A bibliography or works cited page is required for all assignments where you are using the work of others. Starting in grade 9 or 10, in addition to a bibliography or works cited list, you will be expected to include parenthetical or in-text citations in your essays (Ward). “Knowing how to use this type of citation is an essential skill for post-secondary courses” (Tan 25).
What is a parenthetical or In-text reference?
A parenthetical reference is a reference within the body of your paper to one of the sources listed in your Works Cited list. It indicates to your reader exactly what you derived from the source, and specifically where it can be found. You need to write a parenthetical, or “in-text” reference, whether you quote the material directly from the source, paraphrase it in your own words, or refer to an idea derived from the material (Noodle Tools).
What typically goes in an MLA-style parenthetical reference?
The information that you need to include depends on what type of source the material comes from.
- Print sources (author page number)
- Online sources (author) or (first word or words of the title) if there is no author.
For more details about content and placement of in-text citations, scroll down this page.
Your Noodle Tools account contains all the information you need to understand what a parenthetical reference is, when it should be used, and the rules as to how it may be formatted.
If you don’t already have a Noodle Tools account, set one up now. Get the login and password from your librarian.
Once you have created a citation in Noodle Tools, click on the blue Options button on the right hand side of the screen and select In-Text Reference. Noodle Tools will create a properly formatted MLA Style In-text reference for your source, and provide you with all the information you need to understand how and where to use this type of citation. (If you used a pre-formatted citation (copy/paste) it will not create the citation for you.)
You may be prompted to add a page number if needed.
These rules, created by Noodle Tools, will help you decide how to format your citation and place it in the text of your essay
The parentheses are usually placed at the end of a sentence, between the last word and the period. If you are quoting material directly, the parentheses should go between the closing quotation mark and the period:
- “The chicken came before the egg” (Smith 21).
Only information that is not already contained in your sentence is necessary in the parenthetical reference. For example, in the following example the author’s last name, Smith, is already stated, so only the page numbers are necessary within the parentheses:
- Smith theorizes that the chicken came before the egg (21).
Information you provide in the parenthetical reference should distinguish exactly which work in your source list you are referring to. Add a first initial or whole first name if the last name is not unique in your source list, or add the title of the work if there is more than one work by the same author. For example:
- It has been proven that the chicken came before the egg (J. Smith 21).
- It has been proven that the chicken came before the egg (John Smith 21).
- It has been proven that the chicken came before the egg (Smith, Eggs 21).
If the work is listed and alphabetized in your source list by its title (no author), then you should refer to it in the parenthetical reference by its title as well. The title may be shortened to just the first word (not including articles like “The” and “A”), and should be quoted or italicized if it is quoted or italicized in your source list. For example:
- Experts believe that the chicken came before the egg (Chicken 21).
- Experts believe that the chicken came before the egg (“Egg” 21).
If you have two entries with the same author (or no author) and title, find a publication fact that distinguishes the works and add it to their parenthetical references. For a nonperiodical print source, use the date of publication if possible. For an article in a periodical, use the title of the periodical. For a Web page, use the title of the overall Web site. For example:
- Experts believe that the chicken came before the egg (Smith, 2006).
- Experts believe that the chicken came before the egg (“Egg,” Student Resource Center).
Sources sometimes use alternate numbering systems like sections (sec.), chapters (ch.), books (bk.), parts (pt.), verses, lines, acts, or scenes. Online sources sometimes provide paragraph numbers. If an alternate numbering system is used, include that information in your reference. Note that a comma is used after the author (or title) in this case.
- Experts believe that the chicken came before the egg (Smith, pars. 3-4).
- In “Egg Poem” Smith asks “how do we know, which came first?” (lines 5-6).
Occasionally, you may find that page numbers are available in addition to these other numbering systems. In this case, it is helpful to include both; provide the page number first, followed by a semicolon, and then the other identifying information. An example follows:
- One novel reports a different theory (Smith 55; pt. 1, sec. 3, ch. 1).
- In “Egg Poem” Smith asks “how do we know, which came first?” (6; lines 5-6).
An exception to this rule is that when you are citing a classic verse play or poem, it is standard to omit page numbers even if they are given, and instead cite by division (act, scene, canto, book, part) and line. Divisions and the line number(s) are separated with periods, as in the following examples:
- In his classic play, Smith jokes about the egg (Egg 1.4.55-56).
- In “Egg Poem” Smith asks “how do we know, which came first?” (4.5-6).
If you are referring to a multi-volume work like an encyclopedia AND you used more than one volume of that work in your paper, then your parenthetical reference should include the volume number you used, as in the following example where we are referring to pages 5-6 of the third volume:
- Experts believe that the chicken came before the egg (“Egg” 3:5-6).
If you are referring to an entire work (like an opera or an entire novel) and not a specific section of the work, state the author and/or title within the sentence, and do not add any further information in parentheses. For example:
- Smith’s opera “Chicken and Egg” is a light-hearted comedy.
An exception to the rule above is that if you are citing an entire volume of a multi-volume work, you should include the volume number (either within the sentence, or in parentheses as shown below). Note that we use the abbreviation vol. when page numbers are not provided, unlike the example for Rule 7.
- Volume 2 of Smith’s book solves the chicken and egg mystery.
- Eggs solves the chicken and egg mystery (Smith, vol. 2).
If what you quote or paraphrase in your paper is itself a quotation in the source, add the phrase “qtd. in” to the parenthetical reference as shown here:
- “I have proven that the chicken came before the egg” (qtd. in J. Smith 21).
Sample pages from an MLA-style Research Essay: