Write the thesis for your essay (this is the main idea around which the whole essay will be structured) and come up with three main arguments that support your thesis. Choose at least two quotations from an external source that support each one of your arguments. Select your quotations carefully. Make sure each one is meaningful and directly related to your thesis.
Introduce your evidence, or quotation. Give the context surrounding it. Explain briefly what led up to the particular passage you are using if you are citing a descriptive paragraph from a novel, for example.
Analyze your quotation. Show the reader why you chose the quotation to support your argument or point. Do this by interpreting the meaning of the quotation and analyzing specific words or details that validate your thesis.
Use quotation marks around your quotes if they are four lines or less of prose or three lines or less of poetry. Separate lines of poetry with a slash (like this / ). Embed quotations into your sentences or keep them separate, but be sure to adequately introduce them. Close your quotation with a quotation mark. If you are using dialogue as a quotation, enclose the section with double quotation marks and change the double quotation marks around the dialogue to single marks. The punctuation may go directly after the quotation mark if the quotation you are using is embedded, or outside of the citation parenthesis if you are not embedding the quotation.
Use block formatting for quotations longer than four lines of prose or three lines of poetry. Introduce your quotation and then start the quotation on the next line. Indent one inch and maintain this indent for the length of the quotation. Leave out quotation marks for a block formatting. Enclose your citation in parenthesis outside of the punctuation. Allow block formatting of poetry or dialogue to maintain its line break and shape.
Cite your quotations by using the last name of the author and the page number, like this (Brown 25). Do not use punctuation within the parenthesis. Type only the page number if you have introduced the author or already cited the name earlier.