MLA style uses parentheses for in-text citations to acknowledge the use of another author’s words, facts, and ideas. When you refer to a source within your text, provide the author’s last name and specific page number(s) — if the source is paginated. Your reader can then go to the works cited list at the end of your document to find a full citation.

1. Basic format for a source named in your text Most often, you will want to name the author of a source within your sentence rather than in a parenthetical citation. By doing so, you create a context for the material (words, facts, or ideas) that you are including, and you indicate where the information from the author begins. When you are using a direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary from a source and have named the author in your sentence, place only the page number in parentheses after the borrowed material. The period follows the closing parenthesis.

According to Tattersall, when early humans emerged from the dense forests to the adjacent woodlands, their mobility and diet were forced to change dramatically (45).

When you are using a block (or extended) quotation, the parenthetical citation comes after the final punctuation and a single space.

If you continue to refer to a single source for several sentences in a row within one paragraph — and without intervening references to another source — you may place your reference at the end of the paragraph. However, be sure to include all of the relevant page numbers.

2. Basic format for a source not named in your text When you have not mentioned the author in your sentence, you must place the author’s name and the page number in parentheses after the quotation, paraphrase, or summary. Again, the period follows the closing parenthesis.

It would have been impossible for early humans to digest red meat, as their stomachs lacked the necessary acids to break down the muscle and tissue before delivery to the intestines (Tattersall 46).

3. Entire source If you are referring to an entire source rather than to a specific page or pages, you do not need a parenthetical citation.

Author Jhumpa Lahiri adapted the title for her book of stories, Unaccustomed Earth, from a line in the first chapter of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.

4. Corporate, group, or government author Cite the corporation, group, or government agency as you would an individual author. You may use abbreviations for the source in subsequent references if you add the abbreviation in parentheses at the first mention of the name.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) estimates that a twenty-year-old has a three in ten chance of becoming disabled before he or she reaches retirement age (4). If a worker does become disabled, SSA assigns a representative to review the case individually (7).

5. Unknown author If you are citing a source that has no known author, such as the book A Woman in Berlin, use a brief version of the title in the parenthetical citation.

The narrator pays particular attention to the culture of rape in Berlin during World War II, calling it a “collective experience” and claiming that German women comforted one another by speaking openly about it — something they never would have considered during peacetime (Woman in Berlin 147).

6. Two or more works by the same author For references to authors with more than one work in your works cited list, insert a short version of the title between the author and the page number, separating the author and the title with a comma.

(Sacks, Hallucinations 77)

(Sacks, Mind’s Eye 123)

7. Two or more authors with the same last name Include the first initial and last name in the parenthetical citation.

(F. McCourt 27)

(M. McCourt 55)

8. Two or three authors Include the last name of each author in your citation.

In the year following Hurricane Katrina, journalist and activist Jane Wholey brought together a group of twenty New Orleans middle schoolers in an effort to reimagine their school system’s food environment from the ground up (Gottlieb and Joshi 2).

9. Four or more authors Use only the last name of the first author and the abbreviation “et al.” (Latin for “and others”). There is no comma between the author’s name and “et al.”

(Johnson et al. 17)

10. Literary work Along with the page number(s), give other identifying information, such as a chapter, scene, or line number, that will help readers find the passage.

One prominent motif introduced at the opening of Beloved is bestiality, exemplified in Sethe’s being described as “down on all fours” at the first appearance of her dead daughter’s ghost (Morrison 27; ch. 1).

11. Work in an edited collection or anthology Cite the author of the work, not the editor of the collection or anthology. (See also item 28)

In his satirical essay “A Presidential Candidate,” Mark Twain outlines his plan to thwart the opposition, insisting that “if you know the worst about a candidate, to begin with, every attempt to spring things on him will be checkmated” (3).

12. Sacred text Give the name of the edition you are using, along with the chapter and verse (or their equivalent).

It is still very sage advice to “withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it” (King James Bible, Prov. 2.27).

The Qur’an points to the bee and its natural ability to produce honey as proof of God’s existence (“The Bees” 16.68).

13. Two or more works cited together Use a semicolon to separate entries.

Byron Bancroft Johnson founded the American League in 1901 by raiding the National League for its best players, offering them competitive salaries to jump leagues (Appel 3; Stout and Johnson 8).

14. Source quoted in another source Ideally, you should track down the original source of the quotation. If you must use a quotation cited by another author, use the abbreviation “qtd. in” (for “quoted in”) when you cite the source.

When Henry Ford introduced the Model T, he insisted on making it a practical and affordable family car, maintaining that “no man making a good salary will be unable to own one — and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God’s great open spaces” (qtd. in Booth 9).

15. Source without page numbers Give a section, paragraph, or screen number, if numbered, in the parenthetical citation.

First-time American mothers and fathers both have aged an average of three to four years since 1970 (Shulevitz, par. 4).

If no numbers are available, list only the author’s name.

It is adults, not children, who present the greatest challenge in gift-giving, as adults tend to long for intangibles — like love or career success — that are harder to pin down (Rothman).