An In-Text Citation is a concise way to identify the source of certain information. This appears in the body of your assignment/paper/article. MLA stands for Modern Language Association. MLA formatting is intensively used in academic writing. You should include an in-text citation every time you paraphrase or quote from a source. It helps the readers to locate the corresponding entry in the reference list at the end of your page. It generally consists of the author’s last name and the page number.
How and where to use that
We start with the author. That’s usually somewhere around the top of the article, and if you got it from a database, there’ll be more information in the place where you downloaded it. Or, depending on the database, there might be a helpful information page at the front of the article. If the author is Edward I. Condren, we can’t just copy the name over. MLA requires the author’s name to be inverted: Condren, Edward I. We only have one author, so we add a period to indicate this part’s done. The article’s title comes next. Two things you should know about article titles. The first thing is that when you copy them into a citation, you format them by MLA rules. If you see a Title in all caps, it can’t be used as is, MLA calls for it to be in title case. That’s the technical term for capitalizing the first letters of most words. The other things you should know are the different types of citation methods.
Parenthetical citation
Place the parenthetical citation directly after the relevant quote or paraphrase and before the period or other punctuation mark. For example, MLA is “the second most popular citation style” (Smith and Morrison 17-19)
Narrative citation
If you have already named the author in the sentence, add only the page number in parentheses. For example,” According to Smith and Morrison, MLA is less dominant than APA in the US (17-19).” This is called a narrative citation.
Combining citations
If a sentence is supported by more than one source, you can combine the citations. Livestock farming is one of the biggest global contributors to climate change (Garcia 64; Davies 14).
Citing Multiple Authors
If a source has more than 2 Authors, name only the first author, followed by “et al”. For example, in “My Salty Mary” by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows, give the citation like ‘Cynthia Hand et al.7’.
No Authors
If the Author is unknown, the in-text citation must match the first element of the Work. Cited entry, this may be the name of an organisation or a shortened version of the title. If the title is longer than 4 words, shorten the title to the first word or phrase. Then depending on the type of source, if it’s a self-contained work, for example, a whole website or an entire book, put the titles in italics. If the source is contained within a larger whole, for example, a page on a website or a chapter of a book, put the title in quotation marks. For example, “Hearts of Fire and Snow” is the name of the book, mention (“Hearts”)
No Page Numbers
If a source doesn’t have page numbers but is divided into numbered parts (For example, chapters, sections, scenes, or times), use these numbers to locate the relevant passage, like (Shakespeare 8.7.16)
If the source doesn’t use any numbering system, include only the author’s name in the in-text citation (For example, Shakespeare).
Don’t include paragraph numbers unless they are explicitly numbered in the source.
Multiple sources by the same author
If you cite more than one work by the same author, add a shortened title to signal which
For example, (William Wordsworth, The Prelude 16) & (Butler, “Performative Acts” 522). In this example, the first one is a whole book, so the title appears in Italics, the second one is an article published in a journal, so the title appears in quotation marks.
To distinguish between the different authors with the same last name, use the authors’ initials. For example, (A. Butler 7) & (S. Butler 16)
Suppose, the initials are the same, mention the full first names in your in-text citations. Sometimes you might have to cite something that you found quoted in a secondary source. If possible, always try to seek out the source and cite it directly.
Citing sources indirectly
If you can’t access the source, make sure to name both the original author and the author of the source that you accessed. Use the abbreviation “qtd. in”, which is the short form of “quoted in”. This is to indicate where you found the quotation.
Marx defines “the two primary creators of wealth” as “labour-power and the land” (qtd. in Luxemburg, ch.18)
Conclusion
MLA citation is an easy process if you know how and where to use that and the right methodology.
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