There are two ways to integrate others' research into your assignment: you can paraphrase or you can quote.
Paraphrasing is used to show that you understand what the author wrote. You must restate the meaning of the passage, expressing the ideas in your own words and voice, and not just change a few words here and there. Make sure to also include an in-text citation.
Quoting is copying the wording from someone else's work, keeping it exactly as it was originally written. When quoting, place quotation marks (" ") around the selected passage to show where the quote begins and where it ends. Make sure to include an in-text citation.
If you refer to the author's name in a sentence you do not have to include the name again as part of your in-text citation. Instead include the page number (if there is one) at the end of the quotation or paraphrased section.
Example:
From these interviews, Vishwanath concluded that when people believe a social media friend request is coming from a real person, they may "accept friend requests simply to be polite and not hurt someone else's feelings--even if they're not sure they know the person" (39).
In MLA, in-text citations are inserted in the body of your research paper to briefly document the source of your information. Brief in-text citations point the reader to more complete information in the Works Cited list at the end of the paper.
|
Number of Authors/Editors |
Format of In-Text Citation |
|---|---|
| One |
(Author's Last Name Page Number) Example: (Sun 35) |
| Two |
(Author's Last Name and Author's Last Name Page Number) Example: (Hogan and Sathy 20) |
| Three or more |
(Author's Last Name et al. Page Number) Example: (Woods et al. 3) |
When a source has no known author, use the first one, two, or three words from the title instead of the author's last name. Don't count initial articles like "A", "An" or "The". You should provide enough words to make it clear which work you're referring to from your Works Cited list.
If the title in the Works Cited list is in italics, italicize the words from the title in the in-text citation.
Example:
(Human Health Effects 7)
Note: The full title of this resource is Human Health Effects of Wildfire Smoke.
If the title in the Works Cited list is in quotation marks, put quotation marks around the words from the title in the in-text citation.
Example:
("Anchor" 46)
When you quote directly from a source, enclose the quoted section in quotation marks. Add an in-text citation at the end of the quote with the author name and page number, like this:
"Here's a direct quote" (Bhattacharyya and Berdahl 1081).
"Here's a direct quote" ("Fast Lane" 16).
Note: The period goes outside the brackets, at the end of your in-text citation.
Example:
From these interviews, Vishwanath concluded that when people believe a social media friend request is coming from a real person, they may "accept friend requests simply to be polite and not hurt someone else's feelings--even if they're not sure they know the person" (39).
When you write information or ideas from a source in your own words, cite the source by adding an in-text citation at the end of the paraphrased portion, like this:
This is a paraphrase (Bhattacharyya and Berdahl 1081).
This is a paraphrase ("Fast Lane" 16).
Note: The period goes outside the brackets, at the end of your in-text citation.
Example:
From these interviews, Vishwanath concluded that people who receive a friend request from an unknown person might not consider that the profile may be fake, and may accept the request in order to avoid hurting the other person's feelings (39).
Note: If the paraphrased information/idea summarizes several pages, include all of the page numbers.
Example:
From these interviews, Vishwanath concluded that people who receive a friend request from an unknown person might not consider that the profile may be fake, and may accept the request in order to avoid hurting the other person's feelings (37, 39-40).
When you quote from electronic sources that do not provide page numbers (like webpages), cite the author name only. If there is no author, cite the first word or words from the title only.
Examples:
"Here is a direct quote from an electronic source" (Cuthand).
"Here is a direct quote from an electronic source" ("Labour Market Outcomes").
Note: The period goes outside the brackets, at the end of your in-text citation.
Sources that are paraphrased or quoted in other sources are called indirect sources. MLA recommends you take information from the original source whenever possible.
If you must cite information from an indirect source, mention the author of the original source in the body of your text and place the name of the author of the source you actually consulted in your in-text citation. Begin your in-text citation with 'qtd. in.'
Example:
Oishi notes that the number of new publications on subjective indicators of happiness has risen considerably in recent years, as has the variety of survey methodologies used for research (qtd. in Uchida and Rappleye 38).
(You are reading an article by Uchida and Rappleye that cites information from Oishi (the original source))
Note: In your Works Cited list, you only include a citation for the source you consulted, NOT the original source.
In the above example, your Works Cited list would include a citation for the Uchida and Rappleye article, and NOT the Oishi article.
If you're using information from a single source more than once in a row (with no other sources referred to in between), you can use a simplified in-text citation. The first time you use information from the source, use a full in-text citation. The second time, you only need to give the page number.
Example:
Conservation programs are designed to help specific forms of biodiversity, nature, or nonhuman wildlife that have been negatively impacted by human activity (Srinivasan and Collard 289). However, these programs are generally ineffective in the long term. In some cases, the flourishing of non-human wildlife that results from conservation leads to conflict with humans in the area (291). Alternatively, other nonhuman species end up being harmed by the conservation process (292).
Note: If using this simplified in-text citation creates ambiguity regarding the source being referred to, use the full in-text citation format.
If you would like to cite more than one source within the same in-text citation, simply record the in-text citations as normal and separate them with a semi-colon.
Examples:
(Barbo and Alam 132; "Fast Lane" 16).
(Lisaingo et al. 26; Human Health Effects 7).
Note: The sources within the in-text citation do not need to be in alphabetical order for MLA style.
If your quotation is longer than four lines, it is a considered a long quotation. This can also be referred to as a block quotation.
Rules for Long Quotations
There are 4 rules that apply to long quotations that are different from regular quotations:
Example of a Long Quotation
Krithika Srinivasan and Rosemary Collard explain the fragile logic used by conservationists to justify the protection--or destruction--of non-human life:
Conservation has as its aim the independent flourishing of nonhuman life, but in reality, non-human abundance that is not engineered by human society invites responses of suppression. Ambivalence toward autonomous nonhuman flourishing can be seen in dominant conservationist responses to those animals that do manage to thrive in the human-dominated landscapes that characterize today’s Earth. Such organisms are more often than not reviled and suppressed as pests, invasive species, vectors of disease, or simply not 'valuable.' (293)