|
Home
> Articles
>
MLA Formatting and Style Guide >
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11 [Previous |
Next]
 MLA
Formatting and Style Guide - In-Text
Citations: Author-Page Style
by
Dave Neyhart and Erin E. Karper. Revision by Karl Stolley
www.owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
01.
MLA - General Format
02.
MLA - In-Text Citations: The Basics
03.
MLA - In-Text Citations: Author-Page Style
04.
MLA - Formatting Quotations
05.
MLA - Footnotes and Endnotes
06.
MLA - Works Cited Page: Basic Format
07.
MLA - Works Cited Page: Books
08.
MLA - Works Cited: Periodicals
09.
MLA - Works Cited: Electronic Sources
10.
MLA - Works Cited: Other Non-Print Sources
11.
MLA - Additional Resources
In-Text Citations: Author-Page Style
MLA format follows the
author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's
last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or
paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete
reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name
may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following
the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always
appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For
example:
Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was
marked by a
"spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings" (263).
Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings"
(Wordsworth 263).
Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in
the creative process (263).
The citation, both (263)
and (Wordsworth 263), tells readers that the information in the
sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named
Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they
can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of
Wordsworth, they would find the following information:
Wordsworth, William. Lyrical
Ballads. London: Oxford U.P., 1967.
Author-Page Citation for Classic and Literary Works with Multiple
Editions
Page numbers are always required, but additional citation
information can help literary scholars, who may have a different
edition of a classic work like Marx and Engels's The Communist
Manifesto. In such cases, give the page number of your edition
(making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of
course) follwed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate
abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.),
section (sec.), paragraph (par.) as available. For example:
Marx and Engels described human
history as marked by
class struggles (79; ch. 1).
Anonymous Work/Author Unknown
If the work you are citing to has no author, use an abbreviated
version of the work's title. (For non-print sources, such as films,
TV series, pictures, or other media, or electronic sources, include
the name that begins the entry in the Works Cited page). For
example:
An anonymous Wordsworth critic
once argued that his poems were too emotional ("Wordsworth Is a
Loser" 100).
Citing Authors with Same Last Names
Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from
which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors
have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or
even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in
your citation. For example:
Although some medical ethicists
claim that cloning will lead to designer children (R. Miller 12),
others note that the advantages for medical research outweigh this
consideration (A. Miller 46).
Citing Multiple Works by the Same Author
If you cite more than one work by a particular author, include a
shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting
to distinguish it from the others.
Lightenor has argued that
computers are not useful tools for small children ("Too Soon" 38),
though he has acknowledged elsewhere that early exposure to computer
games does lead to better small motor skill development in a child's
second and third year ("Hand-Eye Development" 17).
Additionally, if the
author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, you would format
your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, follwed by
a shortened title of the work, followed, when appropriate, by page
numbers:
Visual studies, because it is
such a new discipline, may be "too easy" (Elkins, "Visual Studies"
63).
Citing Indirect Sources
Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source
is a source cited in another source. For such indirect quotations,
use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For
example:
Ravitch argues that high schools
are pressured to act as "social service centers, and they don't do
that well" (qtd. in Weisman 259).
Note that, in most cases, a
responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source,
rather than citing an indirect source.
Citing the Bible
In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which
Bible you're using (and italicize or underline the title), as each
version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not
italicize or underline), chapter and verse. For example:
Ezekiel saw "what seemed to be
four living creatures," each with faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and
an eagle (New Jerusalem Bible, Ezek. 1.5-10).
All future references can
then just cite book, chapter, and verse, since you've established
which edition of the Bible you will be using.
|
