MLA In-Text Citation Review
WHAT do I cite ?
- Quotations (remember to introduce, summarize and explain them properly. That’s totally separate from this!)
- Facts that are not common knowledge– basically, stuff you had to look up. “The sky is blue” is common knowledge. “Joseph Stalin’s childhood nickname was ‘Soso'” is not.
- Ideas that you did not come up with yourself. For example, if you’re writing about how the foods we eat affect, not only our physical body, but our mood– and you got that idea from reading an article on the topic, you need to give that article props.
HOW do I cite?
- If you can, put (Author page#). unless author is already mentioned in a sentence. No comma in between the author and the page#.
- If you don’t know page #, as is often the case with websites: (Author).
- If you don’t know author: (Title page#).
- If you don’t know author OR page#: (Title).
- Do not put web address in parenthesis.
REMEMBER TO ALSO ALWAYS ATTACH A BIBLIOGRAPHY. You might want to use an online bibliography generator like easybib.com
For more info on citation, see the Purdue Online Writing Lab (Purdue OWL)
