A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is a unique and never-changing string assigned to online (journal) articles, books, and other works. DOIs make it easier to retrieve works, which is why citation styles, like APA and MLA Style, recommend including them in citations.
Published on
May 23, 2018
by
Courtney Gahan.
Revised on
March 5, 2024.
When you include a long quote in an MLA paper, you have to format it as a block quote. MLA style (8th edition) requires block quote formatting for:
Quotes of poetry longer than three lines
Quotes of prose longer than four lines
An MLA block quote is set on a new line, indented 0.5 inches, with no quotation marks. The MLA in-text citation goes after the period at the end of the block quote.
TipEvery source you cite should also appear in your Works Cited page. You can try our free MLA Citation Generator to easily create MLA citations.
Published on
April 25, 2018
by
Courtney Gahan.
Revised on
May 31, 2023.
A block quote is a long quotation, set on a new line and indented to create a separate block of text. No quotation marks are used. You have to use a block quote when quoting more than around 40 words from a source.
In APA and MLA styles, you indent block quotes 0.5 inches from the left, and add an in-text citation after the period. Some other citation styles have additional rules.
Block quote exampleAlthough Brontë lived an isolated life, she writes about human emotion with remarkable insight, as exemplified by Heathcliff’s impassioned speech:
Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you – haunt me, then! The murdered DO haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts HAVE wandered on earth. Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad! only DO not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I CANNOT live without my life! I CANNOT live without my soul! (Brontë, 1847, 268)
