A direct quotation is used when you want to quote already published content without paraphrasing it. Although paraphrasing is important, it is sometimes allowed to quote the content as such to create emphasis.
A block quotation is used in prose when the content taken verbatim from the published work is more than four lines. It is also called a long quotation.
In Goals, Tracy explains how to practice:
The more you practice what you are learning, the faster you will become competent and skilled in that area. The more you practice, the more confidence you will develop. The more you practice, the more rapidly you will overcome your feelings of inadequacy in that skill and the faster you will master it. The more you practice, the more rapidly you will add that skill to your mental toolbox where you will possess it for the rest of your career. (211)
In Think & Grow Rich, Hill exclaimed and added
What do we say about the Chinese?
We refuse to believe that which we do not understand. We foolishly believe that our own limitations are the proper measure of limitations. Sure, the other fellow’s eyes “off slant.” BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT THE SAME AS OUR OWN. (28)
Note that subsequent paragraphs in a block quotation should be indented.
For the first few years, he justified his long hours by saying that he was “doing it for the good of the firm,” and that he planned to take a month off and go to the Caymans “next winter for sure.” As time passed, however, Julian’s reputation for brilliance spread and his workload continued to increase. The cases just kept on getting bigger and better, and Julian, never one to back down from a good challenge, continued to push himself harder and harder. (14)
As expected, Julian became enormously successful. He achieved everything could most people ever want.
A block quotation is used in poetry when the verse runs more than three lines.
The in-text citation is given in parenthesis after the block quotation.
While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear,
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off, and near. (Wordsworth, 997)
If the in-text citation does not fit on the last line, set the verse as below:
While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear,
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off, and near.
(Wordsworth, The Cuckoo 997)
If a line of the verse is too long to fit within a line, indent the continuation to show that it is a continuation of the previous line.
I marvel how Nature could ever find space
For so many strange contrasts in one human face:
There’s thought and no thought, and there’s
paleness and bloom
And bustle and sluggishness, pleasure and gloom.
(Wordsworth, A Character 2)