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(540) 857-7303 |
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Address: |
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There are two main components of citing in MLA and APA format: the entry in the References/Works Cited page, and the in-text citations. In-text citations are references within the body of a text that credit the original source of information or ideas. In the body of your paper, every time you reference information from an outside source, you must include an in-text citation.
There are two main ways you can incorporate outside information into your writing: direct quotes or paraphrasing.
Anytime you incorporate direct quotes or paraphrasing in your writing, always include an in-text citation. There are two main types of in-text citations: parenthetical and narrative.
Narrative citation: The author's name is incorporated into the sentence as part of the narrative.
Parenthetical citation: Citation information appears together in parentheses at the end of the sentence. The type of information included depends on citation style.
Continue reading this page for more information on how in-text citations should look in APA and MLA format.
The main components of an APA in-text citation are the author, date, and page numbers (if applicable):
For direct quotes, you must include a page number. If your source doesn't have page numbers, then you will include a paragraph number, like so: (para. X)
Narrative citations are the preferred method of citing quotes. You may also use them for paraphrasing or summarizing. The strength of narrative citations is that it flows better for a reader. The author's name is incorporated into the sentence as part of the narrative, with the publication year in parentheses. If there's a page number, it gets placed at the end of the sentence in parentheses.
You will often want to use a signal phrase to introduce a narrative citation. For an overview of signal phrases along with some examples, visit George Mason University's page on Signal Phrases.
Example:
Goldstone (2004) argues that postmodern picture books should be considered a new subgenre of picture books because of their unique set of characteristics (p. 198).
The author's name, the publication year, and page number (if applicable) appear together in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Parenthetical citations should mostly be used for paraphrasing, and typically not for direct quotes alone.
Example:
One study found that “viewing cute images improved performance on tasks that required carefulness” (Nittono et al., 2012, p. 6).
To include two or more different resources in one citation, use a semicolon to separate them.
Example:
Poor empathy development has been associated with negative outcomes including increased aggression, poorer quality relationships, and psychopathology across development (Batanova & Loukas, 2014; Gambin & Sharp, 2016).
The main components of an MLA in-text citation are the author and page numbers:
The author's name is incorporated into the sentence as part of the narrative. If there's a page number, it gets placed at the end of the sentence in parentheses.
You will often want to use a signal phrase to introduce a narrative citation. For an overview of signal phrases along with some examples, visit George Mason University's page on Signal Phrases.
Example:
Goldstone argues that postmodern picture books should be considered a new subgenre of picture books because of their unique set of characteristics (198).
The author's name and page number (if applicable) appear together in parentheses at the end of the sentence.
Example:
One study found that “viewing cute images improved performance on tasks that required carefulness” (Nittono et al. 6).
For two authors, list both last names with the word and between them. For example:
For three or more authors, list only the first author's name and the phrase et al. if enclosed in parentheses, or the phrase and others if spelled out within the text. For example:
For citations that have no author and begin with a title, use the title, abbreviated. Keep the formatting of the title (in quotation marks or italicized) as given in the Works Cited list. Remember that authors can be organizations. For example:
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