Format your citation like this if you are following APA guidelines:
(Last name, year published)
(Smith, 1999)
If your source has several authors, format it like this:
(Last name 1, Last name 2, & Last name 3, year published)
(Smith, Harris, & Gold, 1999)
Sources with six or more authors should be formatted like this:
(Last name 1 et al., year published)
(Smith et al., 1999)
Sources without an author should be formatted like this:
("Title," year published)
("Adventures in Essay," 1999)
If you are referring to a specific idea or quote from a work, APA style encourages you to also include the page number, though it is not required. For example:
(Smith, 1999, p. 11)
If you have already mentioned the name of the author in your text, you do not need to mention it in your citation. In this case, the date of the work should appear directly after the author's name, and the page number should appear directly after the quoted portion. For example:
Smith (1999) has effectively argued against the "supposed accumulation of in-text citations" (p. 11) in today's term papers.
Format your citation like this if you are following MLA guidelines (note there is no comma in these MLA citations between name and page number):
(Last name, page number)
(Smith 11)
If your source has several authors, format it like this:
(Last name 1, Last name 2 and Last name 3, page number)
(Smith, Harris and Gold 11)
Sources with four or more authors should be formatted like this:
(Last name 1 et al., page number)
(Smith et al. 11)
Sources without an author should be formatted like this:
("Title," page number)
("Adventures in Essay" 11)
According to MLA guidelines, you do not need to include the author's name in your citation if it is already mentioned in the sentence that requires citation. For example:
Smith has effectively argued against the "supposed accumulation of in-text citations" in today's term papers (11).
Format your citation like this if you are following Chicago or Turabian guidelines (note there is no comma between the name and year):
(Last name, year, page number)
(Smith 1999, 11)
If your source has several authors, format it like this:
(Last name 1, Last name 2 and Last name 3, year, pagenumber)
(Smith, Harris and Gold 1999, 11)
Sources with four or more authors should be formatted like this:
(Last name 1, et al., year, page number)
(Smith et al. 1999, 11)
According to Turabian guidelines, the appearance of an in-text citation does not change when you have already mentioned the name of the author in the text.
Position your in-text citation at the end of the sentence you are referencing, but before the period. This is the same no matter which citation style you are using. For example:
Himalayan glaciers have been losing fresh water for decades (Smith 1999).
The only exception to this rule is in APA style when you have mentioned the author's name in the text (see Step 1).