APA Format: When and Why to Use Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are essential when pulling information from another source using APA format. The purpose of quotation marks is to signify that the words you are using are not your own, and that they are an exact copy of someone else's words. To avoid plagiarism when submitting or publishing any work of your own, make sure to give proper credit when using someone's else's words in your work. The use of quotation marks should not be confused with paraphrasing. Quoting someone else's work is useful when their opinion or research supports a point of view in your writing. Quotation marks are used by inserting the first quotation mark at the beginning of the quote your are using, and the 2nd quotation mark at the end of the quote. It is important to give credit where credit is due, so proper use of quotation marks should always be utilized when submitting or publishing a writing.

In the situation that you may be writing a research paper for your college English class, you will have to utilize quotation marks to indicate the work you are using from a source other than yourself. The citing of short quotations will differ from MLA & APA format. In MLA format, the citing should look as followed: "Just blow it up." (Rusley 23). While in APA format, the citing shall be: "Just blow it up." (Rusley, 2020, p.23). You DO NOT add an ellipsis to your quotation, unless the source you are citing from already has one included.