A block quote in MLA is five or more lines of prose on your page or four or more lines of poetry from the page where the poem was published.
To determine if you need block format for long quotations of prose, type the quotation in your document. If it’s more than four lines, use MLA block quote format:
Indent the quote ½ inch from the left margin instead of using quotation marks.
Place the MLA in-text citation after the final punctuation at the end of the quote.
MLA block quote example
According to an Architectural Digest article, Dolly Parton’s influence is so profound that scientists have named a lichen after her.
The Dolly Parton lichen can be found on branches of trees and shrubs at middle to high elevations in the Appalachians from Maine to Georgia. J. dollypartoniana lacks the endearing showiness of its namesake; it resembles an undersized, undercooked oatmeal raisin cookie. The specimens Lendemer and Allen were looking at were several centimeters in diameter, but J. dollypartoniana can form colonies a few meters across. (Casey 74)
QuillBot’s free MLA Citation Generator can help you create accurate in-text citations for block quotations.
To cite a PDF with no author in APA, look for the professional organization or government agency that published the report or document. A PDF that doesn’t attribute one or more people as the author has a group author.
If a division of a larger organization is responsible for the document, the division is the author, and the larger organization is the publisher.
If the organization at large is the author, omit the larger organization from the publisher slot of the reference entry.
APA PDF with group author examples
In-text citations
Reference list entries
The World Health Organization (2019) advocated for including health care experts in national efforts to understand and address the impact of climate change on human health.
World Health Organization. (2019). WHO health and climate change survey report: Tracking global progress. https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/329972/WHO-CED-PHE-EPE-19.11-eng.pdf?sequence=1
The report described several ways in which classroom technology can support Universal Design for Learning (Office of Educational Technology, 2024).
Office of Educational Technology. (2024). A call to action for closing the digital access, design, and use divides: 2024 national educational technology plan. U.S. Department of Education. https://tech.ed.gov/files/2024/01/NETP24.pdf
QuillBot’s free Citation Generator can help you create flawless citations for PDFs and sources of all kinds. Additionally, our Notepad can help you take online notes to keep track of relevant source information.
To cite a government report in APA, start by looking for the author, which can be one or more people, a division of a larger government agency, or the government agency at large. Then, you’ll need the following details for an APA reference page entry:
Year of publication
Title of the report (which goes in italics and sentence case)
Name of the government agency that published the report (If the at-large organization is the author, omit the publisher slot. If the author is a division, the larger agency is the publisher.)
URL for the report
APA government report references examples
Author type
Reference entry
Individual(s)
Eaves, S. (2024, October 28). Lead in private well water and its impacts on children’s health. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/perspectives/lead-private-well-water-and-its-impacts-childrens-health
Division of a government agency
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024). Highlight of women’s earnings in 2023. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/womens-earnings/2023/home.htm
Government agency at large
Canada Council for the Arts. (2024). 2023–24 annual report. https://canadacouncil.ca/-/media/Files/CCA/Corporate/Annual-Reports/en/2023-24_Annual-Report.pdf
Each time you paraphrase an idea from a government report, an APA in-text citation should include the author (whether it’s a person or the government organization) and the year of publication. Citations for quotations need page numbers as well.
QuillBot’s free Citation Generator can help you create APA PDF citations and other types of citations. Additionally, our Notepad can help you take online notes to keep track of the sources you consult.
An abstract is a standalone document that’s separate from an essay or journal article. It summarizes the entire content of the essay or article so that readers can decide if they should read the full text. An APA abstractshould be a maximum of 250 words.
An introduction prepares readers for the body paragraphs of an essay or article. Rather than summarizing all of the essay or article’s contents, an introduction hooks the reader, provides essential background information, and states the thesis.
QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker can help you create abstracts that are polished, professional, and error-free.
An abstract is usually 150–250 words long. It’s a paragraph on a separate page before an essay or article. The maximum length for an APA abstractis 250 words. To write an abstract that is the right length, summarize your main topic and key arguments or findings in a few sentences.
When you’re writing abstracts, QuillBot’s free Paraphrasing Tool can help you write concisely and choose the best words.
MLA month abbreviations are part of the MLA date format for Works Cited entries.
When a Works Cited entry includes a publication date or access date, MLA requires abbreviations for all months that are longer than four letters. The MLA abbreviations are Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec.
These abbreviations do not apply to the heading or the main text, where MLA requires the full month names (e.g., “February 14, 2025”).
When you’re writing MLA Works Cited entries, QuillBot’s free Citation Generator can help you format months and dates correctly.
Minor words, such as prepositions (e.g., “behind” or “with”) and coordinating conjunctions (e.g., “and” or “but”) should not be capitalized unless they’re the first or last word of the title or the first word after a colon.
Movie title examplesIt Ends with Us
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Use these guidelines in MLA movie citations or when you mention a film in the main text.
QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker can also help you format movie titles correctly.
The date format for an MLA header is either day-month-year or month-day-year. MLA accepts either of these formats, but it also requires you to spell out the full name of the month in your heading.
If you use month-day-year format, place a comma between the day and year.
MLA heading examplesSaanvi Mehta
Professor Bennett
Composition I
30 September 2024
Grace Eldridge
Professor Rivera
Sociology 101
October 15, 2024
If you include dates in the main text of your paper, use the same MLA date format that you chose for your heading.
QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker can help you proofread MLA documents to ensure that they’re error free.
To cite a source with no date in MLA, write a Works Cited entry that includes an access date instead of a publication date.
The access date goes at the end of a Works Cited entry, followed by a period.
MLA source with no date example
Semtner, Christopher P. “12 Stories behind Edgar Allen Poe’s Terror Tales.” Biography, biography.com/authors-writers/edgar-allan-poe-horror-stories-facts. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
The access date should follow MLA date format for Works Cited entries (day-month-year with abbreviations for months longer than four letters).
QuillBot’s free Citation Generator can help you format access dates correctly in MLA Works Cited entries.
Write time in MLA format to create a time stamp for in-text citations of audio and video sources (e.g, a movie or a song). The format is hh:mm:ss (hour:minute:second) with a colon between each element.
MLA time stamp example The video tour of the actress’s new home includes a close-up shot of a brass door knocker in the shape of a lion’s head (“Inside SNL Star” 00:01:47-49).
This in-text citation has an abbreviated title of the video (because there’s no author) and a timestamp, which directs readers to the 1 minute and 47 seconds spot of the video.
