How Do I Cite My Sources in the Paper Itself?

For MLA:

Within the body of the paper, sources are referred to using parenthetical citations that direct a reader to a particular item in the Works Cited list for further information. Thus the information in the text and parentheses must be sufficient to make it clear which item in the Works Cited is being referred to. But within those parameters, however, there are several ways of setting these citations up.

When do you need to cite something?

You must cite anything that you:

• quote directly
• paraphrase
• or borrow a key idea or piece of information from

What information is provided in a citation?

Each citation must include:

• author (or a brief form of the title if no author is provided; a brief title is also included w/the author if it is necessary to distinguish which of an author's works is being referred to)
• page information (for internet sources, paragraph information may be substituted on occasion)

How should the citation be included in the text?

Often the least intrusive way to include citation information into your writing is to refer to the author in the body of the sentence and only include the page numbers in paranetheses. When using this method, use the author's full name (without courtesy titles like Mr. or Mrs.) on the first reference then simply use his or her last name.

• Goldi Locks concluded that Baby Bear's bed was "just right" (8).
• As opposed to: Baby Bear's bed was "just right" (Locks 8).

Putting all the information in the parentheses at the end of the sentence tends to work best for quotations that are full sentences. As a general rule these should be kept to a minimum.

• "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in!" (Wolf 5).

In a case where you have 2 authors with the same last name, include the first initial or first name to distinguish the author:

• "Fat! I hate it!" (Sprat, J. 10).
• "Celery is for rabbits! (Sprat, W. 2)

In the case of internet web sites where the author is often an organization, you can use a shortened form of the organization's name as long as it will be clear to a reader what that reference relates to in the Works Cited.

• Association Against the Defamation of Wolves web site provides research showing that wolves find pigs to be "solid neighbors" and "just the sort you'd want to invite to a house-raising" ("Statistics").

  "Statistics" in this instance refers to the page within the site where these quotations can be found. See section on using titles in citations below.

When should a title be included in the citation?

Include a title when there isn't an author listed for a work. Then, if the work is a short one (an essay, news story, or poem in a larger collection or an episode of a television show for example), put quotation marks around the title. If the work is a full-length one, like a book or a film, either underline it or put it in italics.

• In "Wolf Terrorizes Homeowners" one pig reported that the wolf said he would: "huff" and "puff" until he destroyed the pig's home (A5).
• In I Am not an Animal, the anonymous author declares that all the claims of wolf violence are so much "hot air" and that he has never harassed pigs, small children in red, sheep or young ladies out for a night on the town (13).
• Foxy Loxy alledgedly offered to "help" Chicken Little across the river ("Fox Claims Innocence" A1).

Another reason for including a title in a citation is when you include more than one work by the same author in your Works Cited list.

• "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in!" (Wolf, 3 Little Pigs 5).
• "So I asked her if she would give me some of the 'goodies' in her basket" (Wolf, Red Riding Hood 7)

When the source quotes another source

Sometimes you end up using a quotation that is itself a quotation within the source you are using. If possible you should try to get the original to cite from, but this is not always possible. If you must quote or paraphrase from another quotation, you must indicate that you are doing so in the following way:

• And the Wolf said: "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down" (qtd. in Lobo and Lupin 42).

Want more detailed assistance with MLA citation? Check out the OWL at Purdue (Online Writing Lab)

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Created October 22, 2007