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MLA Updated Guide

updated June 26, 2025

In-Text Citations

How to Format In-Text Citations

 

 

Parenthetical style  

The in-text citation is in parentheses at the end of a sentence with paraphrased information. There is a space between name and number. 

 

Narrative style 

The authors’ or corporate authors’ names are included in the sentence rather than set apart. The page number is in parentheses at the end of the sentence. 

One author 

(Atkins 5) 

Atkins .... (5) 

Two authors 

(Stoupenos & Woods 20) 

Stoupenos and Woods .... (20) 

More than 2 authors 

(Smith et al. 32) 

Smith et al. ... (32) 

Corporate Author 

(U.S. Food and Drug Administration 145) 

U.S. Food and Drug Administration ... (145).  

 

In-text citations are REQUIRED for paraphrased and quoted material from sources of information. 

 

Parenthetical style: The author’s last name or corporate author and page number are placed in parentheses at the end of the sentence. The period comes after the in-text citation.  Do not put a comma between the author's name and page number. Do not put p. for page. 

Example: The key to success for online students is linked to the student’s sense of belonging (Smith 20).  

 

Narrative style: The author’s last name or corporate author is not in parentheses because it is part of the sentence.  The page number is at the end of the sentence.  

Example: According to Smith, success for online students is tied to a student’s sense of belonging to the university community (20). 

Examples

This is the full citation of a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal article. 

Walters, William H., and Esther Isabelle Wilder. “Fabrication and Errors in the Bibliographic Citations Generated by ChatGPT.” Scientific Reports, vol. 13, no. 1, Sept. 2023, pp. 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-41032-5.

If I paraphrase some of the information from this article to include in my paper, I need to cite it using an in-text citation. 

Examples: 
Chat GPT versions 3.5 and 4 created fake or fabricated citations or citations with errors, although version 4 showed improvement (Walters and Wilder 1). 
According to the research done by Walters and Wilder, Chat GPT versions 3.5 and 4 both created fake citations for sources, even though version 4 showed improvement in the percentage rate (1). 
 

Sometimes it is necessary to quote material from a source word for word.  Quotes are rarely used in scholarly writing. 

Examples: 
Walters and Wilder found that "55% of the GPT-3.5 citations but just 18% of the GPT-4 citations are fabricated" (1).
"ChatGPT is fundamentally not an information-processing tool, but a language-processing tool" (Walters and Wilder 1). 

 

Notice that I cited the authors of the article, not sources cited within the article. If you need help with this, please contact a librarian.

How to cite the Bible and other religious works

In-text citation should include the name of the specific edition of the Bible, followed by an abbreviation of the book, the chapter and verse(s).

The Bible. New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Hendrickson Publishers, 1993. 

Example: (The Bible (NRSVCE), Matt. 28:1-7).

Parenthetical style example: Matthew describes two women named Mary who witness Christ's resurrection (The Bible (NRSVCE), Matt. 28:1-8).

Narrative style: The story of two women named Mary, who witness Christ's resurrection, is told in Matthew 28:1-8 in the NRSVCE Bible.