These guidelines to In-text Citation and Works Cited listings are based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Theses and Dissertations (Fifth Edition). See also the Overview of MLA Citation Style.

NB: The following must always be cited, preferably using MLA in-text (parenthetical) format. In-text citations are recommended for source attributions and author notes for explanatory remarks.

• Direct quotations of text or speech and all graphics and images regardless of the source;
• Ideas from other sources (despite your possible "rewording" of them). "Ideas" include concepts, facts, opinions, or a particular pattern of thinking or arrangement of material;
• Any idea, opinion, historical reference, or "fact" that is not "common knowledge";
• Statistics, census figures and other comparative or time-specific data, even if it might in some cases be considered "common knowledge" — when in doubt, cite the source!

In-text Citation Examples

• When the author's name only appears in the Works Cited
  This argument has been developed elsewhere (Smith 67-69).
• When the author's name is [also] given in the text
  Smith [the author] develops this argument (67-69).
• When two works are referenced in the same citation
  (Smith 69, Henderson 142).
• When two locations from the same source are cited in the same entry
  Henderson deals with this problem (136-38, 166).
• When there is more than one author for a source, and several page numbers
  The most notorious Washington lobby is the "Sugar Mafia" (Howe and Trott 134-37, 141).
• When an idea is cited indirectly (as referenced in another source)
  Hemingway's words associate admiration with pleasure (in Smith 66).

Examples of Works Cited Entries

• A Book by a Single Author
  Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton U.P., 1957.
• A Book by Two Authors
  Howe, Russell Warren, and Sarah Hays Trott. Power Play. Garden City: Doubleday, 1977.
• An Article or Chapter in an Anthology or Compilation
  Smith, Wallace. Hemingway and Masculinity. Hemingway: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Albert E. Neuman. Nairobi: Kilimanjaro Press, 2001. 66-78.
• An Edited Work (when the work is not an "anthology")
  Henderson, Bill, ed. The Publish-It-Yourself Handbook. Yonkers, N.Y.: Pushcart Press, 1980.
• Reference Works (without a specific editor)
  Collins Cobuild English Dictionary. London: HarperCollins, 4th edition, 1995
• A Translation (see also Citing Translations: Author or Translator?)
  
  1. Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Viking, 1996. (— or! —)
     
  2. Fagles, Robert, trans. The Odyssey. By Homer. New York: Viking, 1996.
• A Magazine or Newspaper Article
  Alpern, David M. Has Moscow Violated SALT? Newsweek 22 October 1984: 32.
• An Interview Conducted by the Author of the Paper (see How to Cite An Interview)
  Maijanen, Maija. Personal interview. 15 October 2003.
• A Lecture, Seminar or Speech [substitute "Seminar", etc., for "Lecture" below as relevant]
  1. McAlester, Gerard. PP1A Grammar and Usage Lecture. Department of Translation Studies, University of Tampere, Finland. 13 April 2003. — or —
  2. Lehtinen, Pirjo. Leadership for the 21st Century. Principles in Politics Conference. Tampere-talo, Tampere. 11 December 2002.
• See Citing Internet Sources for how to document web and e-mail material

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Where Does the Punctuation Go in MLA Citations?

The ease-of-use of MLA Style also applies to how citations are punctuated. There are only two rules, with the first applying to all regular text" citations. (For more detail on MLA in-text citation conventions, including how to handle date references with time-sensitive sources, see In-text Citations Overview.)

Rule One: 'Regular text' Citations Are Always Placed INSIDE the Concluding Punctuation

In-text citations which are part of the regular text of a paper are always placed inside a sentence, often just before the concluding punctuation. If placed earlier in a sentence, the citation should be put where there is a natural pause, as near as possible to the material being documented. Thus:

A paragraph from Sjöblom (5) provides an example that is used later on this page. The page itself shows MLA in-text citation placement and punctuation (Gibaldi 233-34).

Two different citation placements (and procedures) are illustrated in the paragraph above. In the first, since Sjöblom's name, which was also the 'key word' of the Works Cited entry, was given in the text, only the page number for her article needs to be put in the parenthetical citation. This was placed "as near as possible to the material being documented" — right after Sjöblom's name. In the second example, as Gibaldi's name was not given in the text, it needs to be put in the parenthetical citation along with the specific page numbers. Note that the Gibaldi citation is before the period which concludes the sentence.

In most cases, MLA in-text citations will refer only to the same sentence in which the citation is located (as in both examples above). However, if information in several sentences of the same paragraph is from the same source, and no other source has been cited in between, then one citation at the end of the paragraph will refer to the other sentences of that paragraph as well (Gibaldi 233). This citation will still be inside the closing punctuation.^NOTE Thus:

The World Health Organization has classified obesity as the world's fastest-growing epidemic. An equal number of people suffer from eating too much as suffer from malnutrition. According to the Worldwatch Institute 1.2 billion people worldwide eat too much (Sjöblom 5).

All three sentences above refer to page 5 of Sjöblom's article. There is no information from other sources, or any of the author's own opinions, mixed with these sentences. Thus the single citation at the end of the paragraph refers to all three sentences of the paragraph. Note that the citation is placed before the period ending the paragraph.

Rule Two: For Indented Quotations, the Citation Goes OUTSIDE the Closing Sentence

Rule Two applies to long quotations which have been set off (indented) from the main text, as in the two examples below. With such "long" quotations it is evident from the indentation that all of the text is from the same source; thus the parenthetical citation is put after the closing punctuation of the quotation, without internal punctuation.

There should be one space between the concluding punctuation mark (usually a period) of the quoted text, with the parenthetical citation following. Thus:

Anita Sjöblom, writing in Stockholm's Dagens Nyheter, describes the status of obesity as follows:

The World Health Organisation has classified obesity as the world's fastest-growing epidemic. An equal number of people suffer from eating too much as suffer from malnutrition. According to the Worldwatch Institute 1.2 billion people worldwide eat too much. (5)

Following is an alternate way of putting the above. In this example the author's name was not mentioned in the text preceding the quotation, and therefore must be included in the parenthetical citation. An article in Stockholm's Dagens Nyheter described the status of obesity as follows:

The World Health Organisation has classified obesity as the world's fastest-growing epidemic. An equal number of people suffer from eating too much as suffer from malnutrition. According to the Worldwatch Institute 1.2 billion people worldwide eat too much. (Sjöblom 5)

Note also that quotation marks are not used with indented "long" quotations, since the indentation itself makes it obvious that the material is a direct quotation from the source cited at the end of the indented passage.

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Note

• Note that MLA style in this case differs from the Finnish SFS-5342 citation style, in which a parenthetical citation inside the closing punctuation would indicate reference only to that specific sentence, whereas reference to more than one sentence (including even all of the paragraph) would be indicated by the parenthetical citation being outside the closing punctuation.

Works Cited

• Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. Second Edition. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1998.
• Sjöblom, Anita. Lika Många Feta Som Undernärda ["Just As Many Suffer From Obesity As From Malnutrition"]. Dagens Nyheter [Stockholm, Sweden] 31 January 2000: 5-6. Translations by Saija Laitila.