MLA In-text Citation Examples
1. When the author and page number are available:
Anna Quindlen notes that many Americans want to keep illegal immigrants illegal
because they are a cheap source of labor (81).
Some people think that Americans want to keep illegal immigrants illegal because they
are a cheap source of labor (Quindlen 81).
2. When there is an author but no page number:
Anna Quindlen notes that many Americans want to keep illegal immigrants illegal
because they are a cheap source of labor.
Some people think that Americans want to keep illegal immigrants illegal because they
are a cheap source of labor (Quindlen).
3. When there is no author but there is a page number available (use an abbreviated form of the
title followed by the page number; article was titled "The Immigrants Among Us"):
The article “Immigrants in our World Today” notes that some people think that
Americans want to keep illegal immigrants illegal because they are a cheap source of
labor (81).
Some people think that Americans want to keep illegal immigrants illegal because they
are a cheap source of labor (“Immigrants” 81).
4. When there is no author and no page number available (use an abbreviated for of the title):
The article “Immigrants in our World Today” notes that some people think that
Americans want to keep illegal immigrants illegal because they are a cheap source of
labor.
Some people think that Americans want to keep illegal immigrants illegal because they
are a cheap source of labor (“Immigrants”).
Examples with Direct Quotations
An identifying tag or signal phrase is a phrase that identifies the source. It can be in the
beginning, middle, or at the end of the quotation. Circle the identifying tag in the following
examples and note whether it is in the beginning, middle, or end.
In his novel Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut explains why some people used drugs:
“People took such awful chances with chemicals and their bodies because they wanted the
quality of their lives to improve. They lived in ugly places where there were only ugly things
to do” (71).
Contemporary authors often explore the subtle, everyday conflicts between people. “He had
understood, then, the urge she so often felt when speaking to him—the urge to hang up on a
person who had not even tried to understand one word you had said,” writes Ann Beattie in
“That Last Odd Day in L.A.” (271).
Note: to make sure your sentences do not all sound the same, experiment with different verbs
to introduce a source’s words or ideas. Some examples: acknowledges, argues, states,
suggests, concludes, insists, predicts, discusses, observes, notes, writes, comments, implies,
reports, etc.
Punctuation with Quotations
Your sentences, even with quotations, need to flow smoothly and be grammatically correct.
Kenneth Tynan notes about Greta Garbo that “[w]hat, when drunk, one sees in other women,
one sees in Garbo sober” (147).
Note: when you use the word “that” to introduce a quotation, do not use a comma. Also,
when you make changes to the original quotation, whether by capitalizing or lowercasing a
letter or changing the tense of a verb, you need to indicate this with brackets [ ].
Cloris Leachman commented, “They had to find reasons for us to be morons, so [Lassie]
could outsmart us” (135).
Note: the original quotation said “the dog.” Sometimes you need the antecedent instead of the
pronoun in the quotation for clarity.
“[Dr. Suess] is remembered,” observes Quindlen, “for the murder of Dick and Jane, which
was a mercy killing of the highest order” (119).
Note: original said “he”
“We cannot see yet how deliverance will come [. . .] but nothing is more certain than that
every trace of Hitler’s footsteps [. . .] will be sponged and purged and, if need be, blasted
from the surface of the earth,” reports Winston Churchill (62).
Note: to indicate you have omitted information from between quotations, use ellipses in
brackets. Do not use ellipses to later the meaning of a sentence.
David Foster Wallace writes about a character that goes to extremes when she breaks up with
her boyfriends: “She found it impossible to really end a relationship unless all bridges were
burned and things got said that were so devastating that there could be no possibility of a
rapprochement to haunt her or prevent her moving on” (393).
Note: Only use a colon after a complete sentence.
Long Quotations
Quotations longer than four lines of prose should be indented one inch (ten spaces) from the
margin. Double space and do not use quotation marks. Introduce long quotes with a complete
sentence and then a colon. Follow the quotation with a period and then the appropriate
parenthetical information.
Ann Beattie often uses the small, everyday details of people’s lives to build her characters. In the
short story “Shifting,” she describes a husband’s personality through the way he keeps his car:
When she married him, he had had the car for eight months. It still smelled like
brand-new car. There was never any clutter in the car. Even the ice scraper was
kept in the glove compartment. There was not even a sweater or a lost glove in
the backseat. He vacuumed the car every weekend, after washing it at the car
wash. On Friday nights, on their way to some cheap restaurant and a dollar
movie, he would stop at the car wash, and she would get out so he could vacuum
all over the inside of the car. She would lean against the metal wall of the car
wash and watch him clean it. (226-227)
Note: Integrating quotations, summaries, and paraphrases smoothly into your writing
presents a challenge. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself puzzling over the best place and
way to include textual support or critics ideas.
True or False?
1. I only need to cite in text when I directly quote a source.
2. If I reference sources in my paper, there should be a Works Cited list at the end of my
paper.
3. MLA requires that my in-text citation have the author’s full name and the page
number(s) the referenced material comes from.
4. I do not need to cite general knowledge, which most people would know.
5. MLA does not require that I explain who an author is (Sociologist John Smith,
Attorney General Albert Gonzalez, Journalist Anna Quindlen, Literary Critic Sarah
Hall) but it is a good idea.