MLA In-Text Documentation
Taken from Doing Research by Dorothy U. Syler.
McGraw-Hill, 1999
Student Paragraph
According to law professor Franklin Zimring, the United States needs to severely limit handgun
ownership or face the possibility of seeing handgun ownership increase “from 35 million to more
than 50 million within 50 years” (54). Zimring points out that Americans are sharply divided
“on restricting handguns and that enforcing such laws would cost many billions of dollars." He
concludes that the benefits would not be seen immediately but that the restrictions “would
probably have a cumulative impact over time” (54). Although Zimring paints a gloomy
picture of high costs and little immediate relief from gun violence, he also presents the shocking
possibility of 50 million guns by the year 2040. Can our society survive so much fire power?
Clearly, this student paragraph demonstrates adequate acknowledgment of the writer's
indebtedness to Zimring. You may wonder about the amount of direct quoting used by this
student, but he wants the power of Zimring's words and statistics to build on. Notice that the
placement of the parenthetical page reference acts as a visual closure to the student's borrowing;
then he turns to his response to Zimring and his own views on the problem of handguns.
MLA In-Text (Parenthetical) Citations
The student paragraph above illustrates the most common form of parenthetical documentation
in MLA style, that is, parenthetical references to author and page number, or just to page number
if the author has been mentioned in an introductory tag. Because a reference only to author and
page number is an incomplete citation (readers could not find the source with such limited
information), whatever is cited this way in the essay must refer to a specific source presented
fully in a Works Cited list that follows the text of the paper. General guidelines for citing are
given below and on the next few pages, followed by examples and explanations of the required
patterns of documentation.
 You need a 100 percent correspondence between the sources listed on your Works Cited
page(s) and the sources you cite (refer to) in your paper. Do not omit from your Works Cited
any sources you refer to in your paper. Do not include in your Works Cited any sources not
referred to in your paper.
Guidelines for Using Parenthetical Documentation
 The purpose of documentation is to make clear exactly what material in a passage has
been borrowed and from what source the borrowed material has come.
 Parenthetical documentation requires specific page references for borrowed material.
 Parenthetical documentation is required for both quoted and paraphrased material.
 Parenthetical documentation provides as brief a citation as possible consistent with
accuracy and clarity.
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The Simplest Patterns of Parenthetical Documentation
The simplest parenthetical reference can be prepared in one of three ways:
1. Give the author's last name (full name in a first reference to an author) in the text of your
paper and place the relevant page number(s) in parentheses following the borrowed material.
Frederick Lewis Allen observes that, during the 1920s, urban tastes spread to the
country (146).
2. Place the author's last name and the relevant page number(s) in parentheses immediately
following the borrowed material.
During the 1920s, “not only the drinks were mixed, but the company as well” (Allen 82).
3. On the rare occasion that you cite an entire work rather than borrowing from a specific
passage, give the author's name in the text and omit any page numbers.
Tuchman argues that there are significant parallels between the fourteenth century and
our time.
Each one of these in-text references is complete only when the full citation is found in the
Works Cited page, thus:
Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties..
New York: Harper, 1931.
Tuchman, Barbara W. A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. New York:
Knopf, 1978.
The three patterns just illustrated should be used in each of the following situations:
1. The work is not anonymous-the author is known.
2. The work is by one author.
3. The work cited is the only work used by that author.
4. No other author in your bibliography has the same last name.
5. The borrowed material is either quoted or paraphrased.
Placement of Parenthetical Documentation
The simplest placing of a parenthetical reference is at the end of the appropriate sentence before
the period, but, when you are quoting, after the quotation mark.
During the 1920s, “not only the drinks were mixed, but the company as well” (Allen 82).
Do not put any punctuation between the author's name and the page number.
If the borrowed material ends before the end of your sentence, place the parenthetical reference
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after the borrowed material and before any subsequent punctuation. This placement more
accurately shows what is borrowed and what is your own work.
Sport, Allen observes about the 1920s, had developed into an obsession (66), another
similarity between the 1920s and the 1980s.
If a quoted passage is long enough to require setting off in display form (block quotation), then
place the parenthetical reference at the end of the passage, after the last period. (Remember that
long quotations in display form do not have quotation marks.)
It is hard to believe that when he writes about the influence of science, Allen is describing
the 1920s, not the 1980s:
The prestige of science was colossal. The man in the street and the
woman in the kitchen, confronted on every hand with new machines and
devices which they owed to the laboratory, were ready to believe that
science could accomplish almost anything. (164)
And to complete the documentation for all three examples:
Works Cited
Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties.
