In-text+Citations

= = = **Basic In-Text Citation Rules ** = In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what is known as parenthetical citation. This method involves placing relevant source information in parentheses after a quote or a paraphrase.

**General Guidelines** ====**In-Text Citations: Author-Page Style** ==== 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:
 * The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1.) upon the source medium (e.g. Print, Web, DVD) and (2.) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited (bibliography) page.
 * Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text, must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry in the Works Cited List.
 * Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).
 * Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).
 * Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), 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//. London: Oxford U.P., 1967. Print.

==== **In-text Citations for Print Sources with Known Author** ==== For Print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.
 * Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as "symbol-using animals" (3).
 * Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry in the Works Cited:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Burke, Kenneth. //Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method//. Berkeley: U of California P, 1966. Print.

====<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**In-text Citations for Print Sources with No Known Author** ==== <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (e.g. articles) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire websites) and provide a page number.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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” 6).

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title of the article appears in the parenthetical citation which corresponds to the full name of the article which appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">“The Impact of Global Warming in North America.” //GLOBAL WARMING: Early Signs//. 1999. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Citing Authors with Same Last Names**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Although some medical ethicists claim that cloning will lead to designer children (R. Miller 12), others note that the advantages for medical research outweigh this consideration (A. Miller 46).

====<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Citing a Work by Multiple Authors** ==== <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">For a source with three or fewer authors, list the authors' last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Smith, Yang, and Moore argue that tougher gun control is not needed in the United States (76).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The authors state "Tighter gun control in the United States erodes Second Amendment rights" (Smith, Yang, and Moore 76).

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">For a source with more than three authors, use the work's bibliographic information as a guide for your citation. Provide the first author's last name followed by et al. or list all the last names.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Jones et al. counter Smith, Yang, and Moore's argument by noting that the current spike in gun violence in America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (4).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Legal experts counter Smith, Yang, and Moore's argument by noting that the current spike in gun violence in America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (Jones et al. 4).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Jones, Driscoll, Ackerson, and Bell counter Smith, Yang, and Moore's argument by noting that the current spike in gun violence in America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (4).

====<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Citing two articles by the same author** ====
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lightenor has argued that computers are not useful tools for small children ("Too Soon" 38), though he has acknowledged elsewhere that early exposure to computer games does lead to better small motor skill development in a child's second and third year ("Hand-Eye Development" 17).

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Citing two books by the same author**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Murray states that writing is "a process" that "varies with our thinking style" (//Write to Learn// 6). Additionally, Murray argues that the purpose of writing is to "carry ideas and information from the mind of one person into the mind of another" (//A Writer Teaches Writing// 3).

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, you would format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, followed, when appropriate, by page numbers:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Visual studies, because it is such a new discipline, may be "too easy" (Elkins, "Visual Studies" 63).

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Citing the Bible**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In your first parenthetical citation, you want to 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:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">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).

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation.

==== <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Citing Non-Print or Sources from the Internet** ==== <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">You do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Unless you must list the website name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like //CNN.com// or //Forbes.com// as opposed to writing out [|http://www.cnn.com] or [|http://www.forbes.com].

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**When a Citation Is Not Needed**
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations or common knowledge. Remember, this is a rhetorical choice, based on audience. If you're writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, they'll have different expectations of what constitutes common knowledge. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Contributors:**Tony Russell, Allen Brizee, Elizabeth Angeli, Russell Keck. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">**Works Cited** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Russell, Tony, Allen Brizee, Elizabeth Angeli, and Russell Keck. "Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide." //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Welcome to the Purdue University Online // //<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> Writing Lab ////<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">(OWL) //. Web. 16 Nov. 2011. <<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">[] >.