how to cite text in an essay mla

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MLA Citation Guide (MLA 9th Edition): In-Text Citation

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In-Text Citation

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In-text citations are inserted in the body of your research paper to briefly document the source of your information.

In-text citations in MLA style follow the general format of author's last name followed by a page number enclosed in parentheses. Here is an example: "Here's a direct quote" (Smith 8).
If the author's name is not given, use the first word (or words) of the title. Follow the same formatting that is used in the works-cited list, such as quotation marks. Here is an example: This is a paraphrase ("Trouble" 22).
If the source does not have page numbers (for example, some online articles, websites and e-books), only include the author's name for the in-text citation. Do not estimate or make up page numbers.
In-text citations point the reader to the works-cited list, which is located at the end of your paper, for more complete bibliographic information.

Repeated Use of Sources

If you use information from a single source more than once in succession (i.e., no other sources referred to in between), you can use a simplified in-text citation. Here is an example:

Cell biology is an area of science that focuses on the structure and function of cells (Smith 15). It revolves around the idea that the cell is a "fundamental unit of life" (17).

Note: If using this simplified in-text citation creates ambiguity regarding the source being referred to, use the full in-text citation format.

In-Text Citation Formatting and Examples

Format: (Author's Last Name Page Number)

Example: (Hunt 358)

Two Authors

Format: (Author's Last Name and Author's Last Name Page Number)

Example: (Case and Daristotle 57)

Three or More Authors

Format: (Author's Last Name et al. Page Number)

Example: (Case et al. 57)

Unknown Author

Where you would normally put the author's last name, instead use the first one, two, or three words from the title. Do not use initial articles such as "A", "An" or "The". Provide enough words to clarify which sources from your works-cited list that you are referencing.

Follow the formatting of the title. For example, if the title in the works-cited list is in italics, italicize the words from the title in the in-text citation, and if the title in the works-cited list is in quotation marks, put quotation marks around the words from the title in the in-text citation.

Format: (Title Page Number)

Examples :

( Cell Biology 12)

("Nursing" 12)

Multiple Sources

To cite more than one source when you are paraphrasing, separate the in-text citations with a semi-colon.

Format: (Author's Last Name Page Number; Author's Last Name Page Number).

(Smith 42; Bennett 71).

( It Takes Two ; Brock 43).

Note: In MLA style, the sources within the in-text citation do not need to be in alphabetical order.

Works Quoted in Another Source

Sometimes an author of a book, article or website will mention another person's work by using a quotation or paraphrased idea from that source. (This may be a secondary source.) For example, the Kirkey article you are reading includes a quotation by Smith that you would like to include in your essay. The basic rule is that in both your Works-Cited List and in-text citation you will still cite Kirkey. Kirkey will appear in your Works Cited list – NOT Smith. Add the words "qtd. in" to your in-text citation.

Examples of in-text citations:

According to a study by Smith (qtd. in Kirkey) 42% of doctors would refuse to perform legal euthanasia.

Smith (qtd. in Kirkey) states that “even if euthanasia was legal, 42% of doctors would be against this method of assisted dying” (A.10).

Example of Works Cited List citation:

Kirkey, Susan. "Euthanasia." The Montreal Gazette , 9 Feb. 2013, p. A.10. Canadian Newsstand Major Dailies.

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / MLA Format / How to Cite an Essay in MLA

How to Cite an Essay in MLA

The guidelines for citing an essay in MLA format are similar to those for citing a chapter in a book. Include the author of the essay, the title of the essay, the name of the collection if the essay belongs to one, the editor of the collection or other contributors, the publication information, and the page number(s).

Citing an Essay

Mla essay citation structure.

Last, First M. “Essay Title.” Collection Title, edited by First M. Last, Publisher, year published, page numbers. Website Title , URL (if applicable).

MLA Essay Citation Example

Gupta, Sanjay. “Balancing and Checking.” Essays on Modern Democracy, edited by Bob Towsky, Brook Stone Publishers, 1996, pp. 36-48. Essay Database, www . databaseforessays.org/modern/modern-democracy.

MLA Essay In-text Citation Structure

(Last Name Page #)

MLA Essay In-text Citation Example

Click here to cite an essay via an EasyBib citation form.

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To cite your sources in an essay in MLA style, you need to have basic information including the author’s name(s), chapter title, book title, editor(s), publication year, publisher, and page numbers. The templates for in-text citations and a works-cited-list entry for essay sources and some examples are given below:

In-text citation template and example:

For citations in prose, use the first name and surname of the author on the first occurrence. For subsequent citations, use only the surname(s). In parenthetical citations, always use only the surname of the author(s).

Citation in prose:

First mention: Annette Wheeler Cafarelli

Subsequent occurrences: Wheeler Cafarelli

Parenthetical:

….(Wheeler Cafarelli).

Works-cited-list entry template and example:

The title of the chapter is enclosed in double quotation marks and uses title case. The book or collection title is given in italics and uses title case.

Surname, First Name. “Title of the Chapter.” Title of the Book , edited by Editor(s) Name, Publisher, Publication Year, page range.

Cafarelli, Annette Wheeler. “Rousseau and British Romanticism: Women and British Romanticism.” Cultural Interactions in the Romantic Age: Critical Essays in Comparative Literature , edited by Gregory Maertz. State U of New York P, 1998, pp. 125–56.

To cite an essay in MLA style, you need to have basic information including the author(s), the essay title, the book title, editor(s), publication year, publisher, and page numbers. The templates for citations in prose, parenthetical citations, and works-cited-list entries for an essay by multiple authors, and some examples, are given below:

For citations in prose, use the first name and surname of the author (e.g., Mary Strine).

For sources with two authors, use both full author names in prose (e.g., Mary Strine and Beth Radick).

For sources with three or more authors, use the first name and surname of the first author followed by “and others” or “and colleagues” (e.g., Mary Strine and others). In subsequent citations, use only the surname of the first author followed by “and others” or “and colleagues” (e.g., Strine and others).

In parenthetical citations, use only the author’s surname. For sources with two authors, use two surnames (e.g., Strine and Radick). For sources with three or more author names, use the first author’s surname followed by “et al.”

First mention: Mary Strine…

Subsequent mention: Strine…

First mention: Mary Strine and Beth Radick…

Subsequent mention: Strine and Radick…

First mention: Mary Strine and colleagues …. or Mary Strine and others

Subsequent occurrences: Strine and colleagues …. or Strine and others

…. (Strine).

….(Strine and Radick).

….(Strine et al.).

The title of the essay is enclosed in double quotation marks and uses title case. The book or collection title is given in italics and uses title case.

Surname, First Name, et al. “Title of the Essay.” Title of the Book , edited by Editor(s) Name, Publisher, Publication Year, page range.

Strine, Mary M., et al. “Research in Interpretation and Performance Studies: Trends, Issues, Priorities.” Speech Communication: Essays to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Speech Communication Association , edited by Gerald M. Phillips and Julia T. Wood, Southern Illinois UP, 1990, pp. 181–204.

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MLA In-Text Citations - The Basics
Introduction to Citations
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MLA In-text Citations - The Basics

In MLA, referring to the works of others within text of your paper is done using parenthetical citations . This means placing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as seen below, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD)
upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page. This is so your reader can connect your in-text citation to the right line in your Works cited page.
Be sure to check the full selection of examples for in-text citations below, they vary slightly depending on the type of source you are citing.

MLA in-text citations

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This 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, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).
Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).
Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . Oxford UP, 1967.

While the above is the general rule, there are some variations depending on the source of the quote or paraphrase. Here are a few examples, but please review the MLA Manual of Style for more detailed and specific information about in-text citations.

In-text citations by type

Print Sources - Known author
Print Sources - Corporate author
Print Sources - No known author
Classic works with multiple editions
Works in an anthology
Multiple authors
Multiple works by same author
Multivolume works
Web sources

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as "symbol-using animals" (3).
Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . University of California Press, 1966.

When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g., nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly long parenthetical citations.

Climate change is now "an important factor in developing new engineering systems" (EPA 321).
The EPA has stated in a recent study, Climate change is now " an important factor in developing new engineering systems" (321).

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name, following these guidelines.

Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article), or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.

Titles that are longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to just Lighthouse .

If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:

The world needs to act to reverse climate change, because it "is here, and it’s causing a wide range of impacts that will affect virtually every human on Earth in increasingly severe ways. . . ." ("Climate Impacts").

