Skip to Main Content

Citation Style: MLA 9th Edition

Quoting and Paraphrasing

Quoting Sources:

When you quote a source, you include the author's exact words in your text. Use "quotation marks" around the author's words. Include signal phrases and an in-text citation to show where the quote is from.

Paraphrasing Sources:

When you paraphrase a source, you restate the source's ideas in your own words and sentence structure. Select what is relevant to your topic, and restate only that. Changing only a few words is not sufficient in paraphrasing/ summarizing. Instead, you need to completely rephrase the author's ideas in your own words. You do not need to use quotation marks.

For more help on paraphrasing click here:

Always use in-text citations when you paraphrase or summarize, to let the reader know that the information comes from another source. Continue to use signal phrases as well.

Signal Phrases

Signal phrases let your reader know that you are quoting or summarizing from another source.

Examples:

In the words of researchers Redelmeier and Tibshirani, " . . . "

As Matt Sundeen has noted, " . . . "

Patti Pena, mother of a child killed by a driver distracted by a cell phone, points out that " . . . "

" . . . " writes Christine Haughtney.

" . . . " claims wireless spokesperson Annette Jacobs.

Taken from the Bedford Handbook (583)

Verbs in Signal Phrases

acknowledges
adds
admits
agrees
argues
asserts
believes
claims
comments
compares
confirms
contends
declares
denies
disputes
emphasizes
endorses      
grants
illustrates
implies
insists
notes
observes
points out
reasons
refutes
rejects
reports
responds
suggests
thinks
writes