MLA in-text citation is a method used to acknowledge and cite sources within the text of a research paper or academic document. It involves putting brief citations within the body of the text to indicate where specific information or ideas have been sourced from. 

In general, you should use a citation any time you use someone else's words, ideas, data, or information in your work.

One complete citation for each in-text cited source should appear in the Works Cited page at the end of the paper.

 

How about repeated citations from same source? 

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.

 

What not to cite:

It is best practice to cite whenever possible.  However, there is no need to cite:

• Common knowledge. Common knowledge includes facts that are found in many sources. In general, if a fact can be found in five credible sources, a citation is not necessary. For example, you would not need to cite that the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, or that water is comprised of hydrogen and oxygen.
• Generally accepted or observable facts. When a fact is generally accepted or easily observable, you do not need a citation. For example, “smoking may be bad for your health” or “most people use cell phones” are both generally accepted and easily observable. Be careful, however; if you venture into more specific knowledge, you should cite a source. For example, if you want to provide specific numbers of teenagers that text while driving or the incidence of lung cancer among smokers, these require citations.
• Original ideas and lived experiences. When writing about yourself or your lived experiences, a citation is not necessary. Original ideas, including the write-up of results from your own research or projects, do not require citations.

Adapted from Boston University.

MLA format follows the author-page 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 appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.

For example:

• Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).

or

• Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

Both citations in the examples above tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. Oxford UP, 1967.

Used with permission from Purdue OWL.

How do I create an in-text citation for...?

One Author

Two Authors

For a source with 2 authors, list both the authors' last names followed by the page number.

(Purkey and Gregory 16)

 

Three or More Authors

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

(Sherman et al. 4)

 

Organization as Author

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.) followed by the page number.

According to the American Diabetes Association,…

OR

(Amer. Diabetes Assn. 17)

 

Unknown Author

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. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.

Example:

We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has "more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change . . ." ("Impact of Global Warming").

The above corresponds with the Works Cited entry:

"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs. 1999. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.

 

Different Works by Authors with the Same Last Name

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

(K. Smith 14)

 

Different Works by the Same Author

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)

 

More than One Source

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).

 

The Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:

Ezekiel saw "what seemed to be four living creatures," each with faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle (New Jerusalem Bible, Ezek. 1.5-10).

If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:

John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).

 

No Page Numbers

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).

 

Indirect Sources

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).

 

Video & Audio Formats

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)