The MLA 9th style uses author-date in-text citations, used when quoting or paraphrasing people’s work.
Use this format if you want to emphasise the author. Their name becomes part of your sentence.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," wrote Charles Dickens of the eighteenth century (5).
Use this format if you want to emphasise the information. It cites the author’s name, typically at the end of a sentence.
as demonstrated in the opening line, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" (Dickens 5).
If a prose quotation is no more than four lines and does not require special emphasis, put it in quotation marks and incorporate it into the text. Include the page number(s) in brackets.
"It was the best of times it was the worst of times" wrote Charles Dickens of the eighteenth century (5).
If a quotation is longer than three lines, set it off from your text by beginning a new line, indenting half an inch from the left margin. Quotation marks around the text are not required. Introduce the quotation with a colon. Place the parenthetical reference after the last line. For example, the above discusses John Corner in his book, The Art of Record: A Critical Introduction to Documentary, which refers to Brian Winston's revaluation of the documentary tradition in the writings of John Grierson.
Winston's reassessment of Grierson finds the
play-off between creativity and
realness unconvincing:
Grierson's taxonomic triumph was to make his particular
species
of non-fiction film, the non-fiction genre while at the same time
allowing the films to use the significant fictionalising technique
of dramatisation. (Winston 103)
This is a usefully provocative point, though agreement with it will largely rest on certain, contestable ideas about 'fictionalisation' and 'dramatisation'. The issue is dealt with directly in Chapter Two, as part of considering the debate around drama-documentary forms, and it occurs in relation to specific works throughout this book.
In prose, the first time the two authors are mentioned, use both first and second names. In a parenthetical citation use 'and', not '&' to connect the two surnames.
Others, like Cheryl Brown and Laura Czerniewicz argue that the idea of a generation of ‘digital natives’ is flawed (359). The Brown and Czerniewicz article focuses on…
(Brown and Czerniewicz 359)
When citing a source with three or more authors in prose you only refer to the first coauthor and can follow the additional authors by “and others“ or “and colleagues.” A parenthetical citation requires the first author's surname, followed by et al.
Laura Czerniewicz and colleagues argue…
(Czerniewicz et al. 53)
If you use works from more than one author with the same last name, eliminate any ambiguity by including the author's first initial as well (or if the initial is also the same, the full first name).
(N. Palmer 45)
(N. Palmer 45; M. Palmer 102)
If you are citing more than one source at the same point, place them in the same parentheses, separated by a semi-colon.
(Jackson 41; Smith 150)
If you cite multiple works by the same author, include a shortened title in each in-text citation to establish which work you are referring to. To avoid overly lengthy in-text citations, shorten the title to a simple noun phrase, or a few words.
The first example references Said's book, so the title is italicised. The second example references Said's journal article, so it is in quotation marks.
For more tips on how to abbreviate titles of sources, see 6.10 of the MLA Handbook.
..."the Orient was a scholar's word, signifying what modern Europe had recently made of the still peculiar East" (Said, Orientalism 92).
..."there is something basically unworkable or at least drastically changed about the traditional frameworks in which we study literature" (Said, "Globalizing Literary Study" 64).
For works that are anonymously authored, or have no author, include a shortened version of the title in the in-text citation (do not list the author as "anonymous", nor as "anon.").
It has been argued that the hat symbolised freedom (Wandering Merchant 157).
Abbreviate terms that are commonly abbreviated (e.g. Department becomes Dept.), so as to not disrupt the flow of your text with overly long in-text citations.
If the corporate author is identified in the works-cited list by the names of administrative units separated by commas, give all the names in the parenthetical citation.
The Australian Research Council found that there are limited policies and procedures in place to manage foreign interference (4).
(Monash University 176)
An indirect source is a source that is cited in another source. To quote this second-hand source, use “qtd. in” (quoted in), and then include the information of the source you actually consulted. Similarly, for the reference list use the source that you actually consulted (i.e. the indirect source). Keep in mind that it is good academic practice to seek out and use the original source, rather than the second-hand one, however this is not always possible.
