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MLA Citation: In-text Citations

About In-text citations

Short in-text citations are used to point the reader to more complete information in the Works Cited list. Always provide the following in your text (if available):

  • author
  • page number (if available)

  • If no author is available: use the title (you may abbreviate it if it is long)
  • if no page numbers are given: include a different locator (section, chapter, paragraph number), but ONLY IF it is visible and FIXED (otherwise, give no locator). Section and sections are abbreviated to sec. and secs.; chapter and chapters to ch. and chs.; paragraph and paragraphs to par. and pars.  

In-text citations

 

SHORT QUOTESEnclose short quotations (less than 4 lines) in double quotation marks and incorporate them in your sentence.

EXAMPLE PRINT BOOK WITH FIXED PAGE NUMBERS AVAILABLE:

According to SmailDarwinian evolution "follows a rhythm dictated by the rapidity of generational turnover" (99). 

One opinion is that Darwinian evolution "follows a rhythm dictated by the rapidity of generational turnover" (Smail 99). 

 

LONG QUOTES: Display a longer quotation in a block with no quotation marks, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin. Note that the closing punctuation mark precedes the page citation.

EXAMPLE: 

Darwin concluded the following:

Our ignorance of the laws of variation is profound. Not in one case out of a hundred can we pretend to assign any reason why this or that part differs, more or less, from the same part in the parents. But whenever we have the means of instituting a comparison, the same laws appear to have acted in producing the lesser differences between varieties of the same species, and the greater differences between species of the same genus. The external conditions of life, as climate and food, &c., seem to have induced some slight modifications. Habit in producing constitutional differences, and use in strengthening, and disuse in weakening and diminishing organs, seem to have been more potent in their effects. (ch. 5)
 
 

For PARAPHRASES provide the same citation information as for quotes. However, do not put quotation marks around your writing. For SUMMARIES the same applies, unless you are referring to an item as a whole, in which case you don't give any page number (example 3)

EXAMPLE:

The speed of human cultural evolution is linked to the turnover rate of cultural entities (Smail 99-100).

Smail suggested that the speed of human cultural evolution is linked to the turnover rate of cultural entities (99-100).

Smail's book discusses the topic of ...

 


 

WORKS CITED entries for the above examples

Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. TalkOrigins Archive, 1998-2016, www.talkorigins.org/faqs/origin/chapter5.html.
O'Neill, Dennis. "Darwin and Natural Selection." Early Theories of Evolution: 17th-19th Century Discoveries that Led to the Acceptance of Biological Evolution, Palomar Colllege, 1998-2013, anthro.palomar.edu/evolve.
Smail, Daniel Lord. On Deep History and the Brain. U of California P, 2008.

 

For ONE author list the author’s last name and a locator (such as a page number) if available. 

EXAMPLE:

As one researcher noted ..... (Creese 87).
As Creese has noted, ... (87).

 

For TWO authors, put the last names in the order in which they appear in the work. Add a locator if available.

EXAMPLE:

Research has shown that ..... (Tellis and Ambler, par. 2).
Tellis and Ambler found ... (par. 2).

 

For MORE THAN TWO authors, list the first author's last name followed by the words et. al (meaning "and others"). Add a locator if available.

EXAMPLE:

Literature is a vehicle for ..... (Puchner et al. 58).
Puchner et al. describe ... (58).

 

NO author: Give the title (abbreviate if long; omit initial articles like "A", "An" or "The"). If the title in the Works Cited list is in italics, italicize the title in the in-text citation as well. If ii is in quotation marks, put quotation marks around the title in the in-text citation. Add a locator if available.

EXAMPLES:

One important relationship between nutrition and health is ..... (Good Housekeeping 55).
In the health and nutrition section of Good Housekeeping it states that ... (55).

One smart phone application prevents drivers from texting ... ("Zoomsafer").
The short newspaper clip "Zoomsafer" describes ...

 


WORKS CITED entries for the above examples: 

Creese, Gillian Laura. The New African Diaspora in Vancouver: Migration, Exclusion, and Belonging. U of Toronto P, 2011.
Puchner, Martin, et al., editors. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 9th ed., vol. 1, W. W. Norton, 2014.
Tellis, Gerard J., and Tim Ambler, editors. The New African Diaspora in Vancouver: Migration, Exclusion, and Belonging.The Sage Handbook of Advertising. Sage, 2009. Sage Knowledge, doi:10.4135/9781848607897.
The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Child Care: From Newborn to Preteen. Hearst Books, 1995.
"Zoomsafer app stops texting." The Province, Oct. 1 2010, p. A12.

 

Note: if the source is only one page long, you don't have to repeat the page number in the in-text citation, as in the Zoomsafer example.

 

BASIC RULE:  Give the author and page number(s) if available for anything you quote, paraphrase, summarize or otherwise refer to. If you want to cite several sources that state the same, list them all in parentheses (as in the third example shown below).

EXAMPLES WITH FIXED PAGE NUMBERS AVAILABLE:

According to SmailDarwinian evolution "follows a rhythm dictated by the rapidity of generational turnover" (99). 

The speed of human cultural evolution is linked to the turnover rate of cultural entities (Smail 99-100).

Some researchers state that cultural evolution happens at a faster rate than biological evolution (Smail 37; Mesoudi et al. 4).

