Citing Sources

The purpose of in-text citations and the Works Cited is to share information about the sources used to support a writer's argument and claims. In-text citations refer to citations in your Work Cited list. Your in-text citation will contain enough information (minimal) to connect to the full information about the source in the Works Cited list. In most cases, the in-text citation will consist of the following in parentheses:

• author's surname/last name
• the page number the specific quote or paraphrase is located
• no comma between the surname and page number
• always close with a period

When a surname/last name and/or page number are not available, for example, in the case of some websites, include what you have. This usually means including the corporate author or sponsoring institution for the source, or the next element of the source, usually the title.

See examples below (Use the in-text citation to find the actual citation below.):

The sources (from the MLA Style for Works Cited, 9th Edition: Brief Guide) above are how they would appear in-text in the body of the paper. Below is how the Works Cited for the above four sources would appear: