The in-text (also known as the parenthetical) citation is a method to communicate to your reader what source you are using in the text of your assignment. The in-text citation should provide enough information to point the reader to corresponding reference in your work cited page
APA style requires the author, year and page for in-text citations:
(Author, date, page)
example: (Smith, 2000, p. 20)
If the information you are citing is from more than one page you would use pp. instead of p. to indicate more than one page is being cited
Example: (Smith, 2000, pp. 23-24)
If you are citing a work that doesn't have pagination (such as a website) indicate which paragraph the information appears in by using para. for an abbreviation of the word paragraph.
Example: (Thomas, 2015, para. 3)
If you are citing a work that has two authors you must list both last names
Example: (Jameson & Harris, 2003, p. 42)
If you are citing a work that has between three and five authors you must list all of the authors’ names the first time you cite the work. Each subsequent time the work you need to provide the first author listed followed by an et al.
Example: 1st time citing a source with four authors
(Parker, Sterling, Hodges & Taylor, 2015, p. 87)
Each additional citation would be (Parker et al., 2015, p. 87)
If you are citing a work that has six or more authors cite the last name of the first author followed by an et al.
Example: (Daly et al., 2010, p. 78)
If you are citing a work that is authored by a group (a government agency, corporation, non-profit association, think tank) you must type out the group name as it appears in the text
Example: (The Annenberg Foundation, 2014, par. 3)
If you are citing a work that doesn’t have a date of publication use n.d. (no date) in place of a date.
Example: (National Health Institute, n.d., par. 4)
If you are citing a work that doesn't have an author you'll need to state part of the title in your in-text citation. Make sure that the title is put in double quotes (" ").
Example: Below is the full citation for a webpage without a listed author.
State-by-State Effects of a Ruling for the Challengers in King v. Burwell. (2015). Retrieved June 1,
2015, from http://kff.org/interactive/king-v-burwell-effects/
The citation starts with State-by-State Effects of a Ruling for the Challengers in King v. Burwell
So the in-text citation would be ("State-by-State Effects", 2015, par. 2)
If you are citing a particular quote from a video or audio recording provide the time stamp of when the quote occurs:
Example: (Ferris, 2008, 3:15)
The works cited page is an alphabetical list of all the sources cited in your paper. Your sources are represented in the works cited page via a full citation. The full citation includes information to identify the source. The types of information recorded in a full citation can include the author name(s), the title of the work, date of publication, title of periodical, title of website, name of the database and the type of medium (web, print, video, cd).
If you need more help with creating full citations for your sources please consult our citation resources page.
Most in-text citations in MLA format refer to the author and page
(Author page)
example: (Johnson 25)
If you are citing a source with more than one author (but less than four) then you must list all the authors and the page
example: (Smith, Thomas, and Jenkins 20)
If you are citing a source with more than three authors you need to provide the first author listed in the full citation followed by an et al
example: (Cassidy et al. 899)
If there is no paging provided for your source (such as website) or your source doesn't use paging (like a video or audio recording) then your citation would just consist of the author's last name
example: (Franks)
If you work doesn't have an author you'll need to state part of the title in your in-text citation. Make sure that the title is put in double quotes (" ")
For example the full citation for The Library of Congress's African American Pamphlets homepage is:
"African American Pamphlets Home Page." American Memory. The Library of Congress, 19 Oct. 1998. Web. 19 May 2015.
The in-text citation should give enough information to find this citation on the work cited page
The citation starts with: "African American Pamphlets Home Page"
so the in-text would be ("African American Pamphlets Home Page")
