MLA: In-text Citations

In Text Citations

• Use author if given. If no author, use title or the beginning of the title for a reference point.
• Main thing is to make your in-text citation the first word or phrase that will occur in your Works Cited page (to simplify referencing for the reader.)
• Use parenthetical referencing at pause of sentence, or at the end if possible.
• Block quotes can be placed either before or after the source quotation (preferably before--see examples below.)
• The number in the reference is the page number.
• No punctuation is between the name and the author.
• Use direct quotations sparingly to enhance meaning of a subject. Use your voice more, summarizing or paraphrasing sources.
• One Author-last name of the author
• In-sentence: 
• Jane Hopkins calls the Western the "only true American entertainment form" (67).
• Parenthetical:                                                                                                                                                                   
• The Western is the only American entertainment that belongs to us (Tompkins 67).
• Two or three authors:
• Rico and Mano point out a number of books that are appropriate for quality multicultural education (83-90).
• The authors point out a number of books that are appropriate for quality multicultural education (Rico and Mano 83-90).
• Four or More Authors:
•  use the first named author, then the phrase et al.
• Medhurst et al. describe the relationship between Brezhnev and Nixon as "heated" (137).
• The authors describe the relationship between Brezhnev and Nixon as "heated" (Medhurst et al. 137).
• Corporation or organization: 
• For long names, try to use the name in the text and only the page number in the parentheses, so reading is not interrupted by long parenthetical references:
• According to a study performed by the National Research Council, the population of China in 1900 was increasing by more than 15 million annually (15).
• In parenthetical referencing, shorten the terms commonly abbreviated:
• The population of China was increasing by more than 15 million annually (Natl. Research Council 15).
• Pre-retirement planning also has a measurable effect on stress levels (NIMH 22).
• No Author:
• Use first few words of the title of the source. Italicize if book title or use quotations if an article.
• Croatians are unhappy about the time when their country was part of the former Republic of Yugoslavia ("Croatia in Crisis" 26).
• The filmmakers, on the other hand, clearly presented Mozart's deaath as murder (Amadeus).
• If you are quoting or paraphrasing something that is a quotation itself, use the term "qtd. in" (quoted in):
• Samuel Johnson admitted that Edmund Burke was an "extraordinary man" (qtd. in Boswell 450.)
• For electronic citations where the page numbers may not be apparent, use only the author's name. For pdf files, use the page numbers:
• The Western is the only American entertainment that belongs to us (Tompkins). 

Taken from "Citing Your Sources-MLA Format" by the Delta College Library