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6.3: In-Text Citations

  • Page ID
    225919

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    In-text citation means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text (the body of the essay), and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page at the end.

    You have two options when you cite your sources within the text of your paper:

    (1) Provide the author's name and the page number on which you found the material you are citing:
    Example: Forecasters agree that El Niño has "made for an unusual year" (Sampson 91).

    (2) Provide author's name in text of your sentence and include only page number after the sentence.
    Example: Forecasters from across the country agree with John Sampson's statement that El Niño has "made for an unusual year" (91).

    Look closely…at the parenthetical citation after the quote and notice that the period in the sentence goes after the citation parenthesis. Also note what in never included: the words or abbreviations pg. or pp. or page.

    Corporate author?

    Sometimes the author can be a corporation, organization or website like Chevron, the ASPCA, or the DMV.com so follow the same rules above citing them as the authors i.e. (ASPCA 21).

    Multiple authors?

    For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation i.e. (Best and Marcus 32). For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al i.e. ((Franck et al. 327).

    No author?

    If the author is unknown, either use the complete title in the phrase introducing the quote or use a short form of the title in parentheses i.e. (“The Effects of Global Warming” 13).

    No page number?

    Do not include the page number if a work lacks page numbers, as is the case with many Web sources. Even if a printout from a Web site shows page numbers, treat the source as unpaginated in the in-text citation because not all printouts give the same page numbers (when the pages of a Web source are stable, as in PDF files, supply a page number in your in-text citation).


    This page titled 6.3: In-Text Citations is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Skyline English Department.

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