Intro to College Research

MLA In-text Citations

In-text citations usually contain 2 parts: the author's last name (unless you have 2 authors with the same last name, then use first initial and last name) and page number.

     Ex. "quotation here" (Poe 25). //Or// According to Poe, "quotation here" (25).   

If you use two sources by the same author, include the author's last name, "title of work" page number. 

     Ex. (Poe, "The Raven" 25).

If an author’s name is not listed and there are no page/line/etc. numbers, you can just include the “title of the source”

Examples and variations:

• Paraphrase- Sherlock Holmes was a character who was a product of his time and location, being from a Victorian London society (“Sherlock Holmes, Victorian Gentleman”).

• Direct Quote- “I find it, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment” (Doyle 68).
  • Avoid repeating the author’s name (or article title) if you mention it in the sentence before the quote.
  • Example:

Doyle stated, “I find it, however, so transcendently stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small moment” (68).

• Direct (Block) Quote-
  • Use for quotations over 4 lines
  • Your prose should end with a colon (unless prose and quote are grammatically connected in a different way)
  • Set the block quote a half inch from the left margin
    • Do not indent the quote
    • Do not use quote marks (“”)
  • Add the citation at the end of the first line
    • Do not use punctuation after the citation
  • Example:

Keep and Randall note:

By the 1890s, however, the medical establishment had performed a remarkable volte face concerning the therapeutic value of the drug. As its addictive properties became better known, cocaine was increasingly associated with the degenerative effects of opium use. The alkaloid effectively went from being a miracle of modern medicine to a vestigial horror of Europe’s colonial enterprise. (209)

You can return to your writing on a regular line like this.

APA In-text Citations

There are 3 requirements for in-text citations: Author(s), Year of Publication, and page number or page range (if applicable).

If you do not have a Year of Publication, use "n.d."

When paraphrasing you still need the Author(s) and year, but you do not need a page number since you are not directly quoting.

Examples and Variations:

• Paraphrase - In regards to panic and generalized anxiety disorders, Townsend & Morgan (2017) name two theories of etiology: psychodynamic theory and cognitive theory.

• Direct Quote (article or book) - “The cognitive element, often referred to as worry, refers to negative catastrophic thoughts concerning failure, and its consequences; the affective-physiological element refers to feelings of tension and accompanying physiological manifestations of anxiety such as an increased heart-rate” (Putwain & Aveyard, 2018, p. 65).
• Direct Quote (website) - According to Cherry (2020), “while many people experience some degree of stress and anxiety before and during exams, test anxiety can actually impair learning and hurt test performance.”

Chicago (Author-Date) In-Text Citations

For Chicago (Author-Date) style, there are 3 requirements for in-text citations: Author(s), Year of Publication, and page number or page range (if applicable). Make sure this information matches your reference page exactly.

• If you do not have a Year of Publication, use "n.d."
• If there is no listed author, use a shortened version of the title (at least the first 4 words)
• If referencing multiple works, combine them into one citation separated by semicolons.

Example:

• Paraphrase – Several theorists disagreed strongly with this position (Armstrong and Malacinski 2003; Pickett and White 2009; Beigl 2010).

• Direct Quote – “What on introspection seems to happen immediately and without effort is often a complex symphony of processes that take time to complete” (LeDoux 2003, 116).
  • If the author’s name is mentioned in your writing, put the rest of the citation in parentheses immediately after the name:

According to Gould (2007, 428), the song “spreads a deadpan Liverpudlian irony over the most clichéd sentiment in all of popular music.”

• Direct (Block) Quote - 
  • Use for quotations over 5 lines, 100 words, or 2 lines of poetry.
  • Set the block quote a half inch from the left margin
    • Do not indent or double space the quote
    • Do not use quote marks (“”)
  • Add the citation at the end of the first line
    • Do not use punctuation after the citation
  • Example:

He concludes with the following observation:

The new society that I sought to depict and that I wish to judge is only being born. Time has not yet fixed its form; the greatest revolution that created it still endures, and in what is happening in our day it is almost impossible to discern what will pass away with the revolution itself and what will remain after it. (Tocqueville 2000, 673).

You can continue with your writing here…

Examples from:

Turabian, Kate L. 2018. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers. 9th ed. Revised by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, William T. Fitzgerald, and the University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

You can view this book at the RCBC Library. See pages 236-289.

Chicago (Notes-Bib) In-text Citations

In Chicago (Notes-Bibliography) style, you show that you used a source by putting a superscript at the end of the sentence.

Place the corresponding number either on the bottom of the page (footnote) or at the end of your paper (endnote).

• In the note you need:  Author(s), Year of Publication, Source Title, Publication Information, and Page Number or range (if applicable)
• If you reuse the source, you can use a shortened version of the citation.

Usually you will still create a bibliography including all of your cited sources as well as any you consulted but did not use directly in your paper.

Example:

(Text) According to one scholar, “The railroads had made Chicago the most important meeting place between East and West.”¹

(Note) 1. William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (New York: W. W. Norton, 1991), 92-92.

(Repeated Note) 2. Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis, 383.

(Bibliography) *Note the revered author’s name and the hanging indent.

Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. New York: W. W. Norton, 1991.

Examples from:

Turabian, Kate L. 2018. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers. 9th ed. Revised by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, William T. Fitzgerald, and the University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

You can view this book at the RCBC Library. See pages 149-168.