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:

"Climate Impacts." Union of Concerned Scientists . 2022. www.ucsusa.org/climate/impacts. Accessed 24 Mar. 2022.

If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation.

Page numbers are always required, but additional information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's The Communist Manifesto .

In these cases, give the page number from your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:

Marx and Engels described human history as marked by class struggles (79; ch. 1).

When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in Nature in 1921, you might write something like this:

Relativity's theoretical foundations can be traced to earlier work by Faraday and Maxwell (Einstein 782).

For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:

Best and Marcus argue that one should read a text for what it says on its surface, rather than looking for some hidden meaning (9).
The authors claim that surface reading looks at what is “evident, perceptible, apprehensible in texts” (Best and Marcus 9).

For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al (which means "and others")

According to Franck et al., “Current agricultural policies in the U.S. are contributing to the poor health of Americans” (327).
The authors claim that one cause of obesity in the United States is government-funded farm subsidies (Franck et al. 327).

If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author:

Lightenor has argued that computers are not useful tools for small children ("Too Soon" 38), though he has acknowledged elsewhere that early exposure to computer games does lead to better small motor skill development in a child's second and third year ("Hand-Eye Development" 17).

Citing two books by the same author:

Murray states that writing is "a process" that "varies with our thinking style" ( Write to Learn 6). Additionally, Murray argues that the purpose of writing is to "carry ideas and information from the mind of one person into the mind of another" ( A Writer Teaches Writing 3).

**Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when appropriate, the page number(s):

Visual studies, because it is such a new discipline, may be "too easy" (Elkins, "Visual Studies" 63).

If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)

. . . as Quintilian wrote in Institutio Oratoria (1: 14-17).

In your first parenthetical citation referencing the bible, you want to make clear which bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:

Ezekiel saw "what seemed to be four living creatures," each with faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle ( New Jerusalem Bible , Ezek. 1.5-10).

If future references are to the same edition of the bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:

John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).

For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:

Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
Do not provide paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like CNN.com or Forbes.com, as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.
One online film critic stated that Fitzcarraldo "has become notorious for its near-failure and many obstacles" (Taylor, “Fitzcarraldo”)
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Mla quick citation guide.

In-text Citation
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MLA Style Quiz

Using In-text Citation

Include an in-text citation when you refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or quote from another source. For every in-text citation in your paper, there must be a corresponding entry in your reference list.

MLA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the page number from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken, for example: (Smith 163). If the source does not use page numbers, do not include a number in the parenthetical citation: (Smith).

For more information on in-text citation, see the MLA Style Center .

Example paragraph with in-text citation

A few researchers in the linguistics field have developed training programs designed to improve native speakers' ability to understand accented speech (Derwing et al. 246; Thomas 15). Their training techniques are based on the research described above indicating that comprehension improves with exposure to non-native speech. Derwing and others conducted their training with students preparing to be social workers, but note that other professionals who work with non-native speakers could benefit from a similar program (258).

Works Cited List

Derwing, Tracey M., et al. "Teaching Native Speakers to Listen to Foreign-accented Speech." Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, vol. 23, no. 4, 2002, pp. 245-259.

Thomas, Holly K. Training Strategies for Improving Listeners' Comprehension of Foreign-accented Speech. University of Colorado, Boulder, 2004.

Citing Web Pages In Text

Cite web pages in text as you would any other source, using the author if known. If the author is not known, use the title as the in-text citation.

Your in-text citation should lead your reader to the corresponding entry in the reference list. Below are examples of using in-text citation with web pages.

Entire website with author: In-text citation Parents play an important role in helping children learn techniques for coping with bullying (Kraizer).

Works cited entry Kraizer, Sherryll. Safe Child. Coalition for Children, 2011, www.safechild.org.

Web page with no author: In-text citation The term Nittany Lion was coined by Penn State football player Joe Mason in 1904 ("All Things Nittany").

Works cited entry "All Things Nittany." About Penn State. Penn State University, 2006, www.psu.edu/ur/about/nittanymascot.html.

General Guidelines

In MLA style the author's name can be included either in the narrative text of your paper, or in parentheses following the reference to the source.

Author's name part of narrative:

Gass and Varonis found that the most important element in comprehending non-native speech is familiarity with the topic (163).

Author's name in parentheses:

One study found that the most important element in comprehending non-native speech is familiarity with the topic (Gass and Varonis 163).

Group as author: (American Psychological Association 123)

Multiple works: (separate each work with semi-colons)

Research shows that listening to a particular accent improves comprehension of accented speech in general (Gass and Varonis 143; Thomas 24).

Direct quote:

One study found that “the listener's familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (Gass and Varonis 85).

Gass and Varonis found that “the listener’s familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (85).

Note: For quotations that are more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse, display quotations as an indented block of text (one inch from left margin) and omit quotation marks. Place your parenthetical citation at the end of the block of text, after the final punctuation mark.

In addition to awareness-raising, practicing listening to accented speech has been shown to improve listening comprehension. This article recommends developing listening training programs for library faculty and staff, based on research from the linguistics and language teaching fields. Even brief exposure to accented speech can help listeners improve their comprehension, thereby improving the level of service to international patrons. (O'Malley 19)

Works by Multiple Authors

When citing works by multiple authors, always spell out the word "and." When a source has three or more authors, only the first one shown in the source is normally given followed by et al.

One author: (Field 399)

Works Cited entry: Field, John. "Intelligibility and the Listener: The Role of Lexical Stress." TESOL Quarterly , vol. 39, no. 3, 2005, pp. 399-423.

Two authors: (Gass and Varonis 67)

Works Cited entry: Gass, Susan, and Evangeline M. Varonis. "The Effect of Familiarity on the Comprehensibility of Nonnative Speech." Language Learning , vol. 34, no. 1, 1984, pp. 65-89.

Three or more authors: (Munro et al. 70)

Works Cited entry: Munro, Murray J., et al. "Salient Accents, Covert Attitudes: Consciousness-raising for Pre-service Second Language Teachers." Prospect , vol. 21, no. 1, 2006, pp. 67-79.

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MLA 9th Edition Citation Guide In-Text Citations

What is an in-text citation.

An in-text citation refers to the various ways that you can incorporate ideas from your sources into the body of your essays while giving the original authors credit for their ideas. You will need to include in-text citations every time you refer to, quote from, paraphrase or summarize a given source. You will also need to cite facts, figures, images, video, audio or any other element you include in your work, but did not create yourself.

There are two main ways to incorporate information from sources into your essay, direct quotes and paraphrasing.

What doesn't need a citation?

You do not need to cite your own ideas, opinions, or experiences.

You also do not need to cite things that are common knowledge (something the average person would be expected to know). Some examples include: the current president's name, who invented the light bulb, the capital of South Korea, there are twelve months in a year, etc. If you are not sure if it is common knowledge, it is safer to cite it!

What are Direct Quotes?

Direct quotes are when someone else's words are copied word-for-word into your paper. Since you are using someone else's exact words, it's even more important to include a citation telling the reader where this information came from.

While it is recommended to use direct quotes sparingly ( paraphrasing is another method ) using the exact text from an article or book is still a great way to share an idea! For example, direct quotes are useful when an author says something especially memorable or you want to respond directly to something in your own paper.

Shorter Direct Quotes

Direct quotes (that are shorter than three lines) require quotation marks. When citing it, be sure to list the author and page number!

An important part of self-care is being "aware of and accepting your own thoughts and feelings" (Pate 2).

Pate listed some self-care activities such as "jogging, yoga, exercise, listening or dancing to music, taking a walk outdoors, or other relaxing or invigorating activities" (5).

Block Quotes

Block quotes are used when a direct quote is four lines or more. A sentence setting up the quote usually ends in a colon and is followed by the quoted text. Rather than using quotation marks, the quote is indented, double-spaced, and cited without a period at the end.

Pate described the importance of boundaries: Having healthy boundaries means knowing what your limits are and clearly communicating what you will and will not allow, as well as what you need. Establishing clear and healthy boundaries can support health and wellness for all. Some people need more connection and interaction — physically, socially, or mentally — while others need more quiet time and solitude. It’s important to understand what you need and clearly communicate that to others. (5)

The meaning behind and importance of boundaries can be described with the following: Having healthy boundaries means knowing what your limits are and clearly communicating what you will and will not allow, as well as what you need. Establishing clear and healthy boundaries can support health and wellness for all. Some people need more connection and interaction — physically, socially, or mentally — while others need more quiet time and solitude. It’s important to understand what you need and clearly communicate that to others. (Pate 5)

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is when you take another person's words or ideas and put them into your own words. Even though you are not directly quoting someone else, credit still needs to be given.

