InfoGuides: English 112: In-Text Citations

Introduction to In-Text Citations

There are two main components of citing in MLA format: the entry in the 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.

In-Text Citations: An Overview [MLA]

General Information for In-Text Citations

There are two main ways you can incorporate outside information into your writing: direct quotes or paraphrasing.

Direct quotes: Using the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks, to preserve the original wording and context.
Paraphrasing: Putting someone else's ideas or information in your own words while maintaining the original meaning.

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 MLA format.

MLA Style

The main components of an MLA in-text citation are the author and page numbers:

Author(s) last name
Page number (if available)

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).

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).

For two authors, list both last names with the word and between them. For example:

Students who use the library receive better grades on research papers (Smith and Jones 12).
Smith and Jones state that students who use the library receive better grades on research papers (12).

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:

Students who use the library receive better grades on research papers (Smith et al. 12).
Smith and others state that students who use the library receive better grades on research papers (12).

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:

("How to Find")
(Beowulf 25)