New York: Harper, 1931.
Parenthetical Documentation for Complex Sources
Not all sources can be cited in one of the three simplest forms described above, for not all meet
the five criteria listed on page 161. Works by two or more authors, for example, will need
somewhat fuller references. Each sample form of parenthetical documentation illustrated below
is completed with a full Works Cited reference.
Two Authors, Mentioned in the Text
Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray contend that it is “consistently. . . advantageous to
be smart” (21).
Two Authors, Not Mentioned in the Text
The advantaged smart group form a “cognitive elite” in our society (Herrnstein and
Murray 26-27).
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Works Cited
Herrnstein, Richard J., and Ch4rles Murray. The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class
Structure in American Life. New York: Free, 1994.
A Book in Two or More Volumes
Sewall analyzes the role of Judge Lord in Dickinson's life (2:642-47).
OR
Judge Lord was also one of Dickinson's preceptors (Sewall 2: 642-47).
Note: The number before the colon always signifies the volume number; the number(s) after the
colon represents the page number(s).
Works Cited
Sewall, Richard B. The Life of Emilv Dickinson. 2 vols.
New York: Farrar, 1974.
A Book or Article Listed by Title (Author Unknown)
According to the Concise Dictionary of American Biography, William Jennings Bryan's 1896
campaign stressed social and sectional conflicts (117).
The Time’s editors are not pleased with some of the changes in welfare programs (“Where
Welfare Stands” 4:16).
Always cite the title of the article, not the title of the journal, if the author is unknown.
Works Cited
Concise Dictionary of American Biography. New York:
Scribner's, 1964.
“Where Welfare Stands.” Editorial. New York Times
18 May 1997, sec. 4: 16.
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A Work by a Corporate Author
According to the report of the Institute of Ecology's Global Ecological Problems Workshop, the
civilization of the city can lull us into forgetting our relationship to the total ecological system on
which we depend (13).
Although corporate authors may be cited with the page number within the parentheses, your
presentation will be more graceful if corporate authors are introduced in the text. Then only
page numbers go in parentheses.
Works Cited
Institute of Ecology. Man in the Living Environment. Madison:
U of Wisconsin P, 1972.
Two or More Works by the Same Author
During the 1920s, 'not only the drinks were mixed, but the company as well' (Allen, Only
Yesterday 82).
According to Frederick Lewis Allen, the early 1900s were a period of complacency in
America (The Big Chance 4-5).
In The Big Change, Allen asserts that the early 1900s were a period of
complacency (4-5).
If your Works Cited list contains two or more works by the same author, the fullest parenthetical
citation will include the author's last name, followed by a comma; the work's title, shortened if
possible; and the page number(s). If the author's name appears in the text-or the author and title
both, as in the third example above-omit these items from the parenthetical citation. When you
have to include the title, it is best to simplify the citation by including the author's last name in
the text.
Works Cited
Allen, Frederick Lewis. The Big Change. New York: Harper, 1952.
---. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties. New York:
Harper, 1931.
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Two or More Works in One Parenthetical Reference
Several writers about the future agree that big changes will take place in work
patterns (Toffler 384-87; Naisbitt 35-36).
Separate each author cited with a semicolon. But if the parenthetical citation would be
disruptively long, cite the works in a "See also" note rather than in the text.
Works Cited
Naisbitt, John. Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives.
New York: Warner, 1982.
Toffler, Alvin. The Third Wave. New York: Bantam, 1981.
Complete Publication Information in Parenthetical Reference
Occasionally you may want to give complete information about a source within parentheses in
the text of your paper. Then a Works Cited list is not used. Square brackets are used for
parenthetical information within parentheses. This approach may be appropriate when you have
used only one or two sources, even if many references are made to the few sources. Literary
analyses are one type of paper for which this approach to citation may be a good choice. For
example:
Edith Wharton establishes the bleakness of her setting, Starkfield, not just through
description of place but also through her main character, Ethan, who is described as bleak
and unapproachable, (Ethan Frome [New York: Scribner's, 19111 3. All subsequent
references are to this edition.). Later Wharton describes winter as “shut[ting] down on
Starkfield” and negating life there (7).
Additional-Information Footnotes or Endnotes
At times you may need to provide additional useful information, explanation, or commentary
that is not central to the development of your paper. These additions belong in content footnotes
or endnotes. However, use these sparingly and never as a way of advancing your thesis. Many
instructors object to content footnotes or endnotes and prefer only parenthetical citations in
student papers.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html
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