Paraphrasing allows you to summarize and make connections between several different sources. Paraphrasing also keeps your paper in your own "voice" and avoids interrupting the flow of your writing with frequent direct quotes.

See below for several examples on how to give credit for ideas you are paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing Examples

Be sure to use your own words and give credit for the idea to the original source. Page numbers are not a requirement for paraphrases but are worth considering if they would help the reader find what you are referring to.

Self-care involves being aware of one's own thoughts, feelings, and conditions as well as being purposeful in taking steps to maintain and improve mental and physical health (Pate 2).

Pate advocated for the importance of self-care, which requires a person to have an awareness of their own physical and mental state, which is then used to take deliberate steps in maintaining or improving their health (2).

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MLA In-text Citations and Sample Essay 9th Edition

Listing your sources at the end of your essay in the Works Cited is only the first step in complete and effective documentation. Proper citation of sources is a two-part process . You must also cite, in the body of your essay, the source your paraphrased information or where directly quoted material came from. These citations within the essay are called in-text citations . You must cite all quoted, paraphrased, or summarized words, ideas, and facts from sources. Without in-text citations, you are in danger of plagiarism , even if you have listed your sources at the end of the essay. In-text citations point the reader to the sources’ information in the works cited page, so the in-text citation should be the first item listed in the source’s citation on the works cited page, which is usually the author’s last name (or the title if there is no author) and the page number, if provided.

Two Ways to Cite Your Sources In-text

Parenthetical citation.

Cite your source in parentheses at the end of quoted or paraphrased material.

Example with a page number: In regards to paraphrasing, "It is important to remember to use in-text citations for your paraphrased information, as well as your directly quoted material" (Habib 7).

Example without a page number : Paraphrasing is "often the best choice because direct quotes should be reserved for source material that is especially well-written in style and/or clarity" (Ruiz).

Signal Phrase

Within the sentence, through the use of a "signal phrase" which signals to the reader the specific source the idea or quote came from. Include the page number(s) in parentheses at the end of the sentence, if provided.

Example with a page number: According to Habib, "It is important to remember to use in-text citations for your paraphrased information, as well as your directly quoted material" (7).

Example without a page number: According to Ruiz, paraphrasing is "often the best choice because direct quotes should be reserved for source material that is especially well-written in style and/or clarity."

*See our handout "Signal Phrases" for more examples and information on effective ways to use signal phrases for in-text citations.

Do you need to include a page number in your in-text citation?

Printed materials such as books, magazines, journals, or internet and digital sources with PDF files that show an actual printed page number need to have a page number in the citation.

Internet and digital sources with a continuously scrolling page without a page number do not need a page number in the citation.

Commonly used in-text citations in parentheses

Type of Source	Parenthetical In-text Citation
One author with page number	(Blake 70)
One author with multiple works	(Harris, 13-14)
Two authors, no page number	(McGrath and Dowd)
Three or more authors with page number	(Gooden et al. 445)
No author, no page number	("Cheating")[First word(s) of the title of the article]
Two sources each with one author and page number	(Jones 42; Haller 57)
A person quoted in another work	(qtd. in Lathrop and Foss 163)
Video or audio sources	("Across the Divide" 00:06:25)
Government source	(Center for Disease Control and Prevention)

Notes on Quotes

Block quotation format.

When using long quotations that are over four lines of prose or over three lines of poetry in length, you will need to use block quotation format. Block format is indented one inch from the margin (you can hit the "tab" button twice to move it one inch). Additionally, block quotes do not use quotation marks, and the parenthetical citation comes after the period of the last sentence. Please see the following sample essay for an example block quote.

Signal Phrase Examples and Ideas

Please see the following sample essay for different kinds of signal phrases and parenthetical in-text citations, which correspond with the sample Works Cited page at the end. The Writing Center also has a handout on signal phrases with many different verb options.

Learn more about the MLA Works Cited page by reviewing this handout .

For information on STLCC's academic integrity policy, check out this website .

Free Tools for Students
MLA Citation Generator

Free MLA Citation Generator

Generate accurate citations in MLA format automatically, with MyBib!

😕 What is an MLA Citation Generator?

An MLA citation generator is a software tool designed to automatically create academic citations in the Modern Language Association (MLA) citation format. The generator will take information such as document titles, author, and URLs as in input, and output fully formatted citations that can be inserted into the Works Cited page of an MLA-compliant academic paper.

The citations on a Works Cited page show the external sources that were used to write the main body of the academic paper, either directly as references and quotes, or indirectly as ideas.

👩‍🎓 Who uses an MLA Citation Generator?

MLA style is most often used by middle school and high school students in preparation for transition to college and further education. Ironically, MLA style is not actually used all that often beyond middle and high school, with APA (American Psychological Association) style being the favored style at colleges across the country.

It is also important at this level to learn why it's critical to cite sources, not just how to cite them.

🙌 Why should I use a Citation Generator?

Writing citations manually is time consuming and error prone. Automating this process with a citation generator is easy, straightforward, and gives accurate results. It's also easier to keep citations organized and in the correct order.

The Works Cited page contributes to the overall grade of a paper, so it is important to produce accurately formatted citations that follow the guidelines in the official MLA Handbook .

⚙️ How do I use MyBib's MLA Citation Generator?

It's super easy to create MLA style citations with our MLA Citation Generator. Scroll back up to the generator at the top of the page and select the type of source you're citing. Books, journal articles, and webpages are all examples of the types of sources our generator can cite automatically. Then either search for the source, or enter the details manually in the citation form.

The generator will produce a formatted MLA citation that can be copied and pasted directly into your document, or saved to MyBib as part of your overall Works Cited page (which can be downloaded fully later!).

MyBib supports the following for MLA style:

⚙️ Styles	MLA 8 & MLA 9
📚 Sources	Websites, books, journals, newspapers
🔎 Autocite	Yes
📥 Download to	Microsoft Word, Google Docs

Daniel is a qualified librarian, former teacher, and citation expert. He has been contributing to MyBib since 2018.

How do I cite quotations from different pages of a work?

When citing quotations from different pages of a work, some writers are tempted to use a page range as a citation. For example:

Don Quixote’s intention to “do battle” with the “thirty or forty hulking giants” in the distance alarms Sancho Panza, who tells Don Quixote that they “are not giants but windmills” and that no one “could have mistaken them unless he had windmills in his brain” (Cervantes 98–99). Work Cited Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote of La Mancha . Translated by Walter Starkie, Signet Classic, 1964.

But this method is not preferable in MLA style. There are four quotations in this example, and it’s unclear which ones appear on page 98 and which on page 99, or perhaps on both pages. It’s best to tell readers exactly which page each quotation comes from. The following revision shows how to cite the quotations in MLA style:

Don Quixote’s intention to “do battle” with the “thirty or forty hulking giants” in the distance alarms Sancho Panza (Cervantes 98), who tells Don Quixote that they “are not giants but windmills” and that no one “could have mistaken them unless he had windmills in his brain” (98, 99). Work Cited Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote of La Mancha . Translated by Walter Starkie, Signet Classic, 1964.

In the revised example, the citation before the comma, (Cervantes 98), indicates that the first two quotations appear on page 98. The citation at the end of the sentence, (98, 99), indicates that the third and fourth quotations appear on pages 98 and 99, respectively.

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APA - Citing Artificial Intelligence

Mla - citing artificial intelligence, cms - citing artificial intelligence, preserving ai generated content, avoiding plagiarism, hofstra's honor code.

Read "Teaching with AI"

The following information is taken verbatim from: https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/how-to-cite-chatgpt . Visit this page for more information on citing AI in text and reference lists in APA style.

"If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response."

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version 4.o) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

Author. (Year). Source (Month Date version) [Type]. URL

See the full APA How to cite ChatGPT guide

The following information is taken verbatim from: https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai/ . Visit this page for more information on citing AI according to the Modern Language Association citation style.

Author We do not recommend treating the AI tool as an author. This recommendation follows the policies developed by various publishers, including the MLA’s journal PMLA.

Title of Source Describe what was generated by the AI tool. This may involve including information about the prompt in the Title of Source element if you have not done so in the text.

