What should I do with a quote found by the check?

Sometimes a quote is marked as a similarity by the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker. A quote is not a form of plagiarism, but you do have to ensure you have properly cited the original source.

If you’re certain that you have correctly quoted and cited, you can exclude the similarity from your plagiarism score.

Below we briefly explain the rules for quoting in APA Style.

Quotes under 40 words

When quoting fewer than 40 words, use double quotation marks around the quote, and provide an APA in-text citation that includes the author, the year, and a page number or range.

Horváth and Kovács (2020) argue that plagiarism is often a matter of confusion rather than deception” (p. 4).
A recent study of student plagiarism found that plagiarism is often a matter of confusion rather than deception (Horváth & Kovács, 2020, p. 4).

Quotes over 40 words

If the quote contains 40 words or more, format it as a block quote, which begins on a new line and is indented in its entirety. Include an in-text citation after the period.

Sometimes it is necessary to quote a source at length:

Block quoting is particularly useful when you want to comment on an author’s language or present an argument that you will then critique. By setting the quote on a new line and indenting it, the passage is clearly marked apart from your own words. Therefore, no quotation marks are necessary. (O’Connor, 2019, p. 38)