Modern Language Association (MLA) Guide 9th Edition: Block Quotations

MLA citations style consists of a works cited list and use of in-text citations. Use this guide as a reference point on how to cite correctly. 

Basics

First and Subsequent Authors

Multiple Authors

Paraphrasing

Cite an Image from Text

• A quotation that runs more than four lines in your prose should be set off from the text as a block indented half an inch from the left margin.
• Do not indent the first line an extra amount.
• Do not add quotation marks that are not present in the source.

Block quotation introduced with a colon.

In Moll Flanders, Defoe follows the picaresque tradition by using a pseudoautobiographical
narration:
 

My true name is so well known in the records, or registers, at Newgate and in the Old Bailey,
and there are some things of such consequence still depending there relating to my particular
conduct, that it is not to be expected I should set my name or the account of my family to this
work. . . .
It is enough to tell you, that . . . some of my worst comrades, who are out of the way of doing
me harm . . . know me by the name of Moll Flanders. . . . (1)

Block quotation integrated into the sentence structure of your prose
At the conclusion of Lord of the Flies, Ralph, realizing the horror of his actions, is overcome by
emotion, and

sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great,
shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the
black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other
little boys began to shake and sob too. (186)

MLA Handbook, 9th ed. p.254