<P> A block quotation (also known as a long quotation or extract) is a quotation in a written document that is set off from the main text as a paragraph, or block of text, and typically distinguished visually using indentation and a different typeface or smaller size font . This is in contrast to setting it off with quotation marks in a run - in quote . Block quotations are used for long quotations . The Chicago Manual of Style recommends using a block quotation when extracted text is 100 words or more, or approximately six to eight lines in a typical manuscript . </P> <P> In the first centuries of typesetting, quotations were distinguished merely by indicating the speaker, and this can still be seen in some editions of the Bible . During the Renaissance, quotations were distinguished by setting in a typeface contrasting with the main body text (often Italic type with roman, or the other way round). Block quotations were set this way at full size and full measure . </P> <P> Quotation marks were first cut in type during the middle of the sixteenth century, and were used copiously by some printers by the seventeenth . In Baroque and Romantic - period books, they could be repeated at the beginning of every line of a long quotation . When this practice was abandoned, the empty margin remained, leaving an indented block quotation . </P> <P> Apart from quotation marks not being used to enclose block quotations, there are no hard - and - fast rules for the exact formatting of block quotations . To a large extent the specific format may be dictated by the method of publication (e.g. handwritten text, typewritten pages, or electronic publishing) as well as the typeface being used . </P>

A longer quotation that runs four or more typed lines is also known as a block quotation