In-Text Citations

MLA Odds and Ends

	In-text Concern	Information
1	Begin & end with your words	Never begin or end the essay with someone else’s words. What you have to say is important. Don’t let someone else speak for you.
2	Cite Sources when…	Anytime the information does not originally blossom from your noggin, you must cite your source. Even if you summarize or paraphrase, you must cite your source. Anytime your quote someone, cite your source.
3 FR Writer 326, 564-565	Brackets [ ]	Use brackets to insert your own words in a quote to clarify meaning or to modify a word to fit the grammar of the sentence to which you are attaching the quote. Also use the bracket for the [sic] to mark incorrectly spelled words in the quote.
4 FR Writer 342-343	Block quotes punctuation	Use block quotes to highlight important long quotes. Because it is in block quote, it is understood that you are quoting. Don’t use quotation marks around the quote. The punctuation at the end of a block quote is unusual. End the quote with the author’s punctuation. Then, put the (in-text citation) There is no punctuation after the in-text citation.
5 FR Writer 560-562	Ellipsis …	The ellipsis indicates words have been removed from a quote. Use this to trim down lengthy quotes and remove extraneous info not pertinent to the point you are making. Don’t use it if words are not missing.
6	In-Text Citation Punctuation	“The quoted text occurs inside the quotes” (the citation occurs in the parentheses). Notice that the period/punctuation is after the parentheses. “” ( ). Exceptions are ? and ! See FR Writer pp. 560.
7	Multiple author citations	For 3 or more authors/editors, etc.,… put (first author’s surname et al. page number) Example: (Smith et al. 45)
8	Abbreviate long website citations in-text	(http://www.mla.org/...)

9	Titles mentioned in-text that must be put inside “quotation marks”	Put “” around the titles of the following when you mention them in-text in the body of your essay: Newspaper articles “Chimps Head on Man’s Body” Magazine articles “Stock Market Crashes!” Encyclopedia articles (banned from your essay) Essay in a book “The Way to Rainy Mountain” Short story title “The Circular Ruins” Poem “Ebb Sand and Stars” Chapter in a book “Tea in the Sahara” Episode of tv program “Homer Eats Humble Pie” Name of a song “More Than You Know” Title of a lecture “Fun with Inferential Statistics”
10	Titles mentioned in-text that must be put in underlined	Underline the titles of the following when you mention them in-text in the body of your essay: Book The Little Prince Play Hamlet Long poem published as book The Wasteland Pamphlet Common Sense Newspaper Name The Washington Post Magazine name The Economist Film Casablanca Television program Masterpiece Theater Compact disc, audiocassette, vinyl record album Telling Stories to the Sea Ballet The Nutcracker Opera The Pearl Fishers Long musical composition identified by name The Planets Painting Guernica Sculpture Caryatids Ship USS Nimitz Aircraft Memphis Belle Spacecraft Apollo 13
11	Explain the quote	If you use a quote, make it clear why you incorporated it. Don’t expect a quote to be self-explanatory.
12	Reports, articles, statistics, data, studies…say nothing	Only authors say something. Never write, “The study says…”
13	Citing lines of poetry or plays	In-text citations from long poems should include the line number/s of text being cited. For plays, include (act #.scene#.line/s)