How to Create an MLA In-Text Citation


mla in-text citation

If your research paper is in MLA format, you are in luck.  MLA 8 offers an easy-to-use way to cite material in your paper.  MLA uses the author-page form of parenthetical citations.  This format allows your reader to quickly access material from your source material without leaving the body of paper.

Parenthetical citation is also referred to as in-text citation.  This differentiates it from footnotes or endnotes, which take the reader away from the body of the paper to the bottom of the page or the end of the paper.  These in-text citations are contained within parenthesis at the end of the sentence or sentences that contain the cited material.  You use parenthetical citations the same way, whether the material you have cited is a direct quote or indirectly quoted material.

The information you use in the in-text citation will depend upon the information you included in your works cited page.  For example, if you choose to use a signal to introduce your material, then that signal needs to be the first part of your works cited entry.

Basic MLA Parenthetical Citation Format

For printed materials, the citation should be in author-page style.  The author page style contains the author’s last name and the page number from which the material was taken.

Basic author-page citation format is:

(Last Name X), for example (Smith 16)

You can also use the author’s last name in your text to serve as a signal that you are going to provide a citation.  If you choose to do that, then you follow the information with the page number, by itself, in parenthesis.

For non-printed materials, particularly those from the internet, there will be no page number available.  In those circumstances, you simply use the author’s last name in the citation.  If there is no named author, you will either use the corporate author or the title of the work in your citation.

Examples: (Smith), (CNN.com), (“German Shepherds”)

For videos, movies, podcasts, and other timed forms of media, you include the time in your reference in place of a page number or a line number:

Example: (Reiner 00:04:10- 00:04:56).

Special Circumstances

1. If the print source has a corporate author, then you can use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for your in-text citation. You can even abbreviate the corporate name.

Example: (American Heart Association 15) or (American Heart Assoc 15)

2. If the print source has no known author, you can use the title of the work in the citation. YOU can choose to use either the full title or a shortened version. If the title is a short work, like an article or a single web page, you would place it in parenthesis. If the title is a longer work, like a website or book, you would place it in italics.

3. Authors with the same last name are differentiated in in-text citations by the addition of the first initial.

Example: (P. Smith 15)

4. For two authors include both of their last names in the citation and join them with the word “and” not a “&”.

Example: (Smith and Jones 45)

5. For more than three authors, list only the first author’s last name and then use the phrase et al.

Example: (Smith et al. 45)

6.If you have multiple works by the same author, then include a reference to the work in the citation to differentiate between the works. Short works would be placed in quotation marks, while long works would be in italics. You can shorten the name of the work; it just needs to be enough to differentiate it from the other works by the same author in your works cited list.

Example: (Butcher, Fool Moon 43)

7. If you are citing from a multi-volume work, include the volume before the page number in your citation.

Example: (Smith 1: 12).

8. If you are citing to a play, you do not use the page number. Instead, you use the act, the scene, and the line numbers. For Shakespeare’s works, you can abbreviate the play names. You can find a list of common abbreviations for Shakespeare’s plays here.

Example: (Shakespeare, Hamlet 1.2 25-45).

9. Because there are different versions of the Bible, you want to include the version you are using in your first citation if only citing from one Bible in your paper or essay or the version you are using in all of your citations if you are citing from multiple Bibles. You then include the Bible’s book, chapter, and verse.

Example (King James Bible, Genesis 1.4-5)

10. Some indirect citations will contain references to more than one work. To include multiple references, use a semi-colon between the references in your in-text citation.

Example: (Smith 15; Jones 14; Perez 345)

11. If the quoted material is more than four lines of prose or three lines of text, you put it in an indented block quote, omitting quotation marks. The block quote remains double-spaced. (Older versions of MLA had block quotes in single-space).

Examples

The easiest way to see how in-text citation works is to see examples. We have put together some examples from resources you can find in our MLA tutorials for videos, books, and websites.

Simple Book Format

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.

Works Cited citation:

Stoker, Bram. Dracula: A Mystery Story. W.R. Caldwell & Co., 1897.

To indicate that we found the reference on Google Books, we would cite it as:

Stoker, Bram. Dracula: A Mystery Story. W.R. Caldwell & Co., 1897, Google Books, Google,

https://books.google.com/books?id=k39vHp-5VeMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=dracula&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjK1tya54TUAhXMTSYKHQLkDM0Q6AEIMzAC#v=onepage&q=dracula&f=false, Accessed 22 May 2017.

