When you take information from a textbook and put it into your own words, you still need to credit the original author for the idea. An in-text citation in MLA format uses the author's last name followed by a page number, both in parentheses and with no punctuation between them, immediately following the borrowed idea. For example. you may write "Romantic poetry involves emotion (Killensworth 33)."
Textbooks may have more than one author. For books with up to three authors, list the last names of each in the citation with commas between and "and" before the third. For example, "Romantic poetry involves emotion (Killensworth, Jones and Bijong 33)."
For sources with more than three authors, you can list all the authors or use just the first with "et al." For example, "Romantic poetry involves emotion (Killensworth et al. 33)."
Information taken word-for-word from a source also uses in-text citations but must be indicates as a direct quote, as well. Quotes that take up fewer than four typed lines in the essay should include quotation marks at the start and between the end of the quote and the citation. For example:
"Romantic poetry uses powerful feelings to create an attitude in the reader" (Killensworth 33).
Place quotes that run over four typed lines in block format, indenting the entire quote one-half inch from the left margin, leaving off the quotation marks since the indent tells the reader it is a quote and placing the period before the citation instead of after.
The rest of the bibliographical information about the textbook appears on the Works Cited page at the end of the paper. The entry begins with the author's last name followed by a comma and the first name, followed by a period. The title of the text is next, underlined and followed by a period. Give the city of publication, followed by a colon, the name of the publisher, followed by a comma and the year of publication, ending the entry with period. For example, "Killensworth, James. The History of the Alamo (underlined). Chicago: Manatee Press, 2000."
If you have more than one author, list them all, but only put the first name in backward order. If you use a book with an editor, include "Ed." and the editor's first and last name right after the title and ending with a period. For example, "Killensworth, James. The History of the Alamo (underlined). Ed. Samantha O'Leary. Chicago: Manatee Press, 2000."
If you include information that would appear basically the same in several sources and that your readers would know, you can leave off in-text citations. For example, listing the dates of WWI or the name of Elvis's estate may not need citations. Direct quotes typically still need a citation with the exception of proverbs or other well-known sayings. Consider your audience carefully when determining if a citation is needed. If you are unsure if you need to include a citation, put it in to be safe.