Title of Container Use the Title of Container element to name the AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT).

Version Name the version of the AI tool as specifically as possible. For example, the examples in this post were developed using ChatGPT 3.5, which assigns a specific date to the version, so the Version element shows this version date.

Publisher Name the company that made the tool.

Date Give the date the content was generated.

Location Give the general URL for the tool.

Works Cited

"Tell me about confirmation bias" prompt. ChatGPT 3.5, 12 Apr. version, OpenAI, 12 Apr. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat

"Text of prompt" prompt. AI platform, Date of Version, Company, Date of your prompt: Day Month Year, URL

See Works Cited: A Quick Guide from MLA for more on core elements of citations in this style.

The following information is taken verbatim from: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/qanda/data/faq/topics/Documentation/faq0422.html . Visit this page for more information on citing AI according to the The Chicago Manual of Style.

Many scholarly publishers are requiring its identification though also requiring human authors to take responsibility for it and will not permit the AI to have “authorship.”

You do need to credit ChatGPT and similar tools whenever you use the text that they generate in your own work. But for most types of writing, you can simply acknowledge the AI tool in your text (e.g., “The following recipe for pizza dough was generated by ChatGPT” ).

If you need a more formal citation—for example, for a student paper or for a research article— a numbered footnote or endnote might look like this:

1. Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, March 7, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/chat.

ChatGPT stands in as “author” of the content, and OpenAI (the company that developed ChatGPT) is the publisher or sponsor, followed by the date the text was generated. After that, the URL tells us where the ChatGPT tool may be found, but because readers can’t necessarily get to the cited content (see below), that URL isn’t an essential element of the citation.

If the prompt hasn’t been included in the text, it can be included in the note:

1. ChatGPT, response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients,” OpenAI, March 7, 2023.

If you’ve edited the AI-generated text, you should say so in the text or at the end of the note (e.g., “edited for style and content”). But you don’t need to say, for example, that you’ve applied smart quotes or adjusted the font; changes like those can be imposed silently (see CMOS 13.7 and 13.8 ).

If you’re using author-date instead of notes, any information not in the text would be placed in a parenthetical text reference. For example, “(ChatGPT, March 7, 2023).”

See the full Chicago Manual of Style here.
ShareGPT - Chrome extension to create unique URLs to generative AI content.
A.I. Archives - A reliable tool for citing AI generated conversations.

What is plagiarism?

From Films on Demand: http://ezproxy.hofstra.edu/login?url=https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=102549&xtid=43790
From the National Science Foundation: https://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.jsp?med_id=188524&from=

Citation generator Zbib.org: https://zbib.org/

Turnitin Canvas Plagiarism Framework for Students: https://help.turnitin.com/feedback-studio/canvas/plagiarism-framework/student/student-category.htm

Hofstra's Honor Code can be found here: https://www.hofstra.edu/academic-honor-code/

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Last Updated: Aug 16, 2024 3:56 PM
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Home > Blog > MLA vs APA Citation: What Are the Differences?

MLA vs APA Citation: What Are the Differences?

Smodin Editorial Team
Updated: August 13, 2024
General Guide About Content and Writing

You’ve just finished your essay, and now you face the daunting task of citing all of your sources. Not only that, but the essay guidelines state that you must cite your references in the correct formatting! MLA, APA, what does it all mean!?

Fear not, we’ve written this super simple guide on the differences between MLA vs APA citations. We’ll cover what they are, when to use them, and why to use them. Let’s dive in!

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MLA vs APA: The Key Differences

When writing any academic paper, you have to cite your sources. Failure to do so could possibly lead to penalties for plagiarism . The very last thing you want after hours spent behind your laptop!

Two of the most common citation styles are MLA (Modern Language Association) and APA (American Psychological Association). MLA format is mainly used for humanities subjects, such as English, Literature, and Arts. While on the other hand, the APA format is used for social sciences topics, like Psychology, Sociology, and Education.

Both MLA and APA are used in academic writing, but they serve different purposes and have distinct rules. Let’s break those down below.

APA format requires a title page that includes the title of the paper, the author’s name, and the institution’s name.

The MLA format does not require a separate title page. Instead, your name, instructor’s name, course, and date are placed at the top of the first page.

In-Text Citations

MLA citations include the author’s last name and page number. APA citations include the author’s last name and year of publication, and the page number if quoting directly.

Works Cited vs References

The MLA format lists sources on a “Works Cited” page, while the APA format lists them on a “References” page.

Now that you have an overview of the differences between MLA and APA, let’s take a deep dive into each style.

MLA format is mostly used to credit sources in humanities papers. It helps in giving proper credit to authors and provides readers with a way to find the original sources. You’re essentially giving credit where it’s due to the author of the information you got your idea, fact, or statistic from.

In MLA style, you use parenthetical citations in the text. These include the author’s last name and the page number from which the information was taken.

(Smith 123)

If you mention the author’s name in the sentence, only the page number is needed in the citation. So the above becomes:

Smith states that… (123).

Works Cited Page

At the end of the paper, the MLA format requires a “Works Cited” page. This page lists all the sources you cited in your paper in alphabetical order by the author’s last name.

Smith, John. The Art of Citation. New York: Citation Press, 2020.

MLA Formatting Guidelines

When using MLA in your essays or papers, consider the following:

Double-space your entire paper, including the Works Cited page.
Use a legible font like Times New Roman, size 12.
Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks.
Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on all sides.
Indent the first line of each paragraph at one half-inch from the left margin.

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Unlike MLA, the APA format is largely used for academic writing in Social Sciences. It helps ensure clarity of communication and provides a consistent structure for citing sources. Again, clarifying to the reader that you are not claiming any statistics as your own findings!

In APA style, in-text citations include the author’s last name and the year of publication. If directly quoting, include the page number as well.

(Smith, 2020, p. 123)

If you mention the author’s name in the sentence, include the year in parentheses immediately after the author’s name. So the above becomes:

Smith (2020) states that…

References Page

The APA format requires a “References” page at the end of your paper. This page lists all the sources you cited in your paper in alphabetical order by the author’s last name.

Smith, J. (2020). The art of citation. New York, NY: Citation Press.

APA Formatting Guidelines

If you are using APA style in your essay, keep in mind the following:

Double-space your entire paper, including the References page.
Include a page header (also known as the “running head”) at the top of every page.

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MLA Style and Parenthetical Citations

The MLA style uses parenthetical citations within the text to credit sources. The citations include the author’s last name and the page number from which the information was taken.

Works Cited Entries

Entries in the Works Cited page are formatted with the author’s last name first. This is followed by the first name, the title of the source, and publication information.

Smith, John. The Art of Citation. Citation Press, 2020.

In MLA format, titles of sources are capitalized in title case, meaning the first letter of most words is capitalized.

Quotation Marks

For titles of short works like articles, essays, and short stories, the MLA format uses quotation marks.

Smith, John. “The Art of Citation.” Citation Journal*, vol. 10, no. 2, 2020, pp. 123-134.*

APA and In-Text Citation Style

The APA style uses author-date citations within the text to credit sources. These citations include the author’s last name and the year of publication.

Entries within the References page are formatted with the author’s last name first. This is then followed by the first initial, the year of publication, the title of the source, and publication information.

Smith, J. (2020). The art of citation. Citation Press.

Sentence Case

In APA format, the titles of sources are capitalized in sentence case. This means only the first letter of the first word and proper nouns are capitalized.

The APA format requires a separate title page that includes the title of the paper, the author’s name, and the institution’s name.

For titles of books, movies, and journals, the APA format uses italics.

Journal Articles

When citing journal articles in APA format, include the volume and issue number, and the page range.

Smith, J. (2020). The art of citation. Citation Journal, 10(2), 123-134.

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MLA Examples

It’s important to familiarize yourself with the formatting differences between MLA and APA. Take a look at a few examples of MLA citations below. Have a think about what would be different if they were formatted in APA.

Book: Smith, John. The Art of Citation. Citation Press, 2020.
Article: Smith, John. “The Art of Citation.” Citation Journal*, vol. 10, no. 2, 2020, pp. 123-134.*
Webpage or PDF: Smith, John. “The Art of Citation.” Citation Press, 2020, www.citationpress.com/art-of-citation.

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APA Examples

Here are a few examples of APA citations. Do the same as before and think about what these APA examples would look like in MLA format.