Short citation:

One of the most interesting aspects of Dracula is how the author builds suspense while still revealing information. “Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania” (Stoker 1).

Long citation:

At the beginning of Dracula, Stoker immediately lets the reader know that his protagonist, Jonathan Harker, will be visiting Transylvania:

Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country. I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Bukovinia, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe. (1-2)

Book with Multiple Authors

If a book has multiple authors, then the format is similar to the single author book, except both authors are mentioned, in the order that they are listed on the book:

Last Name, First Name and First Name Last Name. Title. Publisher, Year of Publication.

Pratchett, Terry and Neil Gaiman. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes

Nutter, Witch. Harpertorch, 2006.

To show that we found it on Google Books, then we cite it like this:

Pratchett, Terry and Neil Gaiman. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes

Nutter, Witch. Harpertorch, 2006. Google Books, Google, https://books.google.com/books?id=7erEbfDOcgkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=pratchett+

and+gaiman&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwim2KC76oTUAhVESyYKHVf8AwYQ6AEILjAB# v=onepage&q=pratchett%20and%20gaiman&f=false Accessed 22 May 2017.

Short Direct Citation

“God does not play dice with the universe,” (Pratchett and Gaiman 14).

Indirect Citation

One of the most interesting aspects of Good Omens is how the authors approach the idea of God. For example, Pratchett and Gaiman describe God as playing games with the universe in a way that suggests more of a cruel indifference than actual malice (14).

Books with No Author

Sometimes there is no individual author for a book. Instead, it is written by an organization, corporation, or other group author. You use the same format for them that you do for single author books:

Name of Organization. Title. Publisher, Year.

The in-text citation format would be: (Name of Organization x)

Frequently, organizations act as their own publishers. In this case, the author name and the Publisher will be the same. The correct format then becomes:

Title. Publisher, Year.

The in-text citation format would be: (Title x)

Translated or Edited Books with Authors

Translated or edited books can become a little challenging in your works cited. Usually, you want to focus on the author. However, there may be a reason that you want to focus on the translator or editor. In those instances, you will focus on the translator or editor first. Our example involves a translator:

Works Cited Citation:

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. 100 Years of Solitude. Translated by Gregory Rabassa, 1970, Harper Collins, 2003.

To show it was taken from Google Books:

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. 100 Years of Solitude. Translated by Gregory Rabassa, 1970, Harper Collins, 2003. Google Books, Google,

https://books.google.com/books?id=pgPWOaOctq8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=100+yea rs+of+solitude&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQxtSW8YTUAhXDXyYKHSlPBMsQ6A

EIJzAA#v=onepage&q=100%20years%20of%20solitude&f=false. Accessed 22 May 2017.

However, to emphasize the translator, it would be:

Rabassa, Gregory, translator. 100 Years of Solitude. By Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1970, Harper Collins, 2003.

To show it was taken from Google Books:

Rabassa, Gregory, translator. 100 Years of Solitude. By Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1970, Harper

Collins, 2003. Google Books, Google, https://books.google.com/books?id=pgPWOaOctq8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=100+yea rs+of+solitude&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQxtSW8YTUAhXDXyYKHSlPBMsQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=100%20years%20of%20solitude&f=false. Accessed 22 May 2017.

Short Citation

“On the first contact the bones of the girl seemed to become disjointed with a disorderly crunch like the sound of a box of dominoes” (Marquez 33).

Or:

Rabassa’s unique word often serves to make the story more vivid, like when he describes the “disorderly crunch” of a girl’s bones (Rabassa 33).

E-Readers

Books accessed through Kindle or Nook are cited like books, but with the version (Kindle or Nook) shown in their citation:

Last, First. Title of Book. Version. Publisher, Publication Date

Kindle:

Last, First. Title of Book. Kindle Edition. Publisher, Publication Date.

Nook:

Last, First. Title of Book. Nook Edition. Publisher, Publication Date

You do not have to include any page information or line number information for these citations, but you can include chapters and paragraphs if you want to make it easier for your reader to find that information.

Example: (Smith ch.4, para. 5)

Basic MLA website citation format

Author Last, Author First. Title. Title of Website, Other contributors, Version or Edition,

Volume, Number, Publisher, Publication Date, Pages or Paragraphs, URL or doi,

Accessed Day Month Year.

Works Cited Citation:

Chemaly, Soraya. “50 Actual Facts About Rape.” Huffington Post, 8 December 2014, huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/50-facts-rape_b_2019338.html Accessed 19 May 2017.

