Writing · Writing: Research, Forms and ConventionsResearch IV: MLA for Grade 11 (Block Quotations, Altered Quotations and Harder Sources)
1.3 3.3About 75 minutes
Learning goals- I can format short and long (block) quotations of prose, poetry and drama correctly in MLA style.
- I can change or shorten a quotation with brackets and ellipses without changing its meaning.
- I can cite an indirect source, two works by the same author, and a source with no page numbers.
- I can write Works Cited entries for an anthology piece, a film, a podcast episode and an interview.
- I can cite knowledge shared by an Indigenous Elder or Knowledge Keeper respectfully, following an accepted template and the person's wishes.
Words to know
block quotation
A long quotation (more than four lines of prose or three lines of poetry in MLA) set off by indenting it, without quotation marks.
brackets [ ]
Square brackets mark words or letters you added or changed inside a quotation.
ellipsis
Three spaced periods ( . . . ) that show you left words out of a quotation.
indirect source
A source quoted inside another source; MLA cites it with qtd. in.
anthology
A collection of works by different writers, edited by someone else; it is the container for each piece in it.
Knowledge Keeper
A person recognized by their First Nations, Métis or Inuit community as holding and sharing particular traditional knowledge or teachings.
When the easy rules are not enough
In Grade 10 you cited books and websites. Grade 11 English asks for more: you quote a long passage from a novel, a few lines of a poem, a speech from Macbeth, a critic quoted in a newspaper, a documentary, an interview you did yourself. Each has a convention, and markers notice when you get them right.
This lesson collects the MLA (9th edition) rules you will need most in Grade 11. MLA is the style most Ontario English classes use; if your teacher asks for another style, the habits (credit every source, let readers find it) are the same.
Remember from Grade 10
You already know the core elements of an MLA entry (author, title, container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, date, location), the in-text citation (Okafor 42), citing sources with no author by a shortened title, italics for whole works and quotation marks for parts, and the Works Cited page with hanging indents in alphabetical order.
1. Short quotations vs block quotations
Short quotations (up to four typed lines of prose, or up to three lines of poetry) go inside your sentence, in quotation marks.
Block quotations (more than four lines of prose, more than three lines of poetry):
- Introduce with a complete sentence and usually a colon.
- Start on a new line, indented half an inch from the left margin, double-spaced like the rest.
- Use no quotation marks (the indent shows it is a quotation). Keep any quotation marks that are in the original.
- Put the parenthetical citation after the final punctuation mark: ...the street outside. (42). (In a short quotation it goes before the period.)
- Continue with your analysis. If the analysis continues the same paragraph, do not indent that line.
Use block quotations rarely. A Grade 11 essay with three block quotations usually has too little of your own thinking.
2. Changing a quotation without changing its meaning
Your sentence must read grammatically with the quotation in it. MLA allows two honest changes:
- Brackets [ ] for anything you add or change: a letter's capitalization, a verb's tense, a clarifying name. "[Jack] grips the conch tighter" (if the original says He).
- Ellipsis ( . . . ) for words you remove. MLA writes it as three periods with spaces between them. You do not need an ellipsis at the start or end of a short quotation that is clearly a fragment.
The rule that matters most: never change the meaning. Leaving out not, only or although to make a quotation fit your thesis is a form of academic dishonesty, even if every other word is accurate.
For a quotation within your quotation, use single quotation marks inside double ones: Okafor recalls that her neighbour "called the rink 'the town's living room'" (43).
3. Quoting poetry and drama
- Poems are cited by line numbers, not pages. The first time, write (lines 3-4); after that, just the numbers (5-7). In a short quotation, show a line break with a slash with a space on each side ( / ) and a stanza break with a double slash ( // ).
- Verse plays such as Shakespeare's are cited by act, scene and line, separated by periods: (1.5.38-40). Include the author or a short title when needed: (Shakespeare, Macbeth 1.5.38-40) or, if your essay is only about one play and your teacher agrees, just the numbers.
- Prose (novels, short stories, plays in prose) uses page numbers.
- When quoting dialogue between two characters in a play as a block, start each speech with the character's name in capitals followed by a period, indented half an inch.
4. Tricky in-text situations
- Indirect source (you read a quotation of one person inside another person's work): name the original speaker in your sentence and cite the source you actually read with qtd. in: Coach Diaz called the rink "a classroom with no walls" (qtd. in Okafor 44). Use the original source instead whenever you can find it.
- Two works by the same author: add a short title: (Okafor, Rinks 42) and (Okafor, "Frozen" 7).
- Two authors with the same last name: add initials: (R. Okafor 42).
- No page numbers (web pages, videos): cite by author only; for video or audio, you may give a timestamp: (Ruiz 00:04:12-00:04:30).
