In-text citations should include the author's last name and the page number on which the information or quote is located. The citation will be in parentheses at the end of the sentence before the period.
Example:
"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (Fitzgerald 180).
If the author’s name is listed within the sentence that cites the information, the author's name does not need to be repeated again in the parenthetical citation.
Example:
Fitzgerald ends The Great Gatsby with the poetically memorable line "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" (180).
For anonymous works (works without an author), a parenthetical citation uses the title, such as in the following: (Beowulf ln. 54-56) Anonymous works are not terribly common.
Remember that if you cite a work in the text of your paper, that work should be included in your Works Cited page. If you do not cite a work in your paper, then it should not be included in your Works Cited page.
Citing Multiple Works by the Same Author:
List the author's name followed by the title of the work (or a shortened version of the title) in the citation.
Two parenthetical citations from the same paper for two different books by F. Scott Fitzgerald would look like the following:
(Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby 85) and (Fitzgerald, Tender 15)
See the works cited page for information on citing multiple works by the same author.
Citing a Work with Multiple Authors
When citing a source with two authors, include both author's names separated by "and" for parenthetical citations.
Example: Two Authors
When studying the growth of the humanities as a discipline, it is important to recognize that "...the dream of the unity of knowledge isn't an exclusively German phenomenon" (Reitter and Wellmon 24).
See the works cited page for information on citing sources by two authors.
Example: Three or More Authors
When there are three or more authors, list just the first author's last name followed by et al. While the example below is of an article, the same rule would apply to citing a book or other sources.
When considering the role of ecological theory it is important to remember "ecological theory is only as sturdy as its foundation in empirical natural history observation" (McKeon et al. 2).
See the article citation tab for information on citing an source with three or more authors.
Page Numbers Alternatives:
Occasionally, there may be a source that does not have page numbers. In some cases these will have other numbered sections, which you will need to indicate by using abbreviations such as:
If there are no page numbers at all and there are no other identifying numbers, use the abbreviation n. pag., e.g., (Smith n. pag.).
Lengthy Titles
When the title is too long to repeat in each citation, you can shorten it. For instance, the title Sir Gawain and the Green Knight could be shortened to Sir Gawain.
When shortening the title: