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MLA: Intermediate Quoting and Citing

When introducing your quotation:

According to one noted scholar, “Acupuncture, studies have shown, helps treat this illness”
(Martinez 37).

Ramon Martinez, a biology professor at UCLA, says, “Acupuncture, studies have shown, helps
treat this illness” (37).

When there is no page number:

According to one scholar, “Acupuncture, studies have shown, helps treat this illness” (Martinez).

Ramon Martinez, a biology professor at UCLA, says, “Acupuncture, studies have shown, helps
treat this illness.”

Use a colon when you introduce a quotation with a complete thought:

One American doctor admits that alternative medicine has its benefits when it comes to treating
patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: “Acupuncture, studies have shown, helps treat this
illness” (Martinez 37).

When you use the word that to set up a quotation, do not use any punctuation:

Martinez points out that “Acupuncture, studies have shown, helps treat this illness” (37).

Use ellipses to show that words are omitted:

As some studies show, “Acupuncture […] helps treat this illness” (Martinez 37).

Use brackets to add words that clarify meaning:

Martinez points out that “Acupuncture […] helps treat [chronic fatigue syndrome]” (37).

If you are quoting someone being quoted by your source, use “qtd. in”:

Catherine Wesley, head of the CFS Institute, concludes from these studies that “There is hope for
CFS patients” (qtd. in Martinez and Smith 37).
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A quote within your larger quote: use single quotation marks:

According to Martinez, “Acupuncture […] helps treat this illness” (37), but another noted
medical scholar reminds us that we still should not make “so-called ‘alternative’ medicine our
first option” in treating the illness (Hamilton 127).

If a source has two authors, and if a source has three or more authors:

Besides acupuncture, “ayurvedic medicine and yoga have also been shown to work” (Martinez
and Smith 37), but other scientists have disputed such claims, citing “flaws in the studies”
(Wilson et al 24).

If there is no author, cite the first main word of the title:

It would seem the case, then, that “modern medicine is still a work in progress” (“Medical”) and
that science “cannot always provide the factual determinations that we crave” (Embracing).

 The above sources are a web article entitled “A Medical Marvel” and a book entitled
Embracing Uncertainty; no author information is available for either source, so, in each case,
we cite the first main word in the title. The first main word is the one we use to alphabetize
the source: thus, “Medical” and Embracing.

Integrating a quotation:

 Rule #1: No floating quotations. Introduce, tag, split, or embed each quote.

 Rule #2: Each quotation must fit the overall sentence structure of your sentence. If you
remove the quotation marks, the sentence should still sounds like a normal, well-written
sentence. That’s the test you should give each sentence that contains a quote. If it doesn’t
sound right to you, you should try a different way of integrating the quote or you can try
using brackets and ellipses to make the quote fit inside of your sentence properly.

 Rule #3: Provide sufficient context for all quotations. Don’t make your readers wait for this.

 Rule #4: Most quotes need to be discussed. Do this leading up to or following your quotes.

Citing non-quoted material—i.e. an indirect quotation:

According to one sociologist, teenage pregnancy declined fifty percent last year (Smith 72).

According to sociologist Susan Smith, teenage pregnancy declined fifty percent last year (72).