author and specific page number in the parentheses at the end of the sentence before the punctuation marks, such as full stops, commas, or question marks. If you are directly quoting verse, you should provide line numbers. Complete references should be included on the Works Cited page.
Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage, but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.
For example, when quoting short passages of prose, use the following examples (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-b):
According to some, dreams express “profound aspects of personality” (Foulkes 184), though others disagree.
According to Foulkes’s study, dreams may express “profound aspects of personality” (184).
Is it possible that dreams may express “profound aspects of personality” (Foulkes 184)?
When using short (fewer than three lines of verse) quotations from poetry, mark breaks in verse with a slash, ( / ), at the end of each line of verse (a space should precede and follow the slash). If a stanza break occurs during the quotation, use a double slash ( // ).
Cullen concludes, “Of all the things that happened there / That’s all I remember” (11-12).
Long quotations
For quotations that are more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse, place quotations in a free-standing block of text and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented 1/2 inch from the left margin while maintaining double-spacing. Your parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark. When quoting verse, maintain original line breaks. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your essay.)
For example, when citing more than four lines of prose, use the following examples (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-b):
Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her narration: They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw’s door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)
When citing long sections of poetry (four lines of verse or more), keep formatting as close to the original as possible (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-b).
In his poem “My Papa’s Waltz,” Theodore Roethke explores his childhood with his father:
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We Romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself. (qtd. in Shrodes, Finestone, Shugrue 202)
When citing two or more paragraphs, use block quotation format, even if the passage from the paragraphs is less than four lines. If you cite more than one paragraph, the first line of the second paragraph should be indented an extra 1/4 inch to denote a new paragraph (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-b):
In “American Origins of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Movement,” David Russell argues,
Writing has been an issue in American secondary and higher education since papers and examinations came into wide use in the 1870s, eventually driving out formal recitation and oral examination. . . .
From its birth in the late nineteenth century, progressive education has wrestled with the conflict within industrial society between pressure to increase specialization of knowledge and of professional work (upholding disciplinary standards) and pressure to integrate more fully an ever-widening number of citizens into intellectually meaningful activity within mass society (promoting social equity). . . . (3)
Adding or Omitting Words in Quotations
When adding a word or words in a quotation, you should put brackets around the words to indicate that they are not part of the original text (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-b):
Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states, “some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning every rumor or tale” (78).
When omitting a word or words from a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word or words by using ellipses, which are three periods ( . . . ) preceded and followed by a space. For example (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-b):
In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that “some individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale . . . and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs” (78).
Remember that to indicate ellipses, you do not need to use brackets unless they would add clarity. When omitting words from poetry quotations, use a standard three-period ellipses; however, when omitting one or more full lines of poetry, space several periods to about the length of a complete line in the poem (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.-b):
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man’s eye:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration . . . (22-24, 28-30)