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MLA Citation Guide: Where should I cite? In text citation vs Works Cited

Direct quotes

Whenever you are using a direct quote (someone else's words in quotation marks), you should use an in-text citation in parenthesis ( ), as well as including the full citation in your Works Cited page at the end of your paper.

Whenever you are paraphrasing someone else's ideas, you should use an in-text citation in parenthesis at the end of the paragraph, as well as including the full citation in your Works Cited page.

When you have consulted a source, but aren't quoting or paraphrasing from it, you can simply add it to your Works Cited page.

In-text citations

Citing an author within the text of your paper is a way to give immediate and clear credit to the source.

You need to include the author's last name (plus their first initial if you are citing multiple authors with the same name), and the page number where you found the quote. 

You should always include a full citation of the source work in your bibliography in addition to the in-text citation!

Two examples of in-text citation:

In the American Empire style, "decorative motifs are assertive and overtly classical" (Gura 174).

Gura characterizes the American Empire style as having "decorative motifs [that] are assertive and overtly classical" (174).

Note: When you need to add a word into the quote to make it grammatically correct in relation to the rest of your sentence, you can do this by putting your word(s) in brackets, like the word [that] seen above.

Works Cited page

Your Works Cited page includes all the sources you used in the creation of your paper.

That means the sources for:

  • Direct quotes you used (which should also have an in-text citation)
  • Works that you paraphrased 
  • Works that you referred to and took notes from, even if only a little bit

When in doubt, the safe thing to do is to ALWAYS cite a work on your Works Cited page!  You can never have too many sources on the list, and better to include them all than to leave something important out accidentally...

Proper format for Works Cited page

  • Your Works Cited page should be a separate page at the end of your paper, with the label Works Cited centered at the top of the page (not italicized or underlined).  
  • The entire page should be double-spaced, but without an extra space between each citation.
  • If a citation is longer than one line, any subsequent lines (second, third, etc.) should be indented by 0.5"; this is called a hanging indent.

Example: 

Secondary or Indirect Sources

"Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited in another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:

Ravitch argues that high schools are pressured to act as "social service centers, and they don't do that well" (qtd. in Weisman 259).

Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source." (Purdue OWL)