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UB Athletics Toolkit: How to Create In-Text Citations in MLA

This guide is for UB Athletics Tutors and Students
Last Updated: Aug 22, 2024 1:31 PM

MLA 9th In Text Citations

An in-text citation helps the reader of your work locate where you got the information from. Formatting an MLA 9th in-text citation can be tricky, but when you locate all the necessary information, it is quