In-Text Documentation: MLA Style

Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

As you write your paper, be sure to document any and all ideas and words that you have taken from your sources and incorporated into your paper.  Failure to do so results in plagiarism. By following the in-text documentation samples below, you can avoid plagiarism.  See Appendix J for the chart version of the following information.

In-text documentation, also known as parenthetical, or internal documentation, is the MLA way of citing your sources so that you give proper credit to them in the process of constructing your paper. 

BOOKS / MAGAZINES / JOURNALS WITH ONE AUTHOR – Place the last name of the author and the page number of the information in parentheses. 

     The center of Hamlet is his “To be or not to be” soliloquy (Bloom 409)

BOOKS/ MAGAZINES / JOURNALS WITH MORE THAN ONE AUTHOR – Place the last names of the authors and the page number of the information in parentheses.

     Contrary to most prose, “[g]ood verse is a little like concentrated orange juice – the water’s been squeezed out” (Mueller, Reynolds 69).

*If the author or authors are named in the text, you can eliminate their names from the parentheses and just include the page number.

 According to Mueller and Reynolds, contrary to prose, “[g]ood verse is like concentrated orange juice – the water’s been squeezed out” (69).

NOVELS – Follow the same rules as for books above but add a semicolon after the page number and a reference to the chapter or part of the novel being used.

     The opening line of the novel Pride and Prejudice, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” is both ironic and alludes to the role women play in Jane Austen’s society (1;ch. 1). 

PLAYS – Follow the same rules as for books but add the number of the act followed by a period followed by the number of the scene followed by a period followed by the line or lines numbers in Arabic numerals and omit the page numbers.

     In The Cherry Orchard, the character of Lopakhin is upset with himself for having fallen asleep while waiting for his guests to arrive and chastises himself saying, “a prize idiot I am, making an ass of myself like this” (Chekhov 1.1.4-5).

POETRY – Follow the same rules as for books omitting the pages and replacing them with the proper divisions, such as canto or book, and the lines being referred to.

     In his famous poem “The Wasteland,” T.S. Eliot refers to the dead as “dry bones” that “can harm no one” (V. line 391).

MULTI-VOLUME WORK – Similar to individual books, here you name the author followed by the volume number, then a colon and the page number or numbers.  (Bible references are made by indicating the name of the book followed by the chapter number then a colon and the verse number or numbers.)

     The author admits to many discrepancies between editions (Franzen 2:319).

ELECTRONIC SOURCES – Follow the same rules as for books; “however, because electronic documents have no pagination or other type of reference markers, the MLA Handbook recommends that such parenthetical references be avoided if possible.  More preferable are direct references in the text to the name of the author or sponsoring organization” (“MLA Style Electronic Formats” by Dr. Mary Ellen Guffey).  See Appendix J for citation examples.

     Place quotations longer than four typed lines or 3 lines of verse in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks.  Start the quotation on a new line, indented one inch from the left margin, and maintain double-spacing.  Your in-test citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.  When quoting verse, maintain original line breaks (Purdue Online Writing Lab).

For example:

      Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him through her narration:

     They entirely refused to have it in bed with them or even in their room and I had no more sense, so, I put in on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow.  By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw’s door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber.  Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent of the house.  (Brontë 78)

ADDING OR OMITTING WORDS IN QUOTATIONS – If you add a word or words in a quotation, you should put brackets around the words to indicate that they are not part of the original text (Purdue Online Writing Lab).

For example:

    Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states:  “some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning every rumor or tale” (78).

 If you omit a word or words from a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word or word by using ellipsis marks surrounded by brackets (Purdue Online Writing Lab).

For example:

     In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that “some individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale [ . . . ] and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs” (78)