Book: Smith, J. (2020). The art of citation. Citation Press.
Article: Smith, J. (2020). The art of citation. Citation Journal, 10(2), 123-134.
Webpage or PDF: Smith, J. (2020). The art of citation. Citation Press. Retrieved from www.citationpress.com/art-of-citation

Frequently Asked Questions

What are in-text citations.

In-text citations are brief references within the text that give credit to the original sources of information.

How do you format the title page in MLA?

In MLA format, you do not need a separate title page. Instead, place your name, instructor’s name, course, and date at the top of the first page.

How do you format the title page in APA?

In APA format, you need a separate title page that includes the title of the paper. Follow with the author’s name and the institution’s name.

How do you cite a book in MLA format?

Cite a book in the MLA format by listing the author’s last name, first name, and the title of the book in italics. Always include the publication information.

How do you cite a book in APA format?

Cite a book in APA format by listing the author’s last name, first initial, the year of publication in parentheses. Follow this with the title of the book in italics, and the publication information.

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MLA vs APA Citation Style: Use Smodin and Excel in Both

There you have it— a thorough but simple breakdown of MLA vs APA citation. Understanding the differences between MLA and APA citation styles is crucial for academic writing. The last thing you want is to be pulled up for self-plagiarism , all because you didn’t use the correct citation formatting!

Just to remind you, MLA is commonly used in Humanities topics while APA is used in Social Sciences. Both APA and MLA ensure that sources are credited properly and that readers can find the original sources.

Ready to master your citations? Enhance your academic writing with Smodin’s AI-powered writing tools. Smodin can help you generate accurate citations, improve your writing, and ensure your papers are top-notch. Visit Smodin today to explore our tools and take your writing to the next level.

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Even writers who have been at the craft for decades find that there’s always something new to learn and better ways to make their writing more organized, concise and persuasive. We’ve collected some tried and true resources many students find useful.

Online Writing Resources

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) is the largest free online resource for writers. OWL has a very good search engine and you can usually find help on specific topics. The site offers direct tips on the writing process, academic writing, grammar, organization, structure, and English as a second language.

Saint Louis University's Library chat service can answer quick research and citation questions online. It is usually open whenever the library is open.

Assignment Calculator, provided by the University of Minnesota, is a free tool that helps to manage large writing projects. Enter the due date and type of assignment and the calculator will break down your work into twelve steps to help you stay on track.

Citation Machine automatically creates citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian.

Grammar Check is an online proofreading resource which looks for grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. It will detect typos and other distracting errors. After identifying potential areas of concern, it will provide wording alternatives, style suggestions, and general explanations about how to improve a written text.

University Writing Services: Handouts

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MLA v. APA Comparison of Rules

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Article Usage and Flow-charts
Integrating Quotations

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What is Generative AI?
AI and Information Literacy
AI, Bias, and DEIA
Other Ethical Challenges with AI

Academic Integrity

Citing generative ai, citation styles and examples, additional resources.

More Resources

As a student, am I allowed to use a Gen-AI tool like ZotGPT in my coursework?

The UCI Policy on Academic Integrity for students states:

“All students are expected to complete a course in compliance with the Instructor's standards. No student shall engage in any activity involving any Academic Integrity Policy Violations. No student shall engage in any activity that involves attempting to receive a grade by means other than honest effort, and shall not aid another student who is attempting to do so.”

Before you use any AI tool, ask yourself:

Is using this tool in compliance with the course instructor’s standards?
Does using this tool undermine your “honest effort” in this course to receive a grade?

If you have any doubts, it is best to ask your instructor, and keep in mind that each course may have different standards of what might be acceptable.

If you are permitted to use an AI tool in your work and you have made the decision to use one, it may be a good idea to acknowledge your use as follows:

Which tool(s) did you use?
How did you use the tool (for what purpose, in what sections, etc.)?
How did you prompt the tool?
When did you use the tool?

At this time, citing Generative AI is an evolving conversation, and some style guides have released official guidance on how to cite AI-generated text or images, while others have not. In addition, style guides have differing guidelines of whether tools (or companies) are “authors.”

Here are some examples of differences of how Gen-AI information might be cited in different style guides:

No official guidelines have been released, but the following blog post offers suggestions : “If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.”

For example:

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

The Chicago Style FAQ suggests that “conversations” with Gen-AI chatbots can be treated in a similar fashion to private emails or phone conversations that couldn’t be accessed by others. It recommends including information about how the AI tool was prompted, and suggests “you must credit ChatGPT when you reproduce its words within your own work, but unless you include a publicly available URL, that information should be put in the text or in a note–not in a bibliography or reference list.”

For example, if a prompt was not given in-text:

1. ChatGPT, response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients,” OpenAI, March 7, 2023.

The IEEE Editorial Style Manual for Authors (2023) does not offer any official guidance on citing AI-generated content. Some suggest treating AI-generated text similarly to private communication.

The MLA style guide uses a template of core citation elements that are flexible enough to accommodate citing AI-generated text or images. While MLA recommends that you do not treat an AI tool as an author, it suggests you should:

cite a generative AI tool whenever you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate into your own work any content (whether text, image, data, or other) that was created by it
acknowledge all functional uses of the tool (like editing your prose or translating words) in a note, your text, or another suitable location
take care to vet the secondary sources it cites

An example of a works cited entry for a paraphrase of text output by ChatGPT might look like this:

“Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.

Citing ChatGPT in STEM fields (UCSB guide)
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How to cite ChatGPT

Use discount code STYLEBLOG15 for 15% off APA Style print products with free shipping in the United States.

We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.

In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.

Quoting or reproducing the text created by ChatGPT in your paper

If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.

Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software

The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.

The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:

Parenthetical citation: (OpenAI, 2023)
Narrative citation: OpenAI (2023)

Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):

Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.

Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.

Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.

The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.

Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.

Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).

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Cite Your Sources

Chicago Style
Other Citation Styles

Acknowledging Use of AI-Generated Content

Acknowledgment Examples
NoodleTools
Research Help

Why acknowledge the use of AI?

Acknowledging the use of AI tools in coursework is crucial for transparency and integrity. It helps to build trust and sets expectations, which can demonstrate your learning and avoid academic misconduct.

When to Acknowledge the use of an AI tool

Incorporating AI tools into assignments always requires a clear acknowledgment of their use . Include an acknowledgment or citation (check with your instructor to see if they have a preference) when you have used an AI tool to generate ideas, edit text, paraphrase text, process data, or any other time you have used an AI tool in an assignment.

Verify with your instructor before using AI tools on assignments , as policies differ among instructors.

How to Acknowledge the use of AI

Regardless of which type of AI tool you use, you should acknowledge somewhere in your works cited page or another location specified by your instructor the use of AI.

Your acknowledgement should include the following:

A statement indicating the use of generative AI
The tool used
A description of how information was generated
The prompt(s) used
An explanation of the output's role in the work

Formatting your Acknowledgement

This is a basic guideline for formatting AI acknowledgements:

I acknowledge the use of [insert AI system(s) and link] to [specific purpose of generative artificial intelligence] . The prompts used include [list of prompts] . The output from these prompts was used to [explain use].

Generated Text

I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT 3.5, July 20 version (https://chat.openai.com/) to generate a case study about the challenges of sustainability and labor ethics in the chocolate industry . I entered the following prompt on August 1, 2023:

"Create a case study over the operations of a chocolate company detailing the challenges of managing chocolate supply chains in both a sustainable and ethical manner. Identify key challenges. Propose potential solutions, but do not commit to any single approach. Conclude by with questions for students to consider about how they would proceed."

The output from these prompts was used as the case study for the assignment which was then analyzed in the remaining portion of the assignment.

Generated Image

I acknowledge the use of Bing Image Creator powered by DALL-E (https://www.bing.com/images/create) to generate an image of an alien landscape . I entered the following prompt on August 2, 2023:

"Alien landscape with multiple suns on the horizon. Digital art."

The output from these prompts was used as a decorative image on my PowerPoint presentation.

Editing/ Refining Text

I acknowledge the use of Claude (https://claude.ai/) to help with the organization and academic tone of my essay . I uploaded the text of my essay draft through Claude's attach a file feature and I entered the following prompts on August 3, 2023:

Original prompt: "For the attached document, suggest potential revisions to improve the organization of information and academic voice."
Follow-up prompt: "Please provide specific examples of corrections or improvements."

