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An in-text citation is a brief reference in your essay that leads your reader to a corresponding works cited entry. Think of in-text citation like a flag you plant for your reader. The flag sends your reader to your works cited to find full details about the source you are referencing.
In-text citations are how we give credit to the original ideas that influenced, inspired, or guided our own work.
Include an in-text citation (or flag for your reader) when you:
Remember, you cannot borrow anyone's words, phrases, ideas, arguments, images, or other knowledge product without giving them credit for their work.
Need some help with phrasing your narrative citations? Try these signal phrase explainers and word banks!
| Author type | Parenthetical citation | Narrative citation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 author | (Clymer). | Clymer argues… |
| 2 authors | (Baldwin and Smith). | Baldwin and Smith suggest… |
| 3 or more authors | (Roberts et al.). | Roberts and others illustrate… Roberts and colleagues illustrate… |
| Group author with abbreviation |
First use: (Modern Language Association [MLA]). Second use and after: (MLA). |
Modern Language Association (MLA) recommends… |
| Group author without abbreviation | (Alzheimer's Association). | Alzheimer's Association reports… |
|
No author |
("Ultimate Guide"). Use the first noun phrase of the title for parenthetical citations. If the title does not begin with a noun phrase, stop at the first punctuation mark or the end of the first phrase/clause. |
"The Ultimate Guide to Closed Captions" lists... Do not shorten the title when citing a source without an author in the body of your essay. Instead, write out the full title using the correct formatting: quotation marks for short works, such as articles, and italics for longer works, such as films. Include everything before a colon : or dash – in a long title. |
In-text citations can be either parenthetical (inside parenthesis) or narrative, which MLA calls in prose. Provide the shortest bit of information you can to lead the reader to the correct entry on the works cited list. This is usually the author's last name. When there is no author, use the Title of Source with the correct formatting, such as inside quotation marks or italicized, whichever is appropriate.
Parenthetical citation means planting the flag for the reader at the end of the sentence by placing the relevant information inside parenthesis. The sentence's period comes after it. It looks like this:
A narrative citation means the flag is contained within the body of the sentence. This is also called a citation in prose. It is usually accomplished by using a signal phrase or lead-in phrase, to alert the reader. The signal phrase might come at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence.
Examples of signal phrases include the verbs:
It looks like this. In our second example, there is a page number we need to include, which is done parenthetically.
What to Include in All In-Text Citations
List the author's last name. See Special Circumstances below for how to handle a source without an author.
List both the last name of both authors. Separate them with the word and.
Note: The abbreviation et al. is short for the Latin phrase et alia, which means and others. When we use it, we are telling our reader this source was written by the lead author and others, or by the lead author et al.
When your source has page numbers, include the specific page number.
A corporate author is when an organization and not a person is the creator of the work. A corporate author can be an institution, an association, a government agency, a company, or another kind or organization.
If a corporate author has a very long name or is known by a standard abbreviation, you can use that shortened version after the first reference to it. .
Add a title to the in-text citation for clarity. There are three methods to do this when you have two sources by the same author or pair of authors.
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). If using the website name, use the shortest form of the website, e.g. BBC.com, not the entire URL for the article.
If the original source uses line numbers, the line number may be used instead of a page number.
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). If using the website name, use the shortest form of the website, e.g. BBC.com, not the entire URL for the article.
When citing audio or video, include the time range as indicated in the media viewer using this format in place of page numbers.
Block quotations are used when a direct quotation is longer than four lines of text.
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself. (Roethke)
For full information on labeling and captioning visuals and tables, see https://style.mla.org/formatting-papers/#tablesandillustrations
Labels
Captions
The caption acts as the in-text citation. It describes and in some cases fully cites the image. If the caption provides complete information about the source and the source is not cited in the text, no entry for the source in the works cited list is necessary.
However, if you reference the source in your text, you will also create an entry for the image on your works cited list.
Fig. 1. Belle Busy Reading.
