- 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, 2022):
- 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).
Reference
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (2022). MLA Formatting Quotations: Short Quotations. Purdue University. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_quotations.html
