In-Text Citations

This section will cover any details for writing in-text citations. These sections are listed below to easily jump to which section you need. For more specific in-text citation questions, visit the Purdue OWL’s MLA In-Text Citations page. 

Parenthetical Citations

MLA citations are formed as (Author Page Number). You do not need a comma, just one space between the author and the page number. For page ranges, simply put the starting and ending page numbers, followed by an en-dash (–) between the page range. The period comes after the parenthetical citation. Examples for each are listed below. 

(Diaz 1).

(Hinesley  24–25).

Paraphrasing follows the same rules: continue to add the authors last name and the page number. 

Writing centers help students understand the strengths and weaknesses in their own writing (Johnson 45). 

Narrative Citations

Alternatively to parenthetical citations, you may also use narrative citations. Instead of citing the author and page number at the end of a sentence, you cite the author’s name at the start of the sentence and the page number separately at the end. You may use narrative citations stylistically or for readability. These citations consist of first the author’s name, followed by the page number. At the end of the sentence, you state the page number(s). 

Johnson studied the impact of emotional mindfulness training on tutors throughout an academic semester (1). 

Citing Work Titles

When citing titles of works (the title of a book, article, webpage, etc.) in a paper, all proper nouns must be capitalized (also known as title case). For longer works (books, websites, etc.), the title will be italicized. For shorter works (journal articles, book chapters, etc.), the title will be in quotation marks. Examples for both are listed below. 

In Bree Johnson’s book, The Age of the Writing Center, they conclude that writing centers can help further your education.

In Bree Johnson’s article, “Take a Breath: Building an Emotionally Mindful Writing Center through Mindfulness Education for Tutors,” they outline in detail the mindfulness training they facilitated for their fellow tutors. 

For more information on using title case, visit the section in this guide on Title Formatting.

Long Quotations

Block quotations are used when citing for or more lines of any text, or three or more lines of poetry. To write a block quote, you start with a narrative citation. Then, before writing your quote, end the sentence with a colon. On the next line, indent the entire quote ½ inch away from the margin. To finish the quote, end with a period, followed by the corresponding page number(s) in parentheses. An example is listed below. 

Emotional mindfulness ultimately benefited tutors and how they responded to emotions in writing center sessions. Johnson’s study concluded the following: 

The results ultimately proved that the presentation was successful in educating tutors in emotional mindfulness, whether consciously or unconsciously. Furthermore, the results displayed the adaptive nature of tutors through task-related and emotion-related metacognitive control strategies and stressed the importance of implementing tutor reflection into writing center practices so tutors can process their emotions regarding sessions and their abilities as tutors. (25–26)

Below are instructions for indenting a quote away from the margin in Microsoft Word and Google Docs: 

Google Docs

  1. Highlight the quote you wish to indent. 
  2. On the bar below the Google Docs toolbar on the far right, look for the “Increase indent” icon ().
  3. Deselect your text and the entire quote should be indented. 

Microsoft Word

  1. Highlight the quote you wish to indent. 
  2. On the Microsoft Word home toolbar above your document, click the Increase Indent icon () in the Paragraph settings. 
  3. Deselect your text and the entire quote should be indented. 

Alternatively, tap the Tab key twice on the first line of the quote, then tap Backspace once. 

No Pages?

When a work has no pages, you can simply use the author’s name on its own. 

They discovered that tutors are both consciously and unconsciously labeling emotions in tutoring sessions (Johnson).