A quotation is a piece of text that you copy verbatim from the source.
Your report should never consist of quotations strung together. As a rule of thumb, for every line you quote, you should write at least two lines analyzing the quotation.
The rules for quoting are:
Copy the quote carefully, using exactly the same words as the original source.
Copy the quote in the original language.
If you are quoting an English text in a Dutch report, the quotation remains in English. If you cannot assume that your readers understand the original language, first give the quotation in the original language and then a literal translation of the quotation.
Always quote in accordance with the intention of the source. For example, make sure that the quotation is not meant ironically and that the meaning of the quotation does not change when taken out of its original context.
Clearly indicate the beginning and end of the quotation by placing it between quotation marks or, in the case of longer quotations, by indenting them as a block.
A quotation is followed by a reference in brackets, stating the surname of the author(s), the year and the page number(s) in that order.
For more information about citing according to APA guidelines, please consult the Hanze Libguide.
An example of how a citation might appear in your paper (APA style): “We show that SARS-CoV-2 is shed early in the course of infection in some patients, with viral load in the respiratory tract being significantly higher than in other tissues” (Stein et al., 2022, p. 128).