The output from these prompts was used to edit my draft essay. Some specific suggestions for rephrasing were adopted, but the output primarily was used to identify areas that could be strengthened from which I made original edits.

Generative AI tools can create inaccurate content and cite non-existent works. In most cases, it is better to cite other authoritative sources for factual information. If you are using a tool that links to its sources (like Copilot or Perplexity), you should follow the links and read the original pages. If your AI output does not include sources, fact-check claims with a quick web search.

If you are quoting or paraphrasing work generated by an AI tool or reproducing an AI-generated image , you need a more formal citation . Many major citation styles have provided guidance on formatting citations for AI generated content:

MLA Style Center: Citing generative AI
APA Style Blog: How to cite ChatGPT
Chicago Manual of Style Online: Citing AI

Always check with your instructor and follow their guidelines for citing or acknowledging AI generated content.

Information is adapted from Newman University LibGuides.

Newman University. (2023). AI-generated content: Student AI disclosures . Retrieved August 14, 2024. https://newmanu.libguides.com/ai-disclosure

<< Previous: Other Citation Styles
Next: Citation Management >>
Last Updated: Aug 16, 2024 10:31 AM
URL: https://libguides.uwgb.edu/CiteYourSource

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web Publications)

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The MLA Handbook highlights principles over prescriptive practices. Essentially, a writer will need to take note of primary elements in every source, such as author, title, etc. and then assort them in a general format. Thus, by using this methodology, a writer will be able to cite any source regardless of whether it’s included in this list.

However, this guide will highlight a few concerns when citing digital sources in MLA style.

Best Practices for Managing Online Sources

Because online information can change or disappear, it is always a good idea to keep personal copies of important electronic information whenever possible. Downloading or even printing key documents ensures you have a stable backup. You can also use the Bookmark function in your web browser in order to build an easy-to-access reference for all of your project's sources (though this will not help you if the information is changed or deleted).

It is also wise to keep a record of when you first consult with each online source. MLA uses the phrase, “Accessed” to denote which date you accessed the web page when available or necessary. It is not required to do so, but it is encouraged (especially when there is no copyright date listed on a website).

Important Note on the Use of URLs in MLA

Include a URL or web address to help readers locate your sources. Because web addresses are not static (i.e., they change often) and because documents sometimes appear in multiple places on the web (e.g., on multiple databases), MLA encourages the use of citing containers such as Youtube, JSTOR, Spotify, or Netflix in order to easily access and verify sources. However, MLA only requires the www. address, so eliminate all https:// when citing URLs.

Many scholarly journal articles found in databases include a DOI (digital object identifier). If a DOI is available, cite the DOI number instead of the URL.

Online newspapers and magazines sometimes include a “permalink,” which is a shortened, stable version of a URL. Look for a “share” or “cite this” button to see if a source includes a permalink. If you can find a permalink, use that instead of a URL.

Abbreviations Commonly Used with Electronic Sources

If page numbers are not available, use par. or pars. to denote paragraph numbers. Use these in place of the p. or pp. abbreviation. Par. would be used for a single paragraph, while pars. would be used for a span of two or more paragraphs.

Basic Style for Citations of Electronic Sources (Including Online Databases)

Here are some common features you should try to find before citing electronic sources in MLA style. Not every web page will provide all of the following information. However, collect as much of the following information as possible:

Author and/or editor names (if available); last names first.
"Article name in quotation marks."
Title of the website, project, or book in italics.
Any version numbers available, including editions (ed.), revisions, posting dates, volumes (vol.), or issue numbers (no.).
Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date.
Take note of any page numbers (p. or pp.) or paragraph numbers (par. or pars.).
DOI (if available, precede it with "https://doi.org/"), otherwise a URL (without the https://) or permalink.
Date you accessed the material (Date Accessed). While not required, saving this information it is highly recommended, especially when dealing with pages that change frequently or do not have a visible copyright date.

Use the following format:

Author. "Title." Title of container (self contained if book) , Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). 2 nd container’s title , Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).

Citing an Entire Web Site

When citing an entire website, follow the same format as listed above, but include a compiler name if no single author is available.

Author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site. Version number (if available), Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), DOI (preferred), otherwise include a URL or permalink. Date of access (if applicable).

Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site . Version number, Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), URL, DOI or permalink. Date of access (if applicable).

The Purdue OWL Family of Sites . The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl. Accessed 23 Apr. 2008.

Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory . Purdue U, 28 Nov. 2003, www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/. Accessed 10 May 2006.

Course or Department Websites

Give the instructor name. Then list the title of the course (or the school catalog designation for the course) in italics. Give appropriate department and school names as well, following the course title.

Felluga, Dino. Survey of the Literature of England . Purdue U, Aug. 2006, web.ics.purdue.edu/~felluga/241/241/Home.html. Accessed 31 May 2007.

English Department . Purdue U, 20 Apr. 2009, www.cla.purdue.edu/english/. Accessed 31 May 2015.

A Page on a Web Site

For an individual page on a Web site, list the author or alias if known, followed by an indication of the specific page or article being referenced. Usually, the title of the page or article appears in a header at the top of the page. Follow this with the information covered above for entire Web sites. If the publisher is the same as the website name, only list it once.

Lundman, Susan. “How to Make Vegetarian Chili.” eHow , www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html. Accessed 6 July 2015.

“ Athlete's Foot - Topic Overview. ” WebMD , 25 Sept. 2014, www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/tc/athletes-foot-topic-overview.

Citations for e-books closely resemble those for physical books. Simply indicate that the book in question is an e-book by putting the term "e-book" in the "version" slot of the MLA template (i.e., after the author, the title of the source, the title of the container, and the names of any other contributors).

Silva, Paul J. How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing. E-book, American Psychological Association, 2007.

If the e-book is formatted for a specific reader device or service, you can indicate this by treating this information the same way you would treat a physical book's edition number. Often, this will mean replacing "e-book" with "[App/Service] ed."

Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince , translated by W. K. Marriott, Kindle ed., Library of Alexandria, 2018.

Note: The MLA considers the term "e-book" to refer to publications formatted specifically for reading with an e-book reader device (e.g., a Kindle) or a corresponding web application. These e-books will not have URLs or DOIs. If you are citing book content from an ordinary webpage with a URL, use the "A Page on a Web Site" format above.

An Image (Including a Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph)

Provide the artist's name, the work of art italicized, the date of creation, the institution and city where the work is housed. Follow this initial entry with the name of the Website in italics, and the date of access.

Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV . 1800. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Museo Nacional del Prado , www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-family-of-carlos-iv/f47898fc-aa1c-48f6-a779-71759e417e74. Accessed 22 May 2006.

Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine . 1922. Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Artchive , www.artchive.com/artchive/K/klee/twittering_machine.jpg.html. Accessed May 2006.

If the work cited is available on the web only, then provide the name of the artist, the title of the work, and then follow the citation format for a website. If the work is posted via a username, use that username for the author.

Adams, Clifton R. “People Relax Beside a Swimming Pool at a Country Estate Near Phoenix, Arizona, 1928.” Found, National Geographic Creative, 2 June 2016, natgeofound.tumblr.com/.

An Article in a Web Magazine

Provide the author name, article name in quotation marks, title of the web magazine in italics, publisher name, publication date, URL, and the date of access.

Bernstein, Mark. “ 10 Tips on Writing the Living Web. ” A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites , 16 Aug. 2002, alistapart.com/article/writeliving. Accessed 4 May 2009.

An Article in an Online Scholarly Journal

For all online scholarly journals, provide the author(s) name(s), the name of the article in quotation marks, the title of the publication in italics, all volume and issue numbers, and the year of publication. Include a DOI if available, otherwise provide a URL or permalink to help readers locate the source.

Article in an Online-only Scholarly Journal

MLA requires a page range for articles that appear in Scholarly Journals. If the journal you are citing appears exclusively in an online format (i.e. there is no corresponding print publication) that does not make use of page numbers, indicate the URL or other location information.

Dolby, Nadine. “Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Future Directions.” Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, 2008, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/60/362. Accessed 20 May 2009.

Article in an Online Scholarly Journal That Also Appears in Print

Cite articles in online scholarly journals that also appear in print as you would a scholarly journal in print, including the page range of the article . Provide the URL and the date of access.

Wheelis, Mark. “ Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. ” Emerging Infectious Diseases , vol. 6, no. 6, 2000, pp. 595-600, wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/6/00-0607_article. Accessed 8 Feb. 2009.