Direct Quotation:

“Remember facts about rape? Because it turns out that a whole lot of people know less than nothing about the subject” (Chemaly).

Indirect citation:

Men often define what constitutes rape in a way that reinforces their own power (Chemaly).

Online Encyclopedias

In many online encyclopedias, there is no author information. Therefore, the article name takes the place of the author name. The generic format is:

Article name. (Date). In Encylopedia name. Retrieved from URL

Works Cited Citation:

William Shakespeare. Wikipedia, 9 May 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare, Accessed 19 May 2017.

Direct Quotation

Shakespeare’s “plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright” (“William Shakespeare”).

Now, for this example, the name of the article also happens to be the name of a very famous writer, who is probably the subject of any paper that would be quoting an article about him. To avoid confusion or clarify things for your readers, you could differentiate that information in your text:

According to Wikipedia, Shakespeare’s “plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright” (“William Shakespeare”).

Article from an Online Periodical (Magazine or Non-Scholarly Journal)

Last, First. “Article Name.” Periodical Name, vol., no., year of publication, URL.

Accessed Day Month Year.

Works Cited Citation:

Scherer, Michael and Alex Altman, A. “Trump’s Loyalty Test.” Time Magazine, 189 (20), 29 May 2017.

time.com/4783929/president-trump-loyalty-test/?xid=homepage&pcd=hp-magmod. Accessed 19 May 2017.

Direct Citation:

“The West Wing’s thick walls, even with the TV turned up, cannot muffle the sounds of staffers shouting behind closed doors” (Scherer and Altman).

Note that there are no page numbers included in this citation because the entire article is on a single page, which can be found at the URL listed in the Works Cited List. If the article had required moving to additional pages to read, the web page number would have been included in the in-text citation.

Article from an Online Scholarly Journal

The general format for an online-only scholarly journal is:

Last, First. “Article Name.” Journal Name, vol., no., year of publication, URL or doi.

Accessed Day Month Year.

Works Cited Citation:

Yardimci, Veysi and Aytul Yardimci. “An Unusual First Manifestation of Hodgkin Lymphoma:

Epitrochlear Lymph Node Involvement- A Case Report and Brief Review of Literature.

Journal of Investigative Medicine: High Impact Case Reports, 5, 2,

2017.  10.1177/2324709617706709. Accessed 19 May 2017.

Direct Citation:

Yardimci and Yardimci noted that “in the histopathological examination of the bone marrow biopsy, no finding in favor of lymphoma was detected” (Yardimci and Yardimci).

This direct citation would have included a page number if the article was paginated, but because it was an e-version of the document, available before a print version, there were no page numbers.

Scholarly Journal with No DOI

Last, First. “Article Name.” Journal Name, vol., no., year of publication, pp. xxx-xxx, URL.

Accessed Day Month Year.

 

Works Cited Citation:

Kovan, Martin. “Capital Punishment: A Buddhist Critique. Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 24.

blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2017/03/Kovan-Capital-Punishment-final-4.pdf.

Accessed 19 May 2017.

Direct Quotation:

According to Kovan (2017), “Capital punishment is irreversible and so requires a degree and kind of justification not necessary for non-lethal punishment” (64).

Indirect Citation:

Of course, Kovan is not the first commentator to point out that because capital punishment cannot be undone, it requires a different approach than non-lethal punishments (64).

Newspaper Articles

Newspapers are another popular online resource. The basic citation for a newspaper article is simple:

Last, First. “Article Name.” Newspaper Name, Day Month Year, URL.

Accessed Day Month Year.

Works Cited Citation:

Takahashi, Julie. “Judge Dismisses Ahmed Mohamed ‘Clock Boy’ Suit Against

Irving ISD.” Houston Chronicle, 19 May 2017, www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Judge-dismisses-Ahmed-Mohamed-Clock-Boy-suit-11159334.php. Accessed 19 May 2017.

Direct Quotation:

“On Thursday, the U.S. District Judge granted Irving and Irving ISD’s motions to dismiss the Mohamed family’s lawsuit, saying there was no evidence Ahmed faced religious or racial discrimination” (Takahashi).

General MLA Format for Films or Videos

MLA has a general format for films or videos, which applies to those viewed online and those not viewed online, though videos not viewed online would not include the URL.

Late name, First name of the creator. “Title of the film or video.” Title of the website, role of

contributors and their First name Last name, Version, Numbers, Publisher, Publication

date, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.

MLA format for films or videos found on a Database

If a film or video is found on a database such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, or HBO Go, you want to include that information in the citation.

The proper citation for those sources is:

Late name, First name of the creator. “Title of the film or video.” Title of the website, role of

contributors and their First name Last name, Version, Numbers, Publisher, Publication

date, Database name, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.

How to cite a YouTube video in MLA format

YouTube is becoming an incredibly popular source for videos and creates particular challenges for the creation of a citation for a works cited list because of the substitution of usernames for actual names. Unfortunately, MLA does not have specific instructions for citing a YouTube vide. The suggested format would be:

Late name, First name of the creator. “Title of the film or video.” YouTube, uploaded by

username, date of upload, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.

In the below example, we look at the citation by YouTube personality Jack Septic Eye:


Works Cited Format:

“We Won the Game: Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds #2 w/Robin.” YouTube, uploaded by

Jack Septic Eye, 15 May 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIdx2NCzlyI. Accessed 19

May 2017.

Indirect citation:

Popular YouTube personality Jack Septic Eye opens up his video with a consistent phrase and a recap of what happened on his last episode (“We Won the Game”).

You can also create a direct citation from a YouTube video:

“The Russia Connection.” YouTube, uploaded by Randy Rainbow, 15 May 2017,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2OuJYaz_oE

Direct Citation:

Randy Rainbow uses political satire to make a point, singing, “Someday they’ll find it, the Russia connection,”, to the tune of The Rainbow Connection song made popular by the Muppets (“The Russia Connection” 00:02:54-00:03:00).

Motion Pictures

Motion pictures are relatively easy to cite. This is because, rather than citing them by their creator, you can choose to include them by title in your works cited page. Alternately, if you want to focus on the specific contribution of one of the creators of the work, you can list it by that person’s name.

The basic works citation format for a motion picture or video is:

Title of Movie. Directed by Director First and Last, Performances by First and Last Name(s),

Studio, Year of Release.

To highlight a specific part of the film (director, actor, producer, etc.), begin with that person:

Last, First, role. Title of Movie. Studio, Year of Release.

For our example, we are using the film The Princess Bride. From the movie’s general information page on IMDB.com, we can find some basic information about the movie in the details section:

This information includes:
Country: USA

Release Date: October 9, 1987

Production Company: Act III Communications

From the Cast and Crew page, we can find additional information, including the director and producer, as well as the members of the cast:

Movie Title: The Princess Bride

Director Name: Rob Reiner

Cast: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon

Scrolling down on the same page, we see:

Executive Producer: Norman Lear

Once we have all of that information, we can put it together in order to correctly cite to the movie in several different ways:

To cite to the movie in general:

The Princess Bride, Directed by Rob Reiner, Performances by Cary Elwes, Robin Wright,

Mandy Patinkin, and Chris Sarandon, Act III Communications, 1987.

To highlight the role of various people, it could also be cited like:

Lear, Norman, producer. The Princess Bride, Act III Communications, 1987.

Reiner, Rob, director. The Princess Bride, Act III Communications, 1987.

Elwes, Cary, actor. The Princess Bride, Act III Communications, 1987.

Wright, Robin, actor. The Princess Bride, Act III Communications, 1987.

Sarandon, Chris, actor. The Princess Bride, Act III Communications, 1987.

Patinkin, Mandy, actor. The Princess Bride, Act III Communications, 1987.

The format of your in-text citation is going to depend on how you chose to include the movie in your works cited page. Here are some ways that it could look:

Direct Quotation:

In the movie, The Princess Bride, the Dread Pirate Roberts reveals himself to be the farm boy Wesley when Buttercup pushes him down a hill and he cries out, “As you wish” as he tumbles down the hillside (Lear).

In the movie, The Princess Bride, the Dread Pirate Roberts reveals himself to be the farm boy Wesley when Buttercup pushes him down a hill and he cries out, “As you wish” as he tumbles down the hillside (Reiner).

Indirect Citation:

Wesley manages to keep his identity secret, but reveals himself to Buttercup when he cries out his catchphrase after she pushes him down a hill (The Princess Bride).

Conclusion

MLA’s easy author-page number parenthetical citation format provides the reader with all of the information he or she needs to easily locate your source material, without distracting them from the body of your paper.  Many students are already familiar with this method, because many high schools use MLA as the default style format.  However, it can be tricky when a student incorporates different types of sources, especially those without page numbers.  If you have any questions about how to use the author-page number format for parenthetical MLA citations, please visit our Student Questions format or view our other MLA citation tutorials.

 

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