Official reference style when quoting a source

Question

My current style is:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat^[1]. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Source:

1. example.com: A detailed article about a topic

---

When am quoting the source, does it mean, that everything from the previous "." is quoted, or the entire paragraph? and the following text after the^[1], is not?

eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua^[1].

What is the official reference style when quoting a source?

Also if what am quoting is a hundred page long PDF, should i post the link with the PDF only, or also the page number where my quote and source came from?

Answer 1

I learned that in APA a reference only refers to the current or preceding sentence, and that you should signify a continued reference through backreference.

Here the second sentence refers to the article by Bob and Paul, because the "they" takes up the preceding sencence's subject:

In their study, Bob and Paul (1999) found that some boys like girls. They observed that on average boys smile more when they look at girls compared to when they look at each other.

That is the only way to paraphrase a source over multiple sentences in APA. You must refer to the source in each sentence, either directly, or by refering to another sentence by pronouns or phrases such as "the authors".

A single reference for more than one sentence is possible only for direct quotes:

"Some boys like girls. We observed that on average boys smile quite a lot more while they look at girls, as compared to when they look at other boys. We also looked at the girls a bit. And then we ate lunch." (Bob & Paul, 1999)

If you don't credit a source in a sentence, then that sentence is your own (or pretends to be, which might lead to plagiarism complaints). Contrary to the first example above, in the following example the second sentence contains an unfounded claim that is not backed by research:

In their study, Bob and Paul (1999) found that some boys like girls. Boys smile more when they look at girls than when they look at each other.

Here, the first sentence is an unfounded claim, as the reference in the second sentence does not reach back to it:

Some boys like girls. Boys smile more when they look at girls than when they look at each other (Bob & Paul, 1999).

The reference must be inside the punctuation, not following it. This is wrong:

Some boys like girls. Boys smile more when they look at girls than when they look at each other. (Bob & Paul, 1999)

---

Which reference style you need to use (APA, MLA, ...) depends on your field of study. Here are short introductions into the basics of APA, MLA and Chicago style: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/