Name______Section______

Mrs. Coe, Language Arts 8, MLA Format, Edition 7

Documenting Sources: In-Text Citations

What is an
in-text citation? / An in-text citation is a brief note in parentheses,
a parenthetical reference, that cites (or gives credit to)
the source of the information just quoted, paraphrased,
or summarized.
Examples:
one author and page number: (Howards 6).
two authors: (Smith and Banks).
no author; shortened article title: (“Solar Power”).
Why do we use
in-text citations? / In-text citations are the best way to briefly and
clearly give credit to one’s source of information.
Where do I place
in-text citations
in my paper? / In-text citations are placed immediately after the
information cited (quoted, paraphrased, or summarized
from a valid source), at the end of the sentence but
before the end punctuation (period, question mark, or
exclamation point).
Examples:
Even after recycling, about eighty percent of water bottles
end up in the ocean or in landfills (Lee and Marthol 1).
Dr. William Brigham, head of Plastic Surgery at the
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, agreed
that it “may be unwise for teenagers to seek cosmetic
surgery because they may lack enough foresight to
understand the risks and long-term consequences”
(Bergman and Kane 2).

Sources: MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th Edition

Samples have been reprinted with permission from the student authors.

What information should be written inside the parentheses?

1) Write the author’s or authors’ last name(s) and the page number(s) of the source

in parentheses.

Example 1: In-text citation for a source with two authors and a page number.

Opponents to Arctic drilling argue that “the oil would not be available for five years and would take several additional years to decades to meet peak output, which is estimated to occur in 2025” (Driscoll and Griswold 4).

Entry on Works Cited page:
Driscoll, Sally, and Marcus Griswold. "Arctic Drilling: An Overview." Points Of View: Arctic Drilling
(2013): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 4 Feb. 2014.

Example 2: In-text citation for a source with one author and no page number.

In 1917 the British promised the Jewish people the whole region of both Israel and Jordan. The land was given to them because no one else, including the Arabs, wanted the land (Inhofe).

Entry on Works Cited page:
Inhofe, James. "Israel Rightfully Belongs to the Jews." Israel. Ed. John Woodward. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "statement before the U.S. Senate." 2002. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.

2) If no author is given, which is often the case with Web sites, then . . .

·  Use a shortened version of the article title in quotation marks or use the entire article title itself, if it is short.

·  If you shorten the title, begin with the word by which the source is alphabetized on the Works Cited page.

·  On the Works Cited page, entries are alphabetized according to the first main word in the article title (the articles a, an, and the do not count as first words).

Example 3: In-text citation for a source with no author. The article title has been shortened.

Currently, there are about 7 million Jews living in Israel, more than any other country in the world ("Israel Overtakes America").

Entry on Works Cited page:
"Israel Overtakes America as the World's Largest Jewish Population Centre for the First Time." DailyMail.com. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 29 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 Mar. 2015. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2301391/Israel-worlds-largest-Jewish-population-centre-time-overtaking-America.html>.