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MLA Documentation Help: In-Text Citations

This guide provides help with citation and documentation in MLA format

Formatting citations

  • Provide complete publication information for each resource, taken directly from the work itself.
  • If no author is given, begin the citation with the title (ignore A, An, or The when alphabetizing the list).
  • If no place of publication is given, use n.p.:
  • If no date of publication is given, use n.d.
  • If no name of a publisher is given, use :n.p.
  • If no page numbers are given, use n. pag.

Creating in-text citations

Guideline                                                  Example

7.2 The first piece of information given in an in-text reference must match the first piece of information given in the corresponding entry on the list of works cited (usually author or title).

 

This point already had been argued unsuccessfully (Jones 294-95).

When possible, follow the information with the exact page numbers from the original source.

 

Critics of the concept ask if a large society would be able to handle the loss (“Surveillance Society” 115).

Place the in-text citation as near as possible to the material being cited.

The crash of 1929 was one such even (“The Great Depression” 37), but many others can be considered as evidence of this type of economic cycle.

7.3 When the author of title of the source is given in a sentence, the in-text citation needs only provide the page numbers

Kozol reported this finding in 1989 (2).

 

In his Autobiography, Franklin notes he prepared a list of thirteen virtues (135-37).

 

7.4.2 If the source provides fixed paragraph or section numbers, include the appropriate abbreviation before the relevant numbers.

 

This was not unusual for the time (Mouton pars. 19-20).

If the source lacks numbering, omit numbers from the in-text citation.

 

Greenpeace notes that this phenomenon has been seen mainly in North America (Smith).

7.4.6 If the works cited list contains more than one work by the same author, the in-text citation should include the appropriate title (which may be shortened), followed by the page numbers.

 

This work of Shakespeare’s has been called “a comedy of the grotesque” (Frye, Anatomy 217).

7.2 If the works cited list contains more than one author with the same last name, add the first initial to the in-text citation to identify the appropriate author.

The loans turned out to be at great profit to the lender (J. Molcolm 234).