Are you supposed to cite your sources in MLA style? Then you need to keep watching! In this video, you’ll learn what to include in an MLA in-text citation, where to place it in a sentence, and how to deal with missing information.
Hi, I’m Jessica from Scribbr, here to help you achieve your academic goals. An in-text citation is a concise way to identify the source of certain information. You should include an in-text citation every time you paraphrase or quote from a source.
It helps the readers to locate the corresponding entry in the reference list at the end of your paper. The in-text citation consists of the author’s last name and the page number (or page range). Yep, easy as that!
Now, you can integrate the in-text citation in a sentence using a parenthetical or narrative citation. Place the parenthetical citation directly after the relevant quote or paraphrase, and before the period or other punctuation mark. If you have already named the author in the sentence, add only the page number in parentheses, like this [example].
This is called a narrative citation. Now, if a sentence is supported by more than one source, you can combine the citations in a single set of parentheses. Separate the two sources with a semicolon.
By the way, you can generate your in-text citations and works cited list super easily with Scribbr’s free MLA citation generator! Just click, and it’s copied! But what if there’s more than 1 author?
Good question right there, if a source has two authors, name both. If a source has more than two authors, name only the first author, followed by “et al. ”, which means “and others”.
This one doesn’t have an author, what do i do? If the author is unknown, the in-text citation must match the first element of the Works Cited entry. This may be the name of an organization, or a shortened version of the title.
If the title is longer than 4 words, shorten the title to the first word or phrase. Now, depending on the type of source, if it’s a self-contained work, for example a whole website or an entire book, put the titles in italics. if the source is contained within a larger whole, for example, a page on a website or a chapter of a book, put the title in quotation marks.
Um, there’s no page number on this one. . .
If a source does not have page numbers, but is divided into numbered parts (e. g. chapters, sections, scenes, or times), use these numbers to locate the relevant passage.
If the source does not use any numbering system, include only the author’s name in the in-text citation. Don’t include paragraph numbers unless they are explicitly numbered in the source. Let’s take a look at some exceptions if you cite more than one work by the same author, add a shortened title to signal which source you are referring to: In this example, the first source is a whole book, so the title appears in italics; the second is an article published in a journal, so the title appears in quotation marks.
To distinguish between different authors with the same last name, use the authors’ initials (or, if the initials are the same, full first names) in your in-text citations: Sometimes you might want to cite something that you found quoted in a secondary source. If possible, always try to seek out the original source and cite it directly. If you can’t access the original source, make sure to name both the original author and the author of the source that you accessed.
Use the abbreviation “qtd. in” (short for “quoted in”) to indicate where you found the quotation. Now go on and cite your sources either manually or with help from Scribbr’s citation generator!
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