MLA in-text citations: rules and examples

Every time you quote, paraphrase or summarize a source in an MLA paper, you mark it with a brief citation in the text. The citation is short on purpose. Its only job is to lead the reader to the right entry on your Works Cited page and, when possible, to the exact page. These rules follow MLA 9, the current edition of the MLA Handbook.

The basic MLA in-text format

MLA uses the author-page method. Give the author's last name and the page number where the material appears, with no comma and no p. between them. The citation usually comes at the end of the sentence, just before the period. You can also name the author in your own sentence and put only the page number in parentheses.

All three are correct. A narrative citation, where the author's name is part of your sentence, often reads more smoothly and lets you add context, such as "Ana Rivera, a historian who grew up in a fishing town, argues..." Give the author's full name the first time you mention them in your text and only the last name after that.

MLA in-text citation examples by situation

Where to put the citation

• Place the citation right after the borrowed material, usually at the end of the sentence and before the period.
• If a sentence mixes your ideas with a source's, put the citation right after the borrowed part, even mid-sentence: Rivera traces the decline to falling fish prices (45), but the town's own records point to rising rents.
• For a quotation, close the quotation marks, add the citation, then the period: "never coming back" (Rivera 45).
• If a quotation ends with a question mark or exclamation point, keep that mark inside the quotation marks and still add a period after the citation: "Who will fish here next?" (Rivera 47).
• When several sentences in a row draw on the same source, one citation can cover them if your wording makes the link clear. Cite again as soon as another source comes in.
• For a block quotation, the citation goes after the final punctuation mark, with no period after it.

How to cite sources without page numbers

Many web pages, videos and e-books have no fixed page numbers. Then give only the author's name (Martins), or a shortened title if there is no author. Do not count screens or invent page numbers, and do not use the location numbers an e-reader shows, because they change from device to device. If the source itself numbers its paragraphs, sections or chapters, you may cite those, with a comma after the name: (Martins, par. 4), (Saleh, ch. 3). For video and audio, give the time stamp in hours, minutes and seconds: (Diaz 00:03:12-00:03:40).

Sources with no author

If a source has no author, its Works Cited entry starts with the title, so your in-text citation uses a shortened form of that title. Begin with the word the entry is alphabetized under (skipping A, An or The), keep the first noun phrase, and keep the same styling: quotation marks for an article or web page, italics for a book or report.

Quoting a source quoted in another source

Sometimes you find a useful quotation inside your source, such as an interview a historian quotes in her book. Try to find the original first. If you cannot, name the original speaker in your sentence and cite the source where you found the words, adding qtd. in ("quoted in"): Harbor master Ben Lowell remembered "forty boats at the dock on a Sunday" (qtd. in Rivera 52). Only Rivera's book goes in your Works Cited list, because that is the source you actually read.

Long quotations (block quotes)

If a prose quotation would run more than four lines in your paper, set it off as a block. Start it on a new line, indent the whole quotation half an inch from the left margin, keep it double-spaced and leave out the quotation marks. Put the citation after the final punctuation mark, with no period after the parentheses. For poetry, use a block for more than three lines and keep the poet's line breaks.

Changing a quotation: ellipses and brackets

You may shorten a quotation or adjust it to fit your sentence, as long as you do not change its meaning. Use three periods with spaces around them to show that you left words out: "The whistle... blew once at seven" (Rivera 88). Use square brackets for words you add or change: "People stood on the pier [outside the cannery] with their lunch pails" (Rivera 88). See the ellipsis and brackets pages for the details.

Citing poems, plays and classic works

For poems, cite line numbers instead of pages. Use the word line or lines in the first citation and numbers alone after that: (lines 4-6), then (12-14). For verse plays, cite act, scene and line numbers separated by periods, as in (2.3.15-18). For a classic novel that exists in many editions, give the page number in your edition, then a semicolon and the chapter, as in (88; ch. 6), so readers with other editions can still find the passage.

Signal phrases that introduce sources

MLA writers usually introduce sources in the present tense, even for older works, because the text is still "speaking" when someone reads it: Rivera argues, not Rivera argued. Choose a verb that matches what the author is doing. Some useful ones: argues, claims, notes, observes, suggests, reports, explains, warns, questions, concludes, admits and emphasizes. A precise verb tells your reader whether the source is stating a fact, making a case or raising a doubt.

Common mistakes

• Adding a comma or p.: (Rivera, 45) and (Rivera p. 45) are both wrong. Write (Rivera 45).
• Putting the period before the citation in normal text. The period follows the parentheses; only block quotes put the citation after the period.
• Citing a title when the Works Cited entry starts with an author, or an author when the entry starts with a title.
• Using first names in parentheses, such as (Ana Rivera 45). Use the last name only, unless two authors share it.
• Citing a website or database name instead of the author or title of the specific article.
• Leaving paraphrases uncited. Ideas need citations too, not just quotations. See how to avoid plagiarism.
• Using footnotes or ibid. for ordinary citations. MLA uses parentheses.
• Writing et. al. The abbreviation is et al., with a period only after al.