To indicate that you are using a source’s exact phrases or sentences, you must enclose them in quotation marks unless they have been set off from the text by indenting (see Setting off long quotations). To omit the quotation marks is to claim —falsely —that the language is your own. Such an omission is plagiarism even if you have cited the source.
original source
Without adequate discipline, the World Wide Web can be a tremendous time sink; no other medium comes close to matching the Internet’s depth of materials, interactivity, and sheer distractive potential.
—Frederick Lane, The Naked Employee, p. 142
plagiarism
Frederick Lane points out that if people do not have adequate discipline, the World Wide Web can be a tremendous time sink; no other medium comes close to matching the Internet’s depth of materials, interactivity, and sheer distractive potential (142).
borrowed language in quotation marks
Frederick Lane points out that for those not exercising self-control, “the World Wide Web can be a tremendous time sink; no other medium comes close to matching the Internet’s depth of materials, interactivity, and sheer distractive potential” (142).