The purpose of in-text citiation is to link the borrowed material in the body of your writing to the works cited page or pages following. The general principle to make the least intrusion into the readabilty of your work. Below are examples of a variety of situations you may encounter in your writing.
1. The basic format for an in-text citation is to include the last name of the author and the page number on which the cited information appears in parenthesis after the referenced material. Notice that the quotation marks, if needed, are closed BEFORE the in-text citation, since the citation is not part of the quote, but the sentence period comes AFTER the citation.
"quoted material" (Jones 55).
Variations:
1. If the cited material does not have page numbers, such as a web site or an interview, omit the page number. Ex.: (Jones 55).
2. If the name of the author has already been given in the body of the paper, then omit it in the citation. If there is no page number to report, then you do not need a parenthetical citation at all. The mention of the author is also a citation of the source and qualifies the source to be listed as a work cited. Ex.: John Smith says, "Yadayada (23). Jones thinks Smith's position is "nonsense."
Notes: Use the full name of the author the first time it appears in the body of your paper, and the last name only after that. If the person is a doctor, you may use that title, but you do not have to do so. Do not use Mr. Miss, Mrs, Ms, or Professor before the name. For later references to the same person, use only the last name, unless you refer to two persons with the same last name.
3. If the sources has two or three authors, name them all in the same order in which they appear on the source and in the works cited. Ex. : (Smith and Jones 45). or (Smith, Jones, and Brown).
4. If the source has four or more authors, names the first one listed on the source with the words et al. (which means "and others." (al. is an abbreviation.) Ex.: (Smith et al. 42).
5. If the source does not have a named author, use the first item of information about the source on the works cited page, keeping the same punctuation if the information is the title. You may shorten long titles, making sure that not two articles are referred to by the same title. Add a page number if there is one. Ex.: ("Obama Wins").
6. If the author is a group or organization, which is called a corporate author, use the name of the ogranization in place of the author's last name. Ex: (American Red Cross 45) or (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture).
7. If the source is only one page long, omit the page number in the in-text citation, as it adds no information that is not already available on the work cited page.
8. If the quotation you are using is over four lines long, it should be formatted as a displayed quote. For full information, see page on formatting an MLA manuscript. With a displayed quote, the sentence period comes BEFORE the in-text citation. The in-text citation comes one space after the period and is not followed by any additional punctutation.
Ex: . . . last line of long quote. (Smith 28)