An Article from an Online Database (or Other Electronic Subscription Service)

Cite online databases (e.g. LexisNexis, ProQuest, JSTOR, ScienceDirect) and other subscription services as containers. Thus, provide the title of the database italicized before the DOI or URL. If a DOI is not provided, use the URL instead. Provide the date of access if you wish.

Alonso, Alvaro, and Julio A. Camargo. “ Toxicity of Nitrite to Three Species of Freshwater Invertebrates. ” Environmental Toxicology, vol. 21, no. 1, 3 Feb. 2006, pp. 90-94. Wiley Online Library , https://doi.org/10.1002/tox.20155. Accessed 26 May 2009.

Langhamer, Claire. “Love and Courtship in Mid-Twentieth-Century England.” Historical Journal, vol. 50, no. 1, 2007, pp. 173-96. ProQuest , https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X06005966. Accessed 27 May 2009.

E-mail (including E-mail Interviews)

Give the author of the message, followed by the subject line in quotation marks. State to whom the message was sent with the phrase, “Received by” and the recipient’s name. Include the date the message was sent. Use standard capitalization.

Kunka, Andrew. “ Re: Modernist Literature. ” Received by John Watts, 15 Nov. 2000.

Neyhart, David. “ Re: Online Tutoring. ” Received by Joe Barbato, 1 Dec. 2016.

A Listserv, Discussion Group, or Blog Posting

Cite web postings as you would a standard web entry. Provide the author of the work, the title of the posting in quotation marks, the web site name in italics, the publisher, and the posting date. Follow with the date of access. Include screen names as author names when author name is not known. If both names are known, place the author’s name in brackets.

Author or compiler name (if available). “Posting Title.” Name of Site , Version number (if available), Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), URL. Date of access.

Salmar1515 [Sal Hernandez]. “Re: Best Strategy: Fenced Pastures vs. Max Number of Rooms?” BoardGameGeek , 29 Sept. 2008, boardgamegeek.com/thread/343929/best-strategy-fenced-pastures-vs-max-number-rooms. Accessed 5 Apr. 2009.

Begin with the user's Twitter handle in place of the author’s name. Next, place the tweet in its entirety in quotations, inserting a period after the tweet within the quotations. Include the date and time of posting, using the reader's time zone; separate the date and time with a comma and end with a period. Include the date accessed if you deem necessary.

@tombrokaw. “ SC demonstrated why all the debates are the engines of this campaign. ” Twitter, 22 Jan. 2012, 3:06 a.m., twitter.com/tombrokaw/status/160996868971704320.

@PurdueWLab. “ Spring break is around the corner, and all our locations will be open next week. ” Twitter , 5 Mar. 2012, 12:58 p.m., twitter.com/PurdueWLab/status/176728308736737282.

A YouTube Video

Video and audio sources need to be documented using the same basic guidelines for citing print sources in MLA style. Include as much descriptive information as necessary to help readers understand the type and nature of the source you are citing. If the author’s name is the same as the uploader, only cite the author once. If the author is different from the uploader, cite the author’s name before the title.

McGonigal, Jane. “Gaming and Productivity.” YouTube , uploaded by Big Think, 3 July 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdzy9bWW3E.

“8 Hot Dog Gadgets put to the Test.” YouTube, uploaded by Crazy Russian Hacker, 6 June 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBlpjSEtELs.

A Comment on a Website or Article

List the username as the author. Use the phrase, Comment on, before the title. Use quotation marks around the article title. Name the publisher, date, time (listed on near the comment), and the URL.

Not Omniscient Enough. Comment on “ Flight Attendant Tells Passenger to ‘Shut Up’ After Argument Over Pasta. ” ABC News, 9 Jun 2016, 4:00 p.m., abcnews.go.com/US/flight-attendant-tells-passenger-shut-argument-pasta/story?id=39704050.

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How to cite a website in MLA

How to Cite a Website in MLA | Format & Examples

Published on July 17, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on March 5, 2024.

An MLA website citation includes the author’s name , the title of the page (in quotation marks), the name of the website (in italics), the publication date , and the URL (without “https://”).

If the author is unknown, start with the title of the page instead. If the publication date is unknown, or if the content is likely to change over time, add an access date at the end instead.

Websites don’t usually have page numbers, so the in-text citation is just the author name in parentheses. If you already named the author in your sentence, you don’t need to add a parenthetical citation.

You can also use our free MLA Citation Generator to effortlessly create website citations.

Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr

The format differs for other types of online content, such as YouTube videos , TED Talks , and podcasts .

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Citing online articles, citing web pages with no author or date, citing an entire website, publishers in mla website citations, frequently asked questions about mla style.

The format for citing an article from an online newspaper , magazine, or blog is the same as a general web page citation. If the article is a PDF of a print article, the format differs slightly .

Write the article title in title case (all major words capitalized). Use the most recent publication date on the page, including the day, month, and year if available.

MLA online article citation
MLA format	Author last name, First name. “Title of Article.” , Day Month Year, URL.
	Smith, Helena. “The Women Who Brought Down Greece’s Golden Dawn.” , 22 Oct. 2020, www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/22/the-women-who-brought-down-greeces-golden-dawn.
	(Smith)

Note, however, that a different format is used when citing online articles from academic journals.

Learn how to cite journal articles in MLA

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If no author is credited, leave out this element, and start with the title of the page or article instead.

Use a shortened version of the title in your in-text citation. The shortened title must match the first words of your Works Cited entry.

MLA website citation with no author
MLA format	“Title of Article.” , Day Month Year, URL.
	“US Election 2020: A Guide to the Final Presidential Debate.” , 21 Oct. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54620868.
	(“US Election 2020”)

If no publication date is available, leave out this element, and include the date on which you accessed the page at the end.

MLA website citation with no author or date
MLA format	“Title of Article.” , URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
	“Citing Sources and Referencing.” , www.scribbr.com/category/citing-sources. Accessed 16 July 2019.
	(“Citing Sources”)

Note that a specific format exists for citing online dictionary entries .

If you cite a whole website, there is usually no named author, so the Works Cited entry begins with the name of the website in italics.

If the website has a publication or copyright date (usually found in the footer), include this; if not, add the date when you accessed the website at the end of the citation.

MLA whole website citation
MLA format	. Day Month Year, URL.
	. www.scribbr.com. Accessed 11 July 2019.
	( )

When should you cite a whole website?

Most of the time, you should cite the specific page or article where you found the information. However, you might have to cite the entire website if you are giving a general overview of its content, referring only to the homepage, or quoting text that appears on many different pages across the site (such as a company’s slogan).

If you cite multiple pages or articles from the same website, you should include a separate Works Cited entry for each one.

Website publisher in an MLA website citation

If the publisher is the same as the name of the website, you leave it out of the citation to avoid repetition.

Website with different publisher	Website the same as publisher
. Modern Language Association of America, 2019, style.mla.org.	. www.scribbr.com. Accessed 10 June 2019.
“Antibiotic Resistance and Food Safety.” , U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 5 Sept. 2018, www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/challenges/antibiotic-resistance.html.	“CEU Expresses Solidarity with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.” , 3 July 2019, www.ceu.edu/article/2019-07-03/ceu-expresses-solidarity-hungarian-academy-sciences.

If a source has no author, start the MLA Works Cited entry with the source title . Use a shortened version of the title in your MLA in-text citation .

If a source has no page numbers, you can use an alternative locator (e.g. a chapter number, or a timestamp for a video or audio source) to identify the relevant passage in your in-text citation. If the source has no numbered divisions, cite only the author’s name (or the title).

If you already named the author or title in your sentence, and there is no locator available, you don’t need a parenthetical citation:

Rajaram argues that representations of migration are shaped by “cultural, political, and ideological interests.”
The homepage of The Correspondent describes it as “a movement for radically different news.”

If a source has two authors, name both authors in your MLA in-text citation and Works Cited entry. If there are three or more authors, name only the first author, followed by et al.

Number of authors	In-text citation	Works Cited entry
1 author	(Moore 37)	Moore, Jason W.
2 authors	(Moore and Patel 37)	Moore, Jason W., and Raj Patel.
3+ authors	(Moore et al. 37)	Moore, Jason W., et al.

Yes. MLA style uses title case, which means that all principal words (nouns, pronouns , verbs, adjectives , adverbs , and some conjunctions ) are capitalized.

