Do you use quotations in APA? The short answer is yes, but sparingly, and only when the exact words matter. If you are writing an essay, a research paper, or a thesis in American Psychological Association style, you will mostly paraphrase sources in your own words. When you do reproduce another author’s exact wording, APA style requires quotation marks for short quotations, a block format for long quotations, and an in-text citation that includes the author, year, and page number or equivalent location. This guide answers the question “do you use quotations in apa” with a special focus on open-access sources, because students increasingly find their readings in free online journals, repositories, and university archives, and those sources raise their own practical questions about page numbers, paragraph numbers, and reference entries.
Many students worry that using a quotation is somehow cheating, or that paraphrasing is always safer. Neither worry is quite right. A well-chosen quotation can show exactly how an author defined a term, framed a finding, or worded a controversial claim, and your reader can then judge that wording for themselves. The problem comes when a paper is stitched together from long quotations with little original analysis. APA style, and most university markers, expect your voice to lead and quotations to support, illustrate, or provide evidence at key moments. So the real question behind “do you use quotations in apa” is not whether quotations are allowed, but when they help and how to format them correctly.
Do You Use Quotations in APA? The Basic Rule
Do you use quotations in APA writing? Yes. APA style, currently in its seventh edition, gives detailed rules for both short and long quotations. A short quotation, defined as fewer than 40 words, is enclosed in double quotation marks and woven into your sentence, followed by an in-text citation. A long quotation, defined as 40 words or more, is set off as a block quotation: it starts on a new line, is indented from the left margin, and has no quotation marks around it. In both cases, the citation must include the author and year, plus a page number when one is available.
Consider a simple example structure, without inventing a fake source. If you were quoting a single sentence from a journal article, you might write: Smith (2020) argued that “the result challenges earlier assumptions about the topic” (p. 45). Alternatively, you could place the whole citation in parentheses at the end: “The result challenges earlier assumptions about the topic” (Smith, 2020, p. 45). Both forms are correct in APA style, and the choice depends on whether you want to name the author in your sentence or keep the focus on the idea itself. What matters is consistency, accuracy, and a matching entry in your reference list.
Quotations Versus Paraphrases
A paraphrase restates an idea in your own words and still needs a citation, although a page number is encouraged rather than required for paraphrases in the seventh edition. A quotation reproduces the wording exactly, including punctuation, spelling, and any unusual capitalisation, and a page number or other locator is required. Students sometimes paraphrase so closely that they keep the original sentence structure and merely swap a few words; markers usually treat that as poor paraphrasing, even if a citation is present. A genuine paraphrase changes both the words and the sentence structure while preserving the meaning, and it should sound like your writing, not like a lightly edited copy of the source.
| Feature | Short Quotation | Long Quotation | Paraphrase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Word limit | Fewer than 40 words | 40 words or more | No word limit |
| Quotation marks | Yes, double marks | No, block format instead | No |
| Page number | Required when available | Required when available | Encouraged, not required |
| Placement | Inside your sentence | New indented block | Inside your sentence |
Students often phrase the question exactly as do you use quotations in apa, because they want a yes-or-no answer before they worry about formatting, and do you use quotations in apa is best answered with yes, sparingly, and only when exact wording carries the evidence.
Do You Use Quotations in APA From Open-Access Sources?
Do you use quotations in apa papers when the source is open access? Absolutely, and the rules do not change just because a source is free to read. Open-access journals, preprint servers, institutional repositories, and government reports are cited in the same way as subscription sources. What changes is the practical detail of finding a locator. Many open-access articles are published as PDFs with page numbers, in which case you cite the page exactly as you would for a print article. Others are published as web pages or as single-column online articles without pagination, in which case APA style allows you to use a paragraph number, a section heading, or a combination of the two.
For a web page without page numbers, you might cite a paragraph like this: (Jones, 2021, para. 4). If the paragraphs are long or the page is hard to navigate, you can cite a heading plus a paragraph count within that section, for example: (Jones, 2021, Discussion section, para. 2). The goal is always the same: help your reader find the exact passage you quoted without hunting through the whole document. If the open-access source has numbered sections, stable article numbers, or a digital object identifier, include that information in the reference entry so the source can be traced reliably.
Another way to frame the question do you use quotations in apa is to ask what a quotation must prove, and do you use quotations in apa becomes easier once you decide that a quotation should add precision that a paraphrase would lose.
Building the Reference Entry for an Open-Access Article
Your reference list entry for an open-access journal article follows the standard APA journal pattern: author, year, article title, journal title, volume and issue, article number or page range, and a digital object identifier or stable link when available. The fact that the article is free to read does not add a special label in the reference entry; readers can tell it is open access by following the link. What you should avoid is citing a search result, a database landing page, or an abstract instead of the article itself. Always quote from the full text, check the wording against the original, and make sure the version you cite matches the version in your reference list, especially if a preprint and a published version differ.
Preprints deserve a special note. A preprint is a version of a paper shared publicly before peer review, and it can be a legitimate source, but you should say so if your institution requires it, and you should prefer the peer-reviewed published version when one exists. If you quote a preprint, cite the repository and the version you actually read, and be careful not to present preliminary findings as settled conclusions. The same caution applies to open-access theses, conference papers, and reports: they are citable, but their status matters for how much weight your argument places on them.
