What an In-text Citation Is.
What It Does.
And Why.
Embedded Files
We all know what a Works Cited (or a bibliography) is, and we know why it's important to have one. Once you get to High School though, your Works Cited is only half the story--it tells your reader what sources you used, but not exactly where in your essay you used them or what part of the source you used. This is what the in-text citation is for. It signals, within your essay, each source you use, every time you use it. What does an in-text citation look like? In order to know what should be in your in-text citation, you first need to put the source in your Works Cited. Let's look at a couple of examples below...
Example 1 (when the source has an author)
Let's say I'm reading a certain book and I want to use a quote from page 119 of that book. I go to Mr. Alex's Amazingly Fabulous MLA Guide, I follow the instructions there for citing a book, and I come up with the following reference for my Works Cited:
Walker, Barbara L. When Citation is Too Much Fun. Pointing People Publications, 2007.
The in-text citation for that quote would look like this:
...and few things truly compare with a perfectly executed reference" (Walker 119). This can be...
When there's an author, all you do is use author's last name followed by the page number of your quote or paraphrase. If this were a website (where there are no page numbers), you would just put the author's names in parenthesis after the quote/paraphrase. It's that easy.
Note that the period of the sentence always goes after the in-text citation.
Example 2 (when the source does not have an author)
Now let's say I want to use a quote from a certain website, and I notice that the article does not have a stated author. Again, the first thing I do is go to Mr. Alex's Amazingly Fabulous MLA Guide, I follow the instructions for citing a website, and I come up with the following reference for my Works Cited:
"Citing Things to Pass the Time: Strategies for Getting By Between Bibliographies." Bibliographic Matter, BibGroup, 2018, whynotbecitingrightnow.com/articles/strategies/. Accessed 9. Sept. 2021.
The in-text citation for that quote would look like this:
...and is most effective in these matters ("Citing Things"). Another aspect to consider...
When the source does not have a stated author, you simply take the first two or three words of the title--just enough for the reader to know which source you are pointing to in your Works Cited. In this case, the 2 words I've chosen are in quotes, and that is because the title of the reference in my Works Cited is in quotes. The example above is from a website, and so I do not have to worry about including the page number.
That's all there is to it!
Remember, you need an in-text citation every time you quote from or paraphrase a source.
Talk to your teacher or the librarian if you have any questions about an in-text citation you're having trouble with. Good luck!
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