Cite references in-text by explicitly stating the author's name in the sentence when directly quoting the author, such as, "Oscar Wilde stated in 'The Decay of Lying' that, 'Art makes us love Nature more than we loved her before.'"
Credit an author in-text following a borrowed statement by placing the authors name and the page number referenced in parenthesis after the sentence, such as, "Romantic poetry is characterized by the 'spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings' (Wordsworth 263)."
Write in-text citations for print sources with a known author by providing a signal word or phrase within the text (such as the author's last name) following the sentence with a page number. For example, "Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as 'symbol-using animals' (3)."
Write in-text citations for print sources with no known author by including a shortened title of the work in quotations or the full title italicized.
Cite authors with the same last name by providing the authors' first initial, last name and page number in parenthesis following a sentence. For example, (R. Miller 12).
Write reference citations with multiple authors by listing the authors' last names in either the text or parenthetical citations. Cite sources with more than three sources by referencing the work's bibliography. For example, you may need to only provide the first author's last name followed by et al. or need to provide all authors' last names.
Cite multiple works by the same author within an MLA essay by providing the author's last name, title of work and the page number. For example, (Elkins, "Visual Studies" 63).
Reference works with multiple volumes by including the volume number followed by a colon and the page numbers referenced. For example, (1: 14-17).
Format indirect sources (sources cited from another source) by using "qtd. in". For example, if you reference a source which has pulled a reference from another source, cite the source in-text as so: (qtd. in Langston 222).
Format electronic sources by including the first item used in the works cited entry for that particular source to use as in-text citation. For example, if the works cited list uses the website's name first, include this in the parenthetical citation, such as (CNN).