Changes to quotations
You can make changes to a direct quotation, but think twice before doing so. You should not do this more than is absolutely necessary, in order to limit the length of your text or the proportion of direct quotations in it.
When you have a direct quotation, and want to leave out something that isn’t relevant
Original sentence:
«Aside from the maximization of social effiency and of social productivity the State can legitimately undertake, for motives of an ethical or political nature, to bring about, by appropriate means, a certain distribution of individual incomes over time.»
Insert three periods in square brackets where you have deleted:
«Aside from the maximization of social effiency and of social productivity the State can legitimately undertake […] to bring about […] a certain distribution of individual incomes over time.» (Allais, 2024, p. 224).
When you have a direct quotation, and want to add something to clarify
Original sentence:
“De fleste artene spiser for det meste planteføde, med stor mage, lang og snodd tarm og en velutvikla blindtarm.”
Place square brackets around what you have added:
“De fleste artene [av piggrotter] spiser for det meste planteføde, med stor mage, lang og snodd tarm og en velutvikla blindtarm.” (Frafjord, 2020).
When you have a direct quotation, and want to emphasize something that was not originally emphasized
If the original text contains italics, they must also be reproduced in the direct quotation. If you want to emphasize something that was not originally emphasized, you must write [emphasis added] immediately after the emphasized text.
Original sentence:
“To overcome the adverse consequences of the lift force, various types of spoilers are often fitted to cars, an example of which was already mentioned in the first paragraph above.”
Insert square brackets with [emphasis added] after the text you have italicized yourself:
“To overcome the adverse consequences of the lift force, various types of spoilers [emphasis added] are often fitted to cars, an example of which was already mentioned in the first paragraph above (Leschziner, 2026, p. 76).”
Note: The Citation Compass is based on the Norwegian edition of APA 7th. In some cases, it differs slightly from the American original edition, in order to follow Norwegian spelling conventions. This is the case when using square brackets to indicate omissions in direct quotations. This follows Norwegian spelling rules, but deviates from the original APA manual.