For the below example, the student is using Petrarch's quote which is found in Hui. The page number refers to the source actually consulted (Hui), and the reference list would only list Hui, as shown below:
Hui, Andrew. The Poetics of Ruins in Renaissance Literature. Fordham UP, 2016.
For more information, see section 6.77 of the MLA Handbook.
Petrarch laments that Cicero’s manuscripts are “in such fragmentary and mutilated condition that it would perhaps have been better for them to have perished” (qtd. in Hui 4).
If you think your audience would require a translation for your quoted material, then provide one. Give the source of the translation, as well as the source of the quote.
If you did the translation yourself, then insert my trans. where you would usually put the translation source, as shown in the example above.
If you're quoting in a language that does not use the Latin alphabet (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, etc.), then consistently use the original writing system for your quotes or romanisation. Note that proper nouns are usually romanised.
For more information, see 6.75 Translations of Quotations in the MLA Style Guide.
Mme d'Aulnoy's heroine is "la chatte blanche" ("the white cat"; my trans.; 56)
Quotations from poetry from part of a line up to three lines in length, which do not need particular emphasis, may be added, placed in quotation marks, within your text as part of a sentence. Use a slash with a space on either side ( / ) to indicate a new line of poetry.
If the poem you are referencing has line numbers, then omit page numbers all-together and cite by line number instead. Do not use the abbreviation l. or ll., but instead in your first citation, use the word line, or lines as shown in the example below. After the first citation, it can be assumed that the numbers refer to lines, so you can include the numbers alone.
More's distress that she had not written about the problems of the slave trade earlier are expressed in the poem: "Whene'er to Afric's shores I turn my eyes, / Horrors of deepest, deadliest guilt arise" (line 5).
When quoting a block of poetry, introduce it in the same manner as a prose block quotation, i.e. begin the quote on a new line and indent each line as below. There is no need to add quotation marks. A reference to the page or line number should be included in parenthesis at the end of the last line. If the original text is creatively spaced or indented, then try to replicate the original as best you can.
Judith Wright 's poetry explores the Australian environment:
And have we eaten in the heart of the yellow wheat
the sullen unforgetting seed of fire?
And now, set free by the climate of man's hate,
that seed sets time ablaze (14)
If you quote the lines of more than one actor or if the piece you are quoting is long, the quotation should not be integrated into your text. The rules in MLA for presenting this text are:
For more information, see section 6.40 of the MLA 9th Handbook.
TARTUFFE. Yes, my
brother, I am a sinner, a guilty man.
An unhappy sinner full of
iniquity. (III. vi.)
| Format | Rule |
|---|---|
| Don't include publication year | The citation in the text consists of the author's last name only. Unlike other referencing styles, the year of publication is not included. |
| Long quotations |
Long prose quotations (more than four lines) should be indented. Long verse quotations (more than three lines) should be indented. |
| Citing more than one author |
If you are citing more than one author at the same point in a document, separate the names with a semicolon, e.g. (Smith 150; Jackson 41). |
| Authors with same surname |
If two authors have the same surname, include their first initial, e.g. (G. Brown 26). |
| Multiple works by same author |
If two or more works by the same author appear in the Works Cited list, add a title to your in-text citation, e.g. author mentioned in text: (Beloved 35), author's name and title in text: (35), author's name and title not included in text (Morrison, Beloved 35). |
| Where no author, use title |
If an entry in the Works Cited list begins with a title, as there is no author, the title can be used in the prose in-text citation or parentheses, e.g. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America can be styled (Reading 3). |
| Numbered notes |
A numbered note(s) is cited in parentheses by giving the page number(s), followed by the abbreviation n (for note) or nn (for notes), then the note(s) number(s) - use un if there is no note number. No spaces are required if you are citing multiple consecutive notes, e.g. - (96n3). If notes are not consecutive or have no number, spaces are required, e.g. - (96 nn 1,3,4). |