What are they?
Block quotes, also known as long quotes, are direct quotations from an outside source that must be formatted differently because of their length. Each citation style has its own rules for when to use them and how to format them (see the table below), but there are a lot of similarities.
Why do we use them?
This isn’t an easy question to answer because there’s not just one answer. According to Robert Bringhurst, author of The Elements of Typographic Style:
In books from the Baroque and Romantic periods, quotation marks are sometimes repeated at the beginning of every line of a long quotation. When these distractions were finally omitted, the space they had occupied was frequently retained. This is the origin of the indented block quotation. Renaissance block quotations were set in a contrasting face at full size and full measure. (86)
Basically, the block quote is just a remnant of the past that hasn’t gone out of style.
That’s nice and all, but what about the world outside of academia?
Block quotes aren’t limited just to academic writing. You can find them in magazine and newspaper articles as well as on websites and blogs. Even WordPress, which hosts this very website, has a button on the toolbar specifically for formatting block quotes.
It looks like this. Note that this block quote is italicized. None of the citation styles shown below tell you to italicize your block quotes, but outside of academic writing, there aren’t really that many hard and fast rules about formatting.
So why does it matter how I format my block quotes, then?
Academic writing has a lot of rules. Some of them may seem silly or arbitrary, but they generally do serve a purpose. Keeping formatting consistent helps readers to quickly digest what they’re reading and keeps them from having to adapt to each writer’s individual style. Having a uniform look for certain elements like block quotes allows the reader to immediately know what they’re looking at, rather than struggling to understand using context clues that may or may not be clear. Think of formatting rules as a method for reigning in chaos. Some professors might not care if you use a specific style, but if you decide to submit your work to a professional or scholarly journal, they will expect you to follow certain style conventions which let them keep their publications streamlined and looking coherent.
Now that I know the whats and whys, when do I use them and how do I format them?
Three of the most common citation styles are APA, Chicago, and MLA. Here’s a table showing the ins and outs of block quotes and their formatting for each of these three styles:
| APA | Chicago | MLA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| When to Use | Quote is 40 words or longer | Quote is at least 5 lines or 2 paragraphs long | Quote is at least 4 lines of prose or 3 lines of verse or if your quote is 2 or more paragraphs long, even if it is less than 4 lines in length |
| Introductory Sentence | End introductory sentence with a colon (:) or a period (.), whichever is most appropriate OR End introductory sentence with a comma if the sentence continues on into the quote If the introductory sentence is also the first sentence of a paragraph, it still must be indented and will be in line with the first line of your block quote |
||
| Quotation marks | Do not use quotation marks | Do not use quotation marks | Do not use quotation marks |
| Indentation | Indent entire paragraph 1/2 inch from the left margin; the first line should not be indented further than the subsequent lines in the quote | ||
| Line Spacing | Double Space | Single Space | Double Space |
| Parenthetical Citation | Parenthetical citation should come after the quote’s final punctuation mark and does not need to be followed by its own punctuation | Parenthetical citation should come after the quote’s final punctuation mark and does not need to be followed by its own punctuation Parenthetical citation does not require the publication year Alternatively, a footnote or endnote can be used in place of parenthetical citation and can be formatted as a superscript number at the end of the quote If citing more than one paragraph, indent the first line of each subsequent paragraph an extra 1/4 inch OR Maintain the 1/2 inch indenting and add a line space between each subsequent paragraph | Parenthetical citation should come after the quote’s final punctuation mark and does not need to be followed by its own punctuation |
| Quoting More than One Paragraph | If citing more than one paragraph, indent the first line of each subsequent paragraph an extra 1/4 inch | If citing more than one paragraph, indent the first line of each subsequent paragraph an extra 1/4 inch OR Maintain the 1/2 inch indenting and add a line space between each subsequent paragraph | If citing more than one paragraph, indent the first line of each subsequent paragraph an extra 1/4 inch |
| Continuing Paragraph After Quote | The rest of the paragraph following the quote should not be indented and should be aligned with the left margin of the page | Add a blank line before and after the quote to separate it from the rest of the paper The rest of the paragraph following the quote should not be indented and should be aligned with the left margin of the page | The rest of the paragraph following the quote should not be indented and should be aligned with the left margin of the page |
| Other | When citing poetry, keep the formatting the same as much as possible (e.g., keep the line breaks where they are) | ||
To see block quotes in action, check out this pdf which shows the same example formatted for each of the three most common citation styles: