MLA In-Text Citation Basics

The basic information included in-text in MLA Style is an author’s last name followed by a page number. However, there are two ways to format an in-text citation in MLA Style. Both of them are called parenthetical citations because they use parentheses, which are rounded brackets that look like this: ()

The first way puts the whole in-text citation inside parentheses. Parenthetical citations should directly follow a direct quotation or a passage in your own words where you are paraphrasing an idea from another source. The period of the sentence comes after the parenthetical citation, not before it. 

Example: Parenthetical Citation for a Direct Quote: 

While many people associate animated GIFs primarily with social media, GIFs are also “used as illustrative formats in biomedical research and animated data visualization” (Miller and Highfield 3). 

Example: Parenthetical Citation for a Paraphrased Passage: 

Marine plastic pollution will continue to be a problem if coastal cities with growing populations do not develop better systems for handling municipal waste (Tibbetts 93).

The second way to format an in-text citation in MLA Style is to identify the author of the quotation, paraphrased idea, or summary of a text within the sentence. Because the author has already been identified before the quotation or paraphrased passage, only the page number being cited needs to be included in parentheses at the end of the sentence. 

Example: Direct Quote with Author(s) Name in sentence:

Tibbetts argues that “some European nations have developed a model that other countries and regions could emulate to better manage their plastic waste and reduce marine pollution” (92).

The information needed to cite works such as plays or poetry is slightly different from citing books, so please be sure to check the MLA Handbook, or Purdue OWL for more information.

Please watch this brief video by The Purdue Online Writing Lab on "MLA Style In-text Citations 9th Edition."

Quick Check: