• Short references within the text are given wholly or partly in round brackets.
•Use only the surname of the author(s) followed by the page, chapter, paragraph or section numbers if you need to be specific.
• No distinction is made between books, journal articles, internet documents or other formats except for electronic documents that do not provide page numbers. In this instance, use the paragraph number, if available, with the abbreviation par.
•Citations in the text can either be placed at the end of a sentence in parentheses (brackets) or alternatively, the author's name may be included in the text, with just the page information placed within the brackets.
• The citation in the text of your work should appear in parentheses at the end of a sentence before the full stop and include the author's surname and relevant page number or the authors surname may be integrated into the text. The full reference must be listed at the end of your essay in the Works Cited list.
Some examples
• A citation for a bookappearing in the text as:
When words and pictures compete, the pictures win (Tompkins 144).
would be found in the Works Cited list in the following form:
Tompkins, Al. Aim For the Heart: Write, Shoot, Report and Produce for TV and Multimedia. 3rd ed., CQ Press, 2018.
• A citation for an article from an e-journal appearing in the text as either:
Television was identified as the most important medium by both activists and government (Waller and McCallum 1001).
OR
Waller and McCallum reported
that television was identified as the most important medium by both activists and government (1001).
would appear in the Works Cited list as:
Waller, Lisa and Kerry McCallum. "How Television Moved a Nation: Media, Change and Indigenous Rights." Media, Culture & Society, vol. 40, no. 7, 2018, pp. 992–1007. Sage Journals, //doi.org/10.1177/0163443718754650.
Note: When referring to multiple authors within the text and within parentheses, precede the final name with the word and
... as Kurtines and Szapocnik demonstrated (23).
OR
... as has been demonstrated (Kurtines and Szapocnik 23).
• An electronic document would be cited in the text in the same way as a print document. For example, a citation for an internet document appearing in the text as:
"Younger migrants working in highly-skilled occupations, for example, earn as much or more than their Australian counterparts, but Australian-born people with vocational qualifications generally do better than similarly-skilled migrants from non-English speaking countries" (Miranti et al. 31).
would be given in the Works Cited list as:
Miranti, Riyana, et al. Calling Australia Home: The Characteristics and Contributions of Australia's Migrants. National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM), 2010, //media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/21/219073/natsem_10.pdf.
See the All Examples page for examples of in-text and reference list entries for specific resources such as articles, books, and web pages.On This Page
Works with Authors/Editors
| One | (Author's Last Name Page Number) (Case 57) |
| Two | (First Author's Last Name and Second Author's Last Name Page Number) (Case and Daristotle 57) |
| Three or more | (First Author's Last Name et al. Page Number) (Case et al. 57) |
| No named author (book) | (Title Page Number) (Encyclopedia of World Art 16:55-57) |
| No named author (article) | ("Title" Page Number) ("Trouble" 22) |
Unknown Author
Where you'd normally put the author's last name, instead use the first one, two, or three words from the title. Don't count initial articles like "A", "An" or "The". You should provide enough words to make it clear which work you're referring to from your Works Cited list.
If the title in the Works Cited list is in italics, italicize the words from the title in the in-text citation.
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.
Examples:
(Cell Biology 12)
("Nursing" 12)
No Page Numbers
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 that do not provide page numbers (like Web pages), cite the author name only.
Examples:
Wong does not consider himself a "terrific artist" (01:00:54).
"Three phases of the separation response: protest, despair, and detachment" (Garelli).
For more info, check out "MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics" by the Purdue Online Writing Lab.
In MLA, in-text citations are inserted in the body of your research paper to briefly document the source of your information. Brief in-text citations point the reader to more complete information in the works cited list at the end of the paper.
- In-text citations include the last name of the author followed by a page number enclosed in parentheses.
"Here's a direct quote" (Smith 8). - If the author's name is not given, then use the first word or words of
the title. Follow the same formatting that was used in the works cited list, such as quotation marks.
This is a paraphrase ("Trouble" 22). - If the author is mentioned in context, you do not need to repeat it in the in-text citation. Include the page number (if available) enclosed in parentheses.
According to Smith, "here's a direct quote" (8).
"Trouble" uses a signal phrase (22).
Note: The period goes outside the brackets, at the end of your in-text citation.
Quoting Directly
When you quote directly from a source, enclose the quoted section in quotation marks. Add an in-text citation at the end of the quote with the author name and page number:
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 Quotations
What Is a Long Quotation?
If your quotation extends to more than four lines as you're typing your essay, it is a long quotation.
Rules for Long Quotations
There are 4 rules that apply to long quotations that are different from regular quotations:
- The line before your long quotation, when you're introducing the quote, usually ends with a colon.
- The long quotation is indented half an inch from the rest of the text, so it looks like a block of text.
- There are no quotation marks around the quotation.
- The period at the end of the quotation comes before your in-text citation as opposed to after, as it does with regular quotations.
Example of a Long Quotation
At the end of Lord of the Flies the boys are struck with the realization of their behaviour:
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, cite the source by adding an in-text citation at the end of the paraphrased portion.
Paraphrasing from One Page
Include a full in-text citation with the author name and page number (if there is one). For 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 them. For example:
Mother-infant attachment became a leading topic of developmental research following the publication of John Bowlby's studies (Hunt 50, 55, 65-71).
Signal Phrases
If you refer to the author's name in a sentence you do not have to include the name again as part of your in-text citation, instead include the page number (if there is one) at the end of the quotation or paraphrased section. For 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).
Repeated Use of Sources
If you're using information from a single source more than once in succession (i.e., no other sources referred to in between), you can use a simplified in-text citation.
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).
Note: If using this simplified in-text citation creates ambiguity regarding the source being referred to, use the full in-text citation format.
In-Text Citation For More Than One Source
If you would like to cite more than one source within the same in-text citation, simply record the in-text citations as normal and separate them with a semi-colon.
Examples:
(Smith 42; Bennett 71).
(It Takes Two; Brock 43).
Note: The sources within the in-text citation do not need to be in alphabetical order for MLA style.