Supervisors sometimes ask do you use quotations in apa papers at all, because they see drafts crowded with copied passages, and do you use quotations in apa is then a reminder to let your own analysis lead and to use quotations as support.
When a Quotation Helps and When It Hurts
A quotation helps when the exact wording is the evidence. Definitions are a classic case: if a field defines a key term in a particular way, quoting that definition lets readers see the precision you are relying on. Controversial or striking claims are another case: quoting lets you attribute a strong statement fairly instead of softening it in paraphrase. Historical or legal wording, survey items, and interview excerpts also benefit from exact quotation, because rewording them would change their meaning or lose their flavour.
A quotation hurts when it replaces your analysis. A paragraph that consists of a long quotation followed by “This shows that…” and nothing else does not demonstrate understanding. It also hurts when the quotation is longer than it needs to be. APA style encourages you to quote only the relevant portion and to use an ellipsis, three spaced dots, to show where you have omitted words from the middle of a sentence. You should never use a quotation to pad a word count, and you should never quote a passage you have not read in context, because the surrounding sentences often qualify or limit the claim in ways a short excerpt hides.
When you proofread, ask do you use quotations in apa correctly in each case, checking the marks, the citation, and the page locator, and do you use quotations in apa correctly is a checklist question worth repeating for every quoted passage.
Accuracy Checks Before You Submit
Before submitting any paper with quotations, run through a short accuracy check. First, compare every quotation character by character with the source, including punctuation and capital letters. Second, check that every in-text citation has a matching reference entry, and that every reference entry is cited at least once in the text. Third, check that page numbers, paragraph numbers, and section headings are correct for the version you read. Fourth, read each quotation in its surrounding paragraph to make sure you have not changed its meaning by cutting it short. These checks take only a few minutes and they prevent the most common quotation errors markers see.
Students sometimes ask whether they can change a word inside a quotation to make it fit their sentence. APA style allows small changes in square brackets, for example to adjust capitalisation or to clarify a pronoun, but the change must be marked and must not alter the meaning. You can also use the Latin word sic in square brackets after an error in the original to show that the error was in the source, not introduced by you. Both devices should be used rarely. If a quotation needs heavy editing to fit, paraphrasing is usually the better choice.
Formatting guides answer do you use quotations in apa with detailed rules because small errors are common, and do you use quotations in apa well means mastering punctuation placement as well as choosing good passages to quote.
Formatting Details Students Get Wrong
Several small formatting details cause a surprising number of lost marks. One is the placement of punctuation: in APA style, the citation comes after the closing quotation mark for a short quotation, and the full stop comes after the citation, not before it. Another is the block quotation: the block is indented half an inch from the left margin, double-spaced like the rest of the paper, and the citation comes after the final punctuation of the block, which is the reverse of the short-quotation pattern. A third is the treatment of quotations within quotations: if your source itself contains a quotation, use single quotation marks for the inner quotation in a short quotation, and double marks for the inner quotation in a block quotation.
Another common error is citing secondary sources as if they were primary. If you read Author A quoted inside Author B’s paper, APA style prefers that you find and cite Author A directly. If that is not possible, you cite the secondary source with wording such as “as cited in,” and you list only Author B in the reference list. This matters for open-access research in particular, because summaries and review articles often quote earlier work, and quoting a quotation without checking the original can pass along errors or strip away context.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you use quotations in APA for every source? No. Most of your paper should be paraphrase and analysis, with quotations reserved for passages where the exact wording matters.
What if an open-access article has no page numbers? Use a paragraph number, a section heading, or both, so readers can locate the passage.
Can I quote from a preprint? Yes, but cite the version you read, note its preprint status if required, and prefer the peer-reviewed version when available.
How many quotations are too many? There is no fixed number, but if quotations dominate a page, or if removing them would leave little of your own argument, you are over-relying on them.
Do I need a reference entry for every quotation? Yes. Every in-text citation, whether for a quotation or a paraphrase, must match an entry in the reference list.
A good workflow answers do you use quotations in apa before you start drafting, so you know which passages you will quote, and do you use quotations in apa in a planned way keeps a paper focused instead of turning it into a patchwork.
A Practical Workflow for Open-Access Quotations
A reliable workflow makes quotations much less stressful. Start by saving the full text of each open-access source you plan to quote, not just the abstract, and note the version, date accessed if your institution asks for it, and any article number. As you read, copy exact passages into your notes with their page or paragraph locators attached, so you never have to guess later where a quotation came from. When drafting, write your argument first in your own words, then insert quotations only where they add precision or evidence. Finally, format each quotation according to its length, add the citation, and double-check it against the source before you submit.
For further guidance on related citation questions, see our guides to APA in-text citation for a quote and APA citation in text for two authors. Both cover neighbouring problems, such as how to handle multiple authors and how to cite a quotation when the author is named in your sentence, and they complement the open-access focus of this guide.
Conclusion: Do You Use Quotations in APA?
So, do you use quotations in apa writing? Yes, sparingly and precisely: short quotations in double quotation marks, long quotations as indented blocks, always with author, year, and a page number or equivalent locator, and always matched to a full reference entry. Open-access sources follow the same rules, with paragraph numbers or section headings standing in when page numbers do not exist. Use quotations when the exact words are the evidence, paraphrase the rest, and let your own analysis lead. Done that way, quotations strengthen a paper instead of filling it, and they show markers that you have read, understood, and fairly represented the sources you are building on.