This applies to titles of sources as well as the title of, and subheadings in, your paper. Use MLA capitalization style even when the original source title uses different capitalization .

The title of an article is not italicized in MLA style , but placed in quotation marks. This applies to articles from journals , newspapers , websites , or any other publication. Use italics for the title of the source where the article was published. For example:

Use the same formatting in the Works Cited entry and when referring to the article in the text itself.

The fastest and most accurate way to create MLA citations is by using Scribbr’s MLA Citation Generator .

Search by book title, page URL, or journal DOI to automatically generate flawless citations, or cite manually using the simple citation forms.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2024, March 05). How to Cite a Website in MLA | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved August 14, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/mla/website-citation/

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COMMENTS

MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics
In-text citations: Author-page style. MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This 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, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the ...
MLA In-text Citations
Revised on March 5, 2024. An MLA in-text citation provides the author's last name and a page number in parentheses. If a source has two authors, name both. If a source has more than two authors, name only the first author, followed by " et al. ". If the part you're citing spans multiple pages, include the full page range.
MLA In-Text Citations
An in-text citation is a reference to a source that is found within the text of a paper ( Handbook 227). This tells a reader that an idea, quote, or paraphrase originated from a source. MLA in-text citations usually include the last name of the author and the location of cited information. This guide focuses on how to create MLA in-text ...
In-Text Citation
The basic rule is that in both your Works-Cited List and in-text citation you will still cite Kirkey. Kirkey will appear in your Works Cited list - NOT Smith. Add the words "qtd. in" to your in-text citation. Examples of in-text citations: According to a study by Smith (qtd. in Kirkey) 42% of doctors would refuse to perform legal euthanasia.
How to Cite an Essay in MLA
In parenthetical citations, use only the author's surname. For sources with two authors, use two surnames (e.g., Strine and Radick). For sources with three or more author names, use the first author's surname followed by "et al.". The title of the essay is enclosed in double quotation marks and uses title case.
MLA Formatting and Style Guide
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.
MLA In-Text Citations
When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in Nature in 1921, you might write ...
Library Guides: MLA Quick Citation Guide: In-text Citation
Include an in-text citation when you refer to, summarize, paraphrase, or quote from another source. For every in-text citation in your paper, there must be a corresponding entry in your reference list. MLA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the page number from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken, for example: (Smith ...
Student's Guide to MLA Style (2021)
This guide follows the 9th edition (the most recent) of the MLA Handbook, published by the Modern Language Association in 2021. To cite sources in MLA style, you need. In-text citations that give the author's last name and a page number. A list of Works Cited that gives full details of every source. Make sure your paper also adheres to MLA ...
MLA Citation Guide (MLA 9th Edition): In-Text Citation
Brief in-text citations point the reader to more complete information in the works cited list at the end of the paper. In-text citations include the last name of the author followed by a page number enclosed in parentheses. "Here's a direct quote" (Smith 8). If the author's name is not given, then use the first word or words of the title.
LibGuides: MLA 9th Edition Citation Guide: In-Text Citations
An in-text citation refers to the various ways that you can incorporate ideas from your sources into the body of your essays while giving the original authors credit for their ideas. You will need to include in-text citations every time you refer to, quote from, paraphrase or summarize a given source. You will also need to cite facts, figures ...
MLA: Citing Within Your Paper
An in-text citation can be included in one of two ways as shown below: 1. Put all the citation information at the end of the sentence: 2. Include author name as part of the sentence (if author name unavailable, include title of work): Each source cited in-text must also be listed on your Works Cited page. RefWorks includes a citation builder ...
The Basics of In-Text Citation
The point of an in-text citation is to show your reader where your information comes from. Including citations: Avoids plagiarism by acknowledging the original author's contribution. Allows readers to verify your claims and do follow-up research. Shows you are engaging with the literature of your field. Academic writing is seen as an ongoing ...
MLA In-text Citations and Sample Essay 9th Edition
These citations within the essay are called in-text citations. You must cite all quoted, paraphrased, or summarized words, ideas, and facts from sources. Without in-text citations, you are in danger of plagiarism, even if you have listed your sources at the end of the essay. In-text citations point the reader to the sources' information in ...
A Guide to In-Text Citations: APA, MLA, and Chicago
An in-text citation is a source citation in academic writing that is placed directly in the body text, typically at the end of the related sentence, clause, or phrase. This is an alternative style to footnotes, which cite sources at the bottom of a page, or endnotes, which cite sources at the end of a section, chapter, or entire work.
MLA In-Text Citations
When and where to use MLA citations. Citations should accompany any quotations you use as well as any paraphrased material. Including a citation whenever you copy, paraphrase, or summarize another researcher's work is imperative to avoid accidental plagiarism. In-text MLA citations, also known as parenthetical citations, should come immediately after the quoted material and before any ...
PDF MLA Integrating Sources and In-Text Citations
Third, add an MLA format in-text citation. When citing sources in your essay, it is important to understand how to cite them correctly in the text . Writers often want a cut-and-dry answer to how to cite sources in their papers. However, there is no "one way." There are several rules based on the type of source and information available.
MLA Formatting Quotations
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (8th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.
Free MLA Citation Generator [Updated for 2024]
Scroll back up to the generator at the top of the page and select the type of source you're citing. Books, journal articles, and webpages are all examples of the types of sources our generator can cite automatically. Then either search for the source, or enter the details manually in the citation form. The generator will produce a formatted MLA ...
How do I cite quotations from different pages of a work?
When citing quotations from different pages of a work, some writers are tempted to use a page range as a citation. For example: Don Quixote's intention to "do battle" with the "thirty or forty hulking giants" in the distance alarms Sancho Panza, who tells Don Quixote that they "are not giants but windmills" and that no one "could have mistaken them unless he had windmills in ...
MLA Format
Cite your MLA source. Start by applying these MLA format guidelines to your document: Use an easily readable font like 12 pt Times New Roman. Set 1 inch page margins. Use double line spacing. Include a ½" indent for new paragraphs. Include a four-line MLA heading on the first page. Center the paper's title.
LibGuides: Artificial Intelligence in the Library: AI
Visit this page for more information on citing AI according to the Modern Language Association citation style. Author We do not recommend treating the AI tool as an author. This recommendation follows the policies developed by various publishers, including the MLA's journal PMLA. Title of Source Describe what was generated by the AI tool.
MLA vs APA Citation
Master your academic writing with this comprehensive guide on MLA vs APA citation. ... essays, and short stories, the MLA format uses quotation marks. Example: Smith, John. "The Art of Citation." Citation Journal*, vol. 10, no. 2, 2020, pp. 123-134.* APA and In-Text Citation Style. The APA style uses author-date citations within the text to ...
MLA Works Cited Page: Books
Cite a book automatically in MLA. The 8 th edition of the MLA handbook highlights principles over prescriptive practices. Essentially, a writer will need to take note of primary elements in every source, such as author, title, etc. and then assort them in a general format. Thus, by using this methodology, a writer will be able to cite any ...
Resources for Writers : SLU
Citation Machine automatically creates citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian. Grammar Check is an online proofreading resource which looks for grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. It will detect typos and other distracting errors.
Academic Integrity and Citation
The MLA style guide uses a template of core citation elements that are flexible enough to accommodate citing AI-generated text or images. While MLA recommends that you do not treat an AI tool as an author, it suggests you should: cite a generative AI tool whenever you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate into your own work any content (whether text, image, data, or other) that was created by it
How to cite ChatGPT
For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response. ... credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the ...
Citing AI
If you are quoting or paraphrasing work generated by an AI tool or reproducing an AI-generated image, you need a more formal citation. Many major citation styles have provided guidance on formatting citations for AI generated content: MLA Style Center: Citing generative AI; APA Style Blog: How to cite ChatGPT; Chicago Manual of Style Online ...
MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web Publications)
Note: The MLA considers the term "e-book" to refer to publications formatted specifically for reading with an e-book reader device (e.g., a Kindle) or a corresponding web application.These e-books will not have URLs or DOIs. If you are citing book content from an ordinary webpage with a URL, use the "A Page on a Web Site" format above.
How to Cite a Website in MLA
Revised on March 5, 2024. An MLA website citation includes the author's name, the title of the page (in quotation marks), the name of the website (in italics), the publication date, and the URL (without "https://"). If the author is unknown, start with the title of the page instead. If the publication date is unknown, or if the content is ...