Unless it is necessary to use the very same words found in your source to make a point that is controversial or vital to your paper, it is better to paraphrase than to quote directly.

If you do decide to quote, here are some tips on form to help you quote successfully:

• Include enough of the original statement to make the quote’s meaning clear to the reader.
• Don't make a quote any longer than is necessary.

• If a quotation is brief, taking up no more than two or three lines of your paper, then it should be written as a part of the text and be surrounded by quotation marks. See Quotations: Examples.
• If the quotation is a long one, it must be separated from the sentences that precede and follow it.
• Long quotations should be indented ten or more spaces and typed single-spaced. Do not surround long, set-off quotations with quotation marks. It will be clear to the reader that it is a quotation. See Quotations: Examples.
• Whether a quotation is set off from the text (indented) or surrounded by quotation marks, you should always introduce the person being quoted. See Quotations: Examples. Do this in the sentence that immediately precedes the quotation. The reader will always want to know who is being quoted and, if necessary, in what context. See How to Introduce a Quotation.
• If you do not need to quote a whole statement, it is necessary to indicate an ellipsis (the missing part of the sentence) by inserting ellipsis points (three periods " . . . " ) wherever words are missing. See Quotations: Examples.

Next: Quotations: Examples