How to cite an entire paragraph?

Question

How to cite an entire paragraph taken from a book? Is it just writing the paragraph as a separate one and adding (Author, Year) in the end? Will it not imply that only the last sentence in the paragraph is written by that reference?

Answer 1

When citing large blocks of text like a paragraph, you're probably better off indenting the paragraph, and introducing the text.

For example:

As How to Indent notes (Billy Bob, 2011):

It's better to indent long pieces of text, because then it makes clear that you're quoting a lengthy piece of work. By introducing it with a sentence, you also make clear exactly what you are referencing.

Edit: As noted in the comments, different style guides will have different rules regarding this, as none of them agree on how block indentation should be done. For example, MLA states that text of more than four lines should be indented, while Chicago rules recommend indentation with 8 or more lines, or at least 100 words or more, and APA put the cut-off at around 40 words or more. While the original question didn't mention a particular style guide, you should always check your guide for its rules regarding block indentation first.

Answer 2

I know this has an accepted answer, but it's from Billy Bob. The APA Guide has the following to say:

When writing an entire paragraph about a single study, introduce that paragraph by stating that you will refer to the same study throughout the paragraph, then cite the reference. This avoids awkwardness and redundancy.

And as to indenting, this is what it says:

If the quotation has more than 40 words, use a block quotation. Begin the quotation on a new line and indent a half-inch from the left margin. Double-space the entire quotation, and at the end of the quotation, provide citation information after the final punctuation mark.

I hope this helps!

Answer 3

Are you quoting it directly, or paraphrasing? I guess you wouldn't bother asking if you were using a direct quote, since that seems crystal-clear - the citation would obviously apply to all the material inside the quotation marks or indented quotation. So you must be paraphrasing... but then you're talking about the last sentence being written by the other author...? I'm not clear on this.

But, yes, in general, you only want to cite once per adopted passage. But also, in general, you don't want to paraphrase an entire paragraph from another author. You can take the author's idea and attribute it, but are you borrowing the structure of the paragraph, as well? Again, I'm not quite clear what you're trying to do.