How to use quotes in an essay?

It is essential to quote correctly—quotes in an essay help to develop ideas and support these with proof. Mistakes in the type and placement of quotation marks can result in plagiarism accusations. Citations can make or break a kickass essay. If they are used correctly, it shows that the author knows his topic very well. If quotations are misused, the readers will assume that the author doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Rules for using quotes in an essay

The author needs to be adding quotes in an essay to:
  • Support his arguments with credible facts;
  • Strengthen his arguments by using examples from sources;
  • Demonstrate a deep analysis of the topic.
Citations are experts from the text of another author with a reference. When you use citations, it is essential to:
  • Use them without changes and in context;
  • Correctly using quotes, depending on the requirements of the institution, for example, "...", «...», '...';
  • the author is stated correctly.
The main principles of using citations are as follows:
  • There must be a purpose for using the citation. For example, to support thought with an opinion or conclusion of a credible scientist or to support your argument.
  • It is not recommended to cite for the sake of quoting so that the text seems longer. The citation must be taken from the source or context or inserted with an interlude or introductory thesis.
  • The citation must adhere to a specific format.
After writing any paper, especially one where you sussed citations, you are advised to use a plagiarism checker.

Types of quotes

There are several types of citations, for example, citations in brackets, citations in numbers, and citations in the footnotes. It is essential to know what styles are permitted in your educational facility.
Every university, college, or school has its rules, which the academic community adheres to. Two types are popular in colleges: The modern language association – MLA, and the American psychological association – APA.

MLA

This type of citation is used in papers on humanities and art.
In the text, you need to specify the author's surname and the page number from the citation taken. For example: (Surname 137) or (Surname et al. 137). Then at the end of the essay, you must indicate the author's name and surname, the title of his paper, the edition, and the year of publication in the following format:
Surname and name. Title. Edition, year.

APA

This citation type is used in papers dedicated to psychology, politology, anthropology, business, education, and communications. This style is similar to MLA: you need to include the citation in the text and provide a reference at the end of the paper.
The difference is that when using APA, you must write the year of publication instead of the page next to the author's name in the text. That said, if you're using a direct citation and not paraphrasing, you need to specify the page after the year of publication.
Three types of writing citations:
  • Reference to the author and the year right after the quotation. Example: "quote" (Surname, 2010, 137).
  • Reference to the author and the year with quotes in a paragraph. Example: "Surname (2010) conducted a study on…".
  • Reference to the author and the year in paraphrase form. Model: "In his paper written in 2010, Surname described…".
The references at the end of the essay are written in the following format:
Surname, initials. (Year of publication). Paper title. Edition.

Other types of citations

Other types of citations include:
  • When you need to indicate a number next to the citation, which correlates to the number in the list of references. Example: “quote” (1).
  • When you need to be typing quote in the footnote, which is marked with a superscript number or character in the text. Example: “quote1“ or “quote*.”
Styles of citation differ depending on the formatting of the references and bibliography. Most style guides of specific educational institutions have recommendations on general issues like text formatting, punctuation, and dates.

Why is it important to check for plagiarism when quoting

Even if the student or author is specific that he used quoting correctly, checking for plagiarism is still necessary. For example, he may have stated his idea using words he had read in another book. The plagiarism check can find non-unique text fragments, which the student may have yet to notice.
If you ignore a plagiarism check, you end up in trouble. The educational institution can decide that the plagiarism was intentional or that the student wasn’t attentive and responsible enough when writing the paper since he didn’t check it before handing it in.
A reliable plagiarism-checking tool will advise you on what you need to change and where precisely the mistakes are. Skandy is a checker that operates based on artificial intelligence. It can show you whether you are acceptable in terms of plagiarism in no time.

Why is Skandy useful:
  • Skandy supports various formats and is a verified plagiarism checker for Word documents. It can successfully check text via URL, PDF, a photographed text on a jpeg image.
  • Multiple languages. Our service operates in 27 languages.
  • Speed. Skandy saves time and allows you to check your paper in a few minutes.
  • Maximum accuracy. Skandy provides a comprehensive report with non-unique phrases with a complete list of sources.
  • Deep analysis. The checker can detect even well-paraphrased texts and phrases.
  • Convenience. The service is available both on desktop devices and on a fully-functional mobile app on Android and iOS.
  • Universality. The service checks papers of different sizes: small one-page essays and significant theses and dissertations.
Skandy is a reliable helper for students, professors, authors, and novelists. It is trusted by more than 500 000 leading universities, colleges, and companies across the globe. Use Skandy today to improve your paper and get an excellent grade and a formidable professional reputation!

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Text author: Columbia Proof

February 6th 2023


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