 

For sources that have no page number(s) but have a different VISIBLE, FIXED locator (chapter, section, paragraph), give that locator.

EXAMPLE ONLINE SOURCE WITH FIXED CHAPTER NUMBERS AVAILABLE: 

Darwin states that "our ignorance of the laws of variation is profound" (ch. 5). 

The statement that "our ignorance of the laws of variation is profound" (Darwin, ch. 5) summarizes how little was known at the time. 

 

For sources with neither page number(s) or other visible, fixed locators, give the author only. 

EXAMPLE ONLINE SOURCE WITH NO FIXED LOCATOR AVAILABLE: 

O'Neill points out that Darwin  "did not believe that evolution follows a predetermined direction or that it has an inevitable goal".

It is said that Darwin "did not believe that evolution follows a predetermined direction or that it has an inevitable goal" (O'Neill). 

 


 

WORKS CITED entries for the above examples

Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. TalkOrigins Archive, 1998-2016, www.talkorigins.org/faqs/origin/chapter5.html.
Mesoudi, Alex et al. "Is Human Cultural Evolution Darwinian? Evidence Reviewed from the Perspective of 'The Origin of Species'." Evolution, vol. 58, no. 1, 2004, pp. 1-11. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3449291.
O'Neill, Dennis. "Darwin and Natural Selection." Early Theories of Evolution: 17th-19th Century Discoveries that Led to the Acceptance of Biological Evolution, Palomar Colllege, 1998-2013, anthro.palomar.edu/evolve.
Smail, Daniel Lord. On Deep History and the Brain. U of California P, 2008.

 

USING ONLY ONE VOLUME:  If you borrow from only one volume of a multivolume work, specify the volume number in the Works Cited list. You don't need to include it in the in-text citation.

EXAMPLE:

... (Puchner et al. 58). 

USING MORE THAN ONE VOLUME:  If you borrow from more than one volume of a multivolume work, give the volume number AND page number in the in-text citation (in the example, 2 is the volume number and 58 is the page number). Give the total number of volumes in the Works Cited list. 

EXAMPLE:

... (Bumsted et al. 2:58) 

 


 

WORKS CITED entries for the above examples

Bumsted, John M., et al, editors. Interpreting Canada's Past. 4th ed., Oxford UP, 2011. vols
Puchner, Martin, et al., editors. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. 9th ed., vol. 1, Norton, 2014. 

 

PROSE:  For a classic prose work available in several editions, provide the page number plus additional information in your in text reference (e.g.: chapter, part, or scene number).

EXAMPLE:

... (Dostoevsky 20; pt. 1, ch. 1) 

VERSE PLAYS AND POEMS:  When referencing verse plays and poems with line numbering, omit page numbers, but cite by division (act, scene, canto, book, part) and line, with periods separating the various numbers, e.g. Illiad 9.19 (this refers to Homer's Illiad, book 9, line 19). If there are only line numbers, use the word line or lines plus the number the first time you cite, and then only the number(s) as in the 2nd example (Note: the forward slash / indicates a line break in the poem). Otherwise, simply use the page number. 

EXAMPLE  with division and line numbering:

... (Shakespeare 2.1.82-85) 

EXAMPLE  with line numbering only:

With the last words of the poem "I, born to fog, to waste, / Walk through hypothesis, / An individual" (lines 34-36), Gunn repeats the image he invoked at the beginning: "Now it is fog, I walk, / Contained within my coat" (1-2).

EXAMPLE  page numbers: 

With the words "lately I have come to believe / all that is of value is the currency / of the heart" (16), the tone of Musgrave's poem becomes much darker... 


 

WORKS CITED entries for the above examples

Dostoevsky, Feodor. Crime and Punishment. Translated by Jessie Coulson, edited by George Gibian, Norton, 1964.
Shakespeare, William. Titus Andronicus. Edited by Russ McDonald, Penguin, 2000. 
Gunn, Thom. "Human Condition." The Norton Anthology of English Literature, general editor M. H.. Abrams, 3rd. ed., vol. 2, W. W. Norton, 1974, pp. 2430-31. 
Musgrave, Susan. "True Love." Origami Dove, McClelland & Stewart, 2011, pp. 16-17. 

 

If you cite more than once from the SAME source in a row (WITHOUT any other source citations in between), you MAY make your in-text citations more concise. However, if these techniques would create ambiguity, then give citations in full every time. 

EXAMPLES:

Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two worlds: "the world of the everyday," associated with the adults in the play, and "the world of romance," associated with the two lovers (Zender 138). Romeo and Juliet's language of love nevertheless becomes "fully responsive to the tang of actuality" (141). 

According to Karl F. Zender, Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two worlds: "the world of the everyday," associated with the adults in the play, and "the world of romance," associated with the two lovers (138). Romeo and Juliet's language of love nevertheless becomes "fully responsive to the tang of actuality" (141). 

Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two worlds: "the world of the everyday ... and the world of romance." Although the two lovers are part of the world of romance, their language of love nevertheless becomes "fully responsive to the tang of actuality" (Zender 138, 141). 

 


 

WORKS CITED entry for the above examples

Zender, Karl F. "Loving Shakespeare's Lovers: Character Growth in Romeo and Juliet." Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, edited by Maurice Hunt, MLA, 2000, pp. 137-143.