An in-text citation is a reference within the body of your paper to a source that you have used to write it. You create an in-text citation by referring to the author and page number of a source listed on your Works Cited page. You need to complete your Works Cited list before you create your in-text citations in the body of your paper.
You need to use in-text citations in the body of your paper that refer to sources in your Works Cited list in order to comply with standards of academic integrity and honesty. When you cite your sources using in-text citations, you are able to:
You should use an in-text citation in the body of your paper or project whenever you:
You do not need to use an in-text citation when the information you are presenting is common knowledge, a passing mention, or an allusion. (for more explanation, see MLA Handbook, p. 101-2)
Parenthetical Citation
To create a parenthetical citation, include the author's last name and page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence. For example:
Many readers see themselves in the main character because this is "precisely how the girl child is trained in middle-class Indian families across the country" (Nayar 286).
Citation in Prose
If you use the author's name earlier in the same sentence, you will only need to include the page number in the parentheses at the end of the sentence. For example:
Nayar explains that many readers feel a connection with the main character because this is "precisely how the girl child is trained in middle-class Indian families across the country" (286).
Corresponding Works Cited page citation
These in-text citations refer to this source citation on the Works Cited page:
Nayar, Primod K. “Teaching and Reading Jamaica Kincaid’s ‘Girl.’” ETC.: A Review of General Semantics,
vol. 76, no. 3–4, July 2019, pp. 285–90. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=mzh&AN=202122931325&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=s8426369
Many readers see themselves in the main character because this is "precisely how the girl child is trained in middle-class Indian families across the country" (Nayar 286).
Nayar explains that many readers feel a connection with the main character because this is "precisely how the girl child is trained in middle-class Indian families across the country" (286).
Nayar, Primod K. “Teaching and Reading Jamaica Kincaid’s ‘Girl.’” ETC.: A Review of General
Semantics, vol. 76, no. 3–4, July 2019, pp. 285-90. EBSCOhost,
https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=mzh&AN=
202122931325&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=s8426369
When Jack's wife Babette appears on TV, the family "struggl[es] to come to terms with the fact that virtualization has invaded reality" (Pirnajmuddin and Samani 364).
Hossein Pirnajmuddin and Bahareh Samani explain that Jack's family "struggl[es] to come to terms with the fact that virtualization has invaded reality" (364).
Pirnajmuddin, Hossein, and Bahareh Bagherzadeh Samani. “Don DeLillo’s White Noise: A Virilian
Perspective.” Text Matters, vol. 9, no. 9, Nov. 2019, pp. 356–73. EBSCOhost,
https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.09.22.
The results of the algorithmic study did not connect the performance and the performer but "this is understandable as age alone cannot be expected to determine a performer’s expressive signature" (Liebman et al. 201).
Liebman et al. explain that the results of the study did not connect the performance and the performer but "this is understandable as age alone cannot be expected to determine a performer’s expressive signature" (201).
Liebman, Elad, et al. “A Phylogenetic Approach to Music Performance Analysis.” Journal of New Music
Research, vol. 41, no. 2, June 2012, pp. 195–222. EBSCOhost,
https://doi.org/10.1080/09298215.2012.668194.
This exhibit explores "the connection between African American artist Jacob Lawrence and his contemporaries based in West Africa through the Nigerian publication Black Orpheus" (National Endowment 2).
On their website, the National Endowment for the Humanities describes how this exhibit "explores the connection between African American artist Jacob Lawrence and his contemporaries based in West Africa through the Nigerian publication Black Orpheus" (2).
National Endowment for the Humanities. "Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club."
21 July 2023, https://www.neh.gov/project/black-orpheus-jacob-lawrence-and-mbari-club
The assumption is that art has always tended to use traditional media, but "artists have a rich history centering technology as core to their practice" (Tech as Art 16).
Tech as Art notes that "artists have a rich history centering technology as core to their practice" (16).
Tech as Art: Supporting Artists Who Use Technology as a Creative Medium. National Endowment for
the Arts, June 2021.