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MLA 9th Edition: In-Text Citations

The Purpose of this guide is to help you use MLA style to format your writing and cite your sources.  MLA style is used for student and professional writing in the arts, English, language arts, foreign language, literature, and cultural studies.

CREATING IN-TEXT CITATIONS

The in-text citation is a brief reference within your text that indicates the source you consulted. It should properly attribute any ideas, paraphrases, or direct quotations to your source, and should direct readers to the entry in the list of works cited. For the most part, an in-text citation is the author’s name and page number (or just the page number, if the author is named in the sentence) put in parentheses:

Imperialism is “the practice, the theory, and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory.” (Said 9).

or

According to Edward W. Said, imperialism is defined by “the practice, the theory, and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory.” (9).
 
Work Cited
Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. Knopf, 1994.
 

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference, like so (00:02:15-00:02:35).

Again, the goal is to attribute your source and provide your reader with a reference without interrupting your text. Your readers should be able to follow the flow of your argument without becoming distracted by extra information.

 

Attribution to: Utica College, MLA 8th Edition Libguide.

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Attribution to: Utica College, MLA 8th Edition Libguide.

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