MLA 9th Edition

Any source information that you provide in-text must match the source information on the Works Cited page Follow the author-page number method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number (s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must be in the text.

• The author's name may appear within a signal phrase:

  Badke notes, “Many faculty members view writing as a significant issue for undergraduate and graduate students" (2).

  When researching faculty, Badke found that their number one concern was the quality of student writing (2).

• Or the author's name may appear in parentheses ( ) following the quotation or paraphrase. The page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. 

Research has shown that “[m]any faculty members view writing as a significant issue for undergraduate and graduate students”(Badke 2).

Any of above correspond with the Works Cited entry:

Badke, Willian. Teaching Research Processes: The Faculty Role in the Development of Student Researchers. Chandos Publishing, 2012.

You do not need to include the author’s name each time you quote from or paraphrase the work within the same paragraph. Include the page number after each citation, however.

Identify an omission by using ellipsis points.

Badke notes, “Many faculty members view writing as a significant issue for...students" (2).

A direct quotation reproduces the words of another writer word for word.  A short quotation is under four lines long, it should be incorporated into the text and enclosed using quotation marks. You may include the author’s name within your text or within the in-text citation.

One work by one author

According to Badke, "Many faculty members view writing as a significant issue for undergraduate and graduate students" (2).

OR

"Many faculty members view writing as a significant issue for undergraduate and graduate students" (Badke 2).

One work by two authors

Clarke and Oppenheim stated that “Citations to electronic materials have been found to increase over time and the use of hardcopy materials has substantially decreased ” (24).

OR

“Citations to electronic materials have been found to increase over time and the use of hardcopy materials has substantially decreased” (Clarke and Oppenheim 24).

One work by three or more authors: provide the first author's last name, followed by et al.

Duff et al. (2006) stated that "The reasons for plagiarism are as vast as its instances" (680).

OR

"The reasons for plagiarism are as vast as its instances" (Duff et al. 680).

For quotations that are more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse, place quotations in a free-standing block of text and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented half an inch from the left margin; maintain double-spacing.

For one author, list the author's last name.

(Badke 2)

For a source with 2 authors, list all the authors' last names.

(Purkey and Gregory 16)

For 3 or more authors, provide the first author's last name, followed by et al.

(Sherman et al. 4)

If the author is an organization or a government agency, spell out the name if using a signal phrase and abbreviate terms that are commonly abbreviated in parenthesis, such as Association (Assn.) or Department (Dept.).

According to the American Diabetes Association,…

OR

(Amer. Diabetes Assn.)

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work in parentheses (or the complete title in a signal phrase) instead of an author name.

Prior to being advised of his rights, Tsarnaev admitted that his older brother had “recently recruited him to be part of the attack that detonated pressure-cooker bombs at the marathon finish line” (“Boston Marathon bombing suspect”).

The above corresponds with the Works Cited entry:

“Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev silent after read Miranda rights.” CBS News. 25 Apr. 2013, www.cbsnews.com/news/boston-marathon-bombing-suspect-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-silent-after-read-miranda-rights/.

Provide the authors' first initials (or the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation.

(K. Smith 14)

If you cite more than one work by a particular author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others.

(Battersby, "Cool It" 12)

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:

. . . as has been discussed elsewhere (Burke 3; Dewey 21).

You do not need to provide page numbers if no valid page numbers are present. With online documents, do not use the number from the printout; only include if a stable page number is provided (such as with a .pdf file).

If what you quote or paraphrase is itself a quotation, cite the work YOU looked at.

Samuel Johnson said that Burke was an “extraordinary man” (qtd. in Boswell 45).

When creating in-text citations for videos and audios, you need to include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference.

(Jones 00:02:15 - 00:03:00)