- Several sources for one point: separate them with a semicolon: (Bello 12; Kaur 40).
| Source type | MLA Works Cited pattern (invented examples) |
|---|
| Story or poem in an anthology | Lee, Mina. "First Ice." North Shore Stories, edited by Dan Roy, Maple Bay Press, 2020, pp. 12-25. |
| Film | Lake of Lights. Directed by Sara Kwan, Harbourline Films, 2022. |
| Podcast episode | "Why Teens Sleep Late." Science After School, hosted by Omar Haddad, episode 14, Northline Audio, 3 Mar. 2025. |
| Interview you conducted | Mendes, Ana. Personal interview. 12 Oct. 2026. (Some guides write Interview by the author instead; use your teacher's preference.) |
| Play in a print edition | Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Edited by [editor's name], [publisher], [year]. (Copy the details from the edition you actually used.) |
| Generative AI output (only if your teacher allows it) | "[Your prompt, in quotation marks]" prompt. [Tool name], version [if given], [company], [date you used it], [URL]. (MLA published this template in 2023.) |
5. Citing knowledge shared by Elders and Knowledge Keepers
Many Grade 11 inquiries include teachings shared by First Nations, Métis or Inuit Elders and Knowledge Keepers. Older style guides called these personal communications and left them out of the reference list, which treated living knowledge as less authoritative than a printed page. In 2021, Lorisia MacLeod, a librarian at NorQuest College in Alberta, published templates for citing Elders and Knowledge Keepers in MLA and APA styles, and many Canadian libraries and schools now recommend them.
The MLA template includes, in order (leave out any that do not apply):
Last name, First name. Nation or community. Treaty territory. Where they live. Topic or subject of the teaching. Day Month Year.
Respect matters as much as format:
- Ask first whether the teaching may be written down and shared, and follow the person's answer. Some knowledge is not meant to be published.
- Follow your community's or school's protocol for asking (in many communities, offering tobacco is part of it; ask a local Indigenous education worker or the person themselves what is appropriate).
- Use the name and Nation as the person wishes to be identified.
- Quote or paraphrase accurately, and offer to share your work with them.
Worked exampleLet's fix a paragraph's citations
A student's draft (all sources invented except Macbeth):
In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth calls on spirits to "unsex me here" (Act 1 Scene 5). Critic Ray Holt said that this shows ambition replacing compassion (Smith 22). In Okafor's memoir, the rink "Brought the whole street outside" (Page 42). The film Lake of Lights also shows community.
- Act, scene, line in MLA form: (1.5.41) rather than (Act 1 Scene 5). Check the line number in your own edition, because numbering varies slightly between editions.
- Indirect source: Holt is quoted inside Smith's book, so: Critic Ray Holt argues that the speech shows ambition overpowering compassion (qtd. in Smith 22). Also change said to a precise signal verb such as argues (it is a present-tense literary discussion).
- Fit the quotation to the sentence: the capital B is wrong mid-sentence. Use brackets: the rink "[b]rought the whole street outside" (42), or rephrase so the quotation starts with a lowercase word. Page is never written in MLA in-text citations.
- Italicize the film title (Lake of Lights) and the play title (Macbeth), and add the film to Works Cited: Lake of Lights. Directed by Sara Kwan, Harbourline Films, 2022. (title in italics).
- Check the Works Cited has Okafor, Shakespeare, Smith and the film, in alphabetical order: Lake of Lights (L), Okafor (O), Shakespeare (S), Smith (Sm). Holt does not get his own entry, because you read him only inside Smith.
Revised: In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth calls on spirits to "unsex me here" (1.5.41). Critic Ray Holt argues that the speech shows ambition overpowering compassion (qtd. in Smith 22). In Okafor's memoir, the rink "[b]rought the whole street outside" (42), and the film Lake of Lights shows a similar sense of community.
Hands-on activityThe citation scavenger hunt
You need: any three of these from your home or library: a poetry book or song lyrics booklet, a play (any edition, even a school copy), a short-story collection with an editor, a film or documentary you have watched, a podcast you listen to; paper or a document.
- Write a correct Works Cited entry for three different source types.
- From the poem or song lyrics, quote two lines in a sentence using a slash, with a line-number citation.
- From any prose source, choose a passage longer than four lines and type it as a block quotation with a colon introduction and the citation after the final period.
- Take one sentence and shorten it with an ellipsis and change one word with brackets, keeping the meaning the same. Ask someone at home to compare it with the original: did the meaning change?
What to look for: italics for whole works and quotation marks for parts; lines only in the first poem citation; spaced ellipsis; brackets for every change; block quotation with no quotation marks.
Just for funBlock quotations do not wear quotation marks because the indent already shows they are quoted. It is the punctuation version of not needing a name tag at your own birthday party.
Your turn
1How long must a prose quotation be before MLA sets it as a block quotation?
More than four typed lines.
2Where does the citation go in a block quotation: before or after the final period?
3Cite lines 12 to 14 of a poem the first time you quote it.
4Write the citation for Act 3, Scene 2, lines 45 to 47 of a Shakespeare play.
5You read a quotation by an athlete inside an article by Kim on page 9. Write the in-text citation.
(qtd. in Kim 9), with the athlete named in your sentence.
6Show a line break in this two-line poem quotation: The snow comes down / on empty fields. What does the slash mean?
The slash with spaces ( / ) marks where one line of the poem ends and the next begins.
7Which is italicized: the title of a short story or the anthology it appears in?
The anthology (the container). The story title goes in quotation marks.
More practice: warm-up
1What do brackets [ ] show in a quotation?
Words or letters you added or changed.
2What does an ellipsis show?
3Does a block quotation use quotation marks?
No (unless they are in the original text).
4What do you use to separate two sources cited for the same point?
A semicolon: (Bello 12; Kaur 40).
5What punctuation marks a quotation inside a quotation?
Single quotation marks inside the double ones.
More practice: on your own
1Original: "The plan did not reduce traffic, although it improved air quality." Is this use fair? The report says the plan ". . . reduced traffic" (Lin 4). Explain.
No. Removing did not reverses the meaning. An ellipsis may never change the meaning. Fair: The plan "did not reduce traffic, although it improved air quality" (Lin 4).
2Fit this quotation into the sentence with brackets: original "We were cold, and we were happy." Your sentence: The narrator remembers that the children ___ (12).
Example: The narrator remembers that the children "were cold, and [they] were happy" (12). (Leaving out the opening We needs no ellipsis, because the quotation is clearly a fragment.) Better still, shorten the quotation so it fits naturally: The narrator remembers that the children were cold but "happy" (12).
3Write a Works Cited entry for a story called The Long Portage by Ben Ash in an anthology called Paddle Tales, edited by Rita Cho, Lakehead Books, 2019, pages 40 to 52 (invented).
Ash, Ben. "The Long Portage." Paddle Tales, edited by Rita Cho, Lakehead Books, 2019, pp. 40-52. (Paddle Tales in italics)
4You cite two books by Okafor: Rinks and Rivers (page 42) and Frozen Towns (page 7). Write both in-text citations.
(Okafor, Rinks 42) and (Okafor, Frozen 7) (short titles in italics). A comma separates author and title, and no comma comes before the page number.
5Explain why the template for citing Elders includes the person's Nation or community and the treaty territory.
Because the authority of the knowledge comes from who shares it and the community it belongs to. Naming the Nation, territory and place recognizes that relationship and lets readers understand the source, instead of reducing it to an anonymous personal communication.
Challenge
1Write a short paragraph (3 to 4 sentences) about any poem you know that quotes two lines with a slash, cites them correctly the first time, and analyses them.
Look for: a signal phrase; the two lines in quotation marks with a spaced slash at the line break; a first citation with (lines x-y); the period after the parenthesis; and at least one sentence of analysis (what the words, sound or image suggest), not just summary.
2A student shortens "Most residents, though not all, supported the new arena" to "[m]ost residents . . . supported the new arena." Is this acceptable? Argue both sides briefly and decide.
It is technically formatted correctly and keeps most, so the main claim survives. However, though not all signals dissent the writer may want to hide. If the essay discusses opposition, cutting it slightly tilts the source. Decision: acceptable only if the paragraph does not suggest unanimous support; the safer choice is to quote it fully, since the phrase is short.
3Your inquiry includes a teaching about the Seven Grandfather Teachings shared in your class by a visiting Anishinaabe Elder. List four steps you would take before including it in a published school anthology, and write a template citation with placeholders.
Look for steps such as: (1) ask the Elder (or through the teacher or Indigenous education worker) for permission to write about and publish the teaching; (2) follow the appropriate protocol for the request; (3) confirm the spelling of their name and how they wish to be identified, including Nation and community; (4) check accuracy by sharing the passage with them, and respect any request to change or remove it. Template: Last name, First name. Anishinaabe, [First Nation or community]. [Treaty territory]. [Where they live]. Seven Grandfather Teachings. [Day Month Year].
Quiz
1. A prose quotation of six typed lines should be:
2. Which citation is correct MLA for lines 5 to 8 of a verse play, Act 2, Scene 1?
3. A spaced ellipsis ( . . . ) in a quotation means:
4. You read a professor's words quoted in a magazine article by Ruiz (page 14). The in-text citation is:
5. In a Works Cited entry, which is italicized?
6. Before citing a teaching shared by a Knowledge Keeper, the most important first step is to:
7. Where does the citation go in a short quotation?
Big idea: expectation 1.3 includes recording sources with proper documentation, and expectation 3.3 includes introducing and formatting short and long quotations correctly. Grade 11 essays on novels, poems and Shakespeare need these rules.
How to help: you do not need to know MLA yourself. Ask your teen to show you one block quotation and explain why it is indented; ask, Did any change you made to a quotation change its meaning? Free MLA guides from university writing centres (for example, the Purdue OWL) are useful references.
Common difficulties:
- Too many block quotations and too little analysis.
- Changing capital letters or verb tenses without brackets.
- Ellipses that hide words such as not or only.
- Writing (Act 1 Scene 5) or (page 42) instead of (1.5.41) or (42).
- Giving an indirect source its own Works Cited entry.
When your teen includes Indigenous knowledge in their work, encourage them to ask permission first and to follow the guidance of the person sharing it and of the school's Indigenous education staff.