If you’re including a quote over 40 words, you may omit quotation marks and clearly offset the quote from the rest of the text by employing a block quote. You will still need to include the author’s last name(s), the publication year, and the page number (if applicable).
Below, Example 1 shows a narrative citation, and Example 2 shows a parenthetical citation for the block quote.
Example 1:
These reviews have often raised questions and concerns about when and how much force was used to quell a disturbance or take a suspect into custody. The difference in perceptions of the public and police as to what exactly constitutes justified force contributes significantly to this debate:
Though it is expected that policemen will be judicious and that experience and skill will guide them in the performance of their work, it is foolish to expect that they could always be swift and subtle. Nor is it reasonable to demand that they prevail, where they are supposed to prevail while hoping that they will always handle resistance gently. (Bittner, 1990, p. 97)
For some members of the public, politicians and some police administrators, the simple solution is to use less force. Fyfe (1987) discusses the negative consequences of both unnecessary force by officers and the consequences of insufficient use of force by police.
Example 2:
These reviews have often raised questions and concerns about when and how much force was used to quell a disturbance or take a suspect into custody. The difference in perceptions of the public and police as to what exactly constitutes justified force contributes significantly to this debate. According to Bittner (1990):
Though it is expected that policemen will be judicious and that experience and skill will guide them in the performance of their work, it is foolish to expect that they could always be swift and subtle. Nor is it reasonable to demand that they prevail, where they are supposed to prevail while hoping that they will always handle resistance gently. (p. 97)
For some members of the public, politicians and some police administrators, the simple solution is to use less force. Fyfe (1987) discusses the negative consequences of both unnecessary force by officers and the consequences of insufficient use of force by police.
Additional notes:
When citing a work with three or more authors, use “et al.” after the first author’s name. The only exception is if this causes ambiguity. For example, if you are citing more than one paper with the same first author from the same year, you will include the first author, second author, and et al. in the citation.
When citing a group author with an abbreviation, the first citation will include the full group name with abbreviation followed in parentheses for narrative citations, or brackets for parenthetical citations. Each subsequent citation for the group will one use the abbreviation. For example:
