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History of Toys

Course guide for AHCS 236
This page has been updated to MLA 9

What are in-text citations?

In-text citations appear in the body of your research paper. Sometimes, they may be called "parenthetical" or "internal" citations. They briefly give credit to the source of your information.

These citations will direct your reader to the source's complete citation in your Works Cited Page.

 

"MLA In-Text Citations." YouTube, uploaded by Lackawanna College Writing Center, 19 January 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIDsEl1Bp9k. Accessed 14 October 2024.

Format and Rules

Basic Layout:

  • (Author's Last Name Page #)

Basic Rules:

  • Enclose the in-text citation in parentheses
  • They should cause minimal disruption to the reading flow
  • They should direct the reader to a corresponding complete citation within the Works Cited page

Punctuation:

  • Do not add any unnecessary punctuation marks between the Last Name and Page #
  • Do not add p. or pp. to the page number(s)
  • Do not add a colon or other punctuation mark before the first parenthesis
  • The ending period of a sentence goes AFTER the in-text citation's end parenthesis

Special Cases:

Write the author's last name followed by the page number on which the information was found.

(Case 57)

(hooks 14)

(Joseph-Armstrong 243)

To distinguish between multiple authors with the same last name, add their first initial (C. Zemel 351)

Connect both authors' last names with and, followed by the page number.

(Case and Brand 57)

(Strunk and White 36)

(Sturken and Cartwright 134)

Use the first author's last name and et al., followed by the page number.

(Case et al. 57)

(Franck et al. 327)

Use a shortened title of the work. Do not include any initial articles, like "A", "An" or "The".

  • If the title in the Works Cited list is in italics, italicize the words from the title in the in-text citation: (Title Page Number)
  • If the title in the Works Cited list is in quotation marks, put quotation marks around the words from the title in the in-text citation: ("Title" Page Number)

(Cell Biology 12).

("Trouble" 22)

When available, use stable page, chapter, or section numbers. If none is available, omit it.

  • For e-books, do not use device-specific locations, e.g. "240 of 503" or "Loc. 1690 of 3014".
  • For audio-visual sources (such as films and oral interviews), use the timecode for the quote instead of the page number.
  • When you quote from electronic sources, such as a webpage, that do not provide page numbers, cite the author's name only.
  • If a journal article is posted on a webpage that includes a PDF of the print version, use the PDF to get the page numbers.

(Garelli)

(Scalzi Chap. 7)

(Wong 01:00:54)

("New Student Orientation")

If you are citing multiple sources by the same author(s), use a shortened title to identiy the source.

  • Italicize book, movie, and website titles
  • Use quotes for article, essay, and webpage titles.
  • If you do not mention the author's name within your text, include it in the parenthetical citation followed by a comma.

Foucault states that ... (Manet 50).

(Foucault, Manet 50)

Foucault states that ... ("Panopticism" 207).

(Foucault, "Panopticism" 207)

Direct Quotes

When you quote directly from a source, enclose the quoted section in quotation marks, followed by the in-text citation. Add your end punctuation after the in-text citation's closing parenthesis. 

Example:

Mother-infant attachment has been a leading topic of developmental research since John Bowlby found that "children raised in institutions were deficient in emotional and personality development" (Hunt 358).

Long Quotes (AKA Block Quotes)

Any long quotations should be formatted as block quotes. There are specific formatting rules for these.

Rules:

  • For prose, the rule is four lines or more of your MLA-formatted essay. For poetry, the rule is three lines. This also applies if the original printed quotation is two or more paragraphs.
  • To introduce your quote, end the line before your long quotation with a colon.
  • Indent the quotation half an inch from the rest of the text.
  • Do not include quotation marks around the quote.
  • Add the in-text citation after the end punctuation of the quotation. Do not include any punctuation after the in-text citation.

Example:

At the end of Lord of the Flies, the boys are struck with the realization of their behavior:

The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. (Golding 186)

Paraphrasing

When you write information or ideas from a source in your own words, add an in-text citation at the end of the paraphrased portion.

Paraphrasing from One Page

Include a full in-text citation with the author's name and page number (if there is one).

Example:

Mother-infant attachment became a leading topic of developmental research following the publication of John Bowlby's studies (Hunt 65).

Paraphrasing from Multiple Pages

If the paraphrased information/idea is from several pages, include all of them.

Example:

Mother-infant attachment became a leading topic of developmental research following the publication of John Bowlby's studies (Hunt 50, 55, 65-71).

Repeated Sources

If you're using information from a single source more than once in succession (i.e., no other sources are referred to in between), you can use a simplified in-text citation.

Rules:

  • Just include the page number(s)
  • If it creates ambiguity about the source being referred to, use the full in-text citation format instead

Example:

Cell biology is an area of science that focuses on the structure and function of cells (Smith 15). It revolves around the idea that the cell is a "fundamental unit of life" (17). Many important scientists have contributed to the evolution of cell biology. Mattias Jakob Schleiden and Theodor Schwann, for example, were scientists who formulated cell theory in 1838 (20).

Signal Phrases

If you refer to the author's name in a sentence, you do not have to include the name as part of your in-text citation; instead, include the page number(s) at the end of the quotation or paraphrased section.

Example:

Hunt explains that mother-infant attachment has been a leading topic of developmental research since John Bowlby found that "children raised in institutions were deficient in emotional and personality development" (358).

Attributing to Multiple Sources

If you want to cite multiple sources within the same in-text citation, separate them with a semi-colon. They do not need to be in alphabetical order.

Examples:

(Smith 42; Bennett 71). 

(It Takes Two; Brock 43).

Works Quoted in Another Source

Sometimes, an author will mention another person’s work using a quotation or paraphrased idea.

Rules:

  • Refer to the author who created the source that used the quote or paraphrased idea
  • Add the phrase  "qtd. in"  to the in-text citation

Examples:

According to a study by Smith (qtd. in Kirkey) 42% of doctors would refuse to perform legal euthanasia.

Smith (qtd. in Kirkey) states that “even if euthanasia was legal, 42% of doctors would be against this method of assisted dying” (A.10).

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