MLA 9th Ed. In-Text Citations
Notes on MLA 9
th
edition parenthetical citations:
• Match each citation to the corresponding entries in your list of works cited.
• Put the last name of the author (or the work’s title) followed by a space, then the page
number(s) of the text cited in parentheses (except for special instances).
• Place citations where a pause would naturally occur (preferably at the end of a sentence), as
near as possible to the material documented.
• Omit any citation information that you include in the sentence from the citation itself. In
other words, if you include the author’s name in the sentence, it is not necessary in the
parenthetical citation. This principle is detailed in the “In-Text” section below.
• Put a parenthetical citation following a quotation after the closing quotation mark and
before any following comma or end-punctuation [ex: In the late Renaissance, Machiavelli
contended that human beings were by nature “ungrateful” and “mutable” (1240), and
Montaigne thought them “miserable and puny” (1343).].
For more information about MLA in-text citations, you can follow this link: https://style.mla.org/in-
text-citations-overview
Works Cited
Situation
Example
Basic Format:
List the last name of the author and the relevant page
number if available.
(Brown 10)
(Smith)
Authors with the same last name:
Add first initial.
If the initial is the same, use the full first name.
(W. Wordsworth 23); (D. Wordsworth 224)
(John Smith 1); (Jane Smith 2)
Two authors begin works cited
entry:
Give the last name of each person listed.
(White and Black 80)
Three or more authors begin
works cited entry:
Give the first author’s name followed by “et al.”
(Allen et al. 101)
Work is listed by title:
Use the title, shortened or in full.
(“Creating Writing Center Handouts” 6)
Writing Center in Broken Arrow
Committed to Creating Stronger Writers in all Disciplines
BALB 106
www.nsuok.edu/wcba
Two + anonymous works with the
same title:
Add a publication fact, such as a date, that distinguishes
the works.
(“Snowy Owl,” Arctic); (“Snowy Owl,” Hinderland)
(“Cats,” 1984); (“Cats,” 2000)
Two or more works by the same
author:
Add the cited title, shortened or in full, after the
author’s last name.
(Frye, Anatomy 237); (Frye, The Double Vision 100).
In-Text
Situation
Example
Author’s name in text:
Tannen has argued this point (178-85).
Author’s name in citation:
This point has already been argued (Tannen 178-85).
Authors’ names in text:
Others, like Jakobson and Waugh (210-15), hold the
opposite view.
Authors’ names in citation:
If the work has three or more authors, give the first
author’s last name followed by “et al.”
One popular survey of American literature breaks the
contents into sixteen thematic groupings (Anderson et
al. A19-24).
(Lauter et al. 2425-33).
Source-Related
Situation
Example
Citing indirect source:
Put in “qtd. in” (quoted in) before the indirect source
you cite.
Samuel Johnson admitted that Edmund Burke was an
“extraordinary man” (qtd. in Weinberg 1:405, 616-17).
Literary works:
When referencing a classic prose work (novel, play,
etc.) that is available in many editions, provide more
than the page number; use a chapter number, section
number, etc. Follow the author and page number by a
semi-colon, then add the information.
In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary
Wollstonecraft recollects many “women who, not led
by degrees to proper studies, and not permitted to
choose for themselves, have indeed been overgrown
with children” (185; ch. 13, sec. 2).
Plays, Classic verse:
Omit page numbers and cite by division (act, scene,
canto, book, part) and line, with periods separating
various numbers.
Book 9, line 19, of Homer’s Iliad: (Iliad 9.19)
Act 4, Scene 1 in King Lear: (King Lear 4.1) is
preferred, or (King Lear IV.i)
