The necessity to write down quotations from poems in your paper does not limit your flexibility as a writer. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary warns all young writers about the consequences of plagiarism. Whenever you quote any citations from the sources with all rights reserved, you break the law of intellectual property. Copyright does not give you the permission to use the author’s words without mentioning the source according to the generally accepted guidelines.
Students have a great choice of writing styles to choose from:
- MLA
- APA
- Turabian
- Harvard
- IEEE
- ISO
- Oxford
While some of them are pretty similar, others require you to study guidelines along with helpful examples. Otherwise, it is hard to understand how to add a quotation from the specific poem or another literary work.
There are not many cases when you need to cite a quote from a poem. Citing poem’s lines or specific quotes is necessary when your high school or college teacher assigns the essay of the next type:
- Character analysis (follow these notes to write it)
- Literary analysis
- Poem analysis
- Compare & Contrast
- Narrative
- Reflection essay
You may also want to use your favorite poem quotations when you write an admissions essay. It will point to the level of your literacy. Admissions officers like original approaches. The following website offers a handbook on writing a 5-paragraph essay in English.
On the whole, writers need to insert quotations from other sources like poems for several reasons:
- To use the words of other authors protected by copyright
- Have permission to use phrases from the books with rights reserved
- Overcome problems with plagiarism in academic writing
- Format paper for better look
- Distinguish the works of favorite writers
- Create bibliography list
- Offer examples
- Include evidence to support the main idea
- Apply to their readers
We are here to discuss four simple ways to cite quotations from poems and other sources.
4 Ways to Cite a Quote in Academic Format
- Use in-text citations to quote the words of your favorite author.
Use parentheses as well as quotation marks to include a quote. The quote goes inside the quotation marks while the source’s information appears in parentheses. The author-date information is the most wide-spread. There is no need to add a title. The page is needed only if it is known. An APA style example of direct in-text quotation looks this way:
The article also briefly covers the importance of implementing “patient education as much as possible in a group environment” (Suhrheinrich 2011).
First, make a short introduction to your quote. It helps to understand better how it is related to your text. It works differently with poetry.
Unlike in this example, citing quotes from poems demand a different approach. Use MLA writing style instead of APA. Mind how long or short your quotation is before citing it. An example of a quote from a poem would be:
“Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head
Warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood
But then I was young.” (by Carol Ann Duffy)
In APA style, you always have to include the author’s last name along with the year of publication in parentheses next to in-text quotation. In MLA, you may leave a page number in case there is only one source of quotations in your essay.
- Citing Text with a Single Author
Remember that you can use books, newspapers, academic or scientific journals, websites, and other sources to find the necessary article, prose, or poem. The example of a quote in APA style would be:
This program covers the demands, objectives, and life experiences of the individual with diabetes “and is guided by evidence-based standards” (ADA, 2013, p.11).
According to APA guidelines, the information on in-text citation should list the author’s or publisher’s name/title, date of publication (year only), and page number). Citing print or online books with several authors follow the same logic.
In this example, you’re quoting a page written by the organization which full name is American Diabetes Association. You should type in the full title only the first time you mention this specific source. Other quotations may include abbreviation like in our example. Your references list will include the full information in the following way:
American Diabetes Association. (2013). “National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management
Education.” Diabetes Care. 31(1), S97-S104. Retrieved from
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/31/Supplement_1/S97.extract
The last line means you have found the full text online. You may also find your favorite poems online to get quotations from them if you don’t want to buy a separate book or go to the library. A research may take a plenty of time.
- Citing Material with Unknown Author
It makes the situation a bit more complex, but, in fact, you simply exclude the author’s last name and put the title of publication followed by the year it was sent to print. You may also write N.A, for the unknown author.
If you work on the analysis of English poetry, this manual is useful.
- Make Your Bibliography Page
No matter whether you work on References page in APA or Works Cited page in MLA, a bibliography written in alphabetical or numbered order is the most responsible part of any formatting process. You have to list all original articles and poems cited in your essay.
On the example of MLA Works Cited page, we can say that the text of this page is double-spaced as the rest of the paper. Every time you use a quote from a poem, write down the full information on the source. It will save time when working on your Bibliography.
The example of information on the source where you took quotations from is:
Charles, Marie-Jocelyne, Harmon, Bart J., and Jordan, Pamela S. “Improving Patient
Safety with the Military Electronic Health Record.” Vol. 3.
Rockville: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2005.
In MLA, quotation marks are used. The full names and last names are included. The title of the source is capitalized. Finally, the publication date (year) foes at the end of the reference line.
Now that you know the formatting basics, you need to search for the articles and poems with the best quotes to use in your essay. You will find some original works online, but some study material is unavailable.
If you want all materials free of charge and a properly formatted and referenced essay, we are here to offer you an original writing website. To have all poem quotes inserted properly and entire text formatted according to the chosen writing style guidelines, you should simply place an order on this website which offers all possible academic services to the school, college, and university students. Don’t miss your chance to get each quote from your favorite poetry right!
