In-Text Citations (Parenthetical Documentation)
MLA Style requires brief citation information to be included in the text of the paper OR in parentheses following a quotation, summary, or paraphrase. Complete bibliographical information is given only once, in the bibliography called "Works Cited" on a separate page, at the end of the paper.
In-text citations must match the initial element of the item in the "Works Cited" list.
The table below gives examples of the most common in-text citations:
| Situation | Examples of text and in-text citations |
|---|---|
| Author is quoted or paraphrased but not named in the text. (MLA Handbook, 6.2) | It may be true that "in the appreciation of medieval art the attitude of the observer is of primary importance . . ." (Robertson 136). |
| Author is quoted or paraphrased and is named in the text. (MLA Handbook, 6.3) | Sigmund Freud states that a "dream is a fulfillment of a wish" (154). Smith developed the argument in his 1997 book (185-91). |
| Author is quoted or paraphrased and is named in the text. Quoted work has no page numbers. (MLA Handbook, 6.4.1) | Chan considers the same topic in the context of Hong Kong cinema.
(no parenthetical citation required) Works Cited
Chan, Evans. "Postmodernism and Hong Kong Cinema." Postmodern Culture 10.3 (2000): n. pag. Project Muse. Web. 20 May 2002.
|
| Two or more works by the same author are quoted or paraphrased. (MLA Handbook, 6.4.6) | Modern researchers now accept the principle that dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes, Sleep 184). But investigation has shown that young children's dreams are in general "rather simple and unemotional" (Foulkes, "Dreams" 78) |
| A work with two or three authors is quoted or paraphrased. (MLA Handbook, 6.2) | For all their efforts to generalize about child behavior, psychologists recognize that "no two children are exactly alike" (Gesell and Ilg 68). |
| A work with more than three authors is quoted or paraphrased. (MLA Handbook, 6.2) | "The research . . . challenges the notions of 'readiness' that prevailed in education for much of the 20th century" (Whitmore et al. 298).
Works Cited
Whitmore, Kathryn F., et al. "Critical Lessons from the Transactional Perspective on Early Literacy Research." Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 4.3 (2004): 291-325. Sage Journals Online. Web. 25 Sept. 2008.
|
| A work without an author (listed by title) is quoted or paraphrased. (MLA Handbook, 6.4.4) | A New York Times editorial called Ralph Ellison "a writer of universal reach" ("Death").
Works Cited
"Death of a Writer." Editorial. New York Times 20 Apr. 1994, late ed.: A18. Print.
|
| A work by an agency or corporation is quoted or paraphrased. (MLA Handbook, 6.4.5) | The State Department's travel advisory "strongly encourages American citizens planning travel abroad to register their travel with the Department of State" (U.S. Dept. of State. Bureau).
Works Cited
United States. Dept. of State. Bureau of Consular Affairs. "Tips for Traveling Abroad." Travel.state.gov. Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Dept. of State. [2007] . Web. 28 Sept. 2008.
(NOTE: To avoid a very long in-text citation, use the full name of the agency or corporation in the sentence.) |
| A personal interview is quoted or paraphrased. (MLA Handbook, 5.7.7) | In an interview with Stephanie Arkin, I found that she and her friends "feel that teenagers today aren't motivated to do anything. They just hang around." (no parenthetical citation required) Works Cited
Arkin, Stephanie. Personal interview. 22 July 2007. |
| A poem is quoted. (MLA Handbook, 3.7.3,6.4.8) | In Robert Frost's poem "The Death of the Hired Man," one character describes home as "the place where, when you have to go there / They have to let you in" (lines 118-19). |
| A play with act, scene, and line numbers is quoted. (MLA Handbook, 3.7.2, 6.4.8) Any quotation of more than four lines (MLA Handbook, 3.7.2) |
Shakespeare's famous metaphor on the meaning of life appears in the last act of Macbeth:
Out, out, brief candle! Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth: Authoritative Text, Sources and Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Robert S. Miola. New York: Norton, 2004. Print. Norton Critical Ed.
(NOTE: A quotation of more than four lines, whether poetry or prose, is indented one inch from left margin, has no quotation marks, and has parenthetical citation after the last period. ) |
| Quoting an indirect source (a quoted quote) (MLA Handbook, 6.4.7) |
The critic Susan Aikens has argued on behalf of what she calls "canonical multiplicity" (qtd. in Mayers 677).
The "Works Cited" list will include an entry for Mayers but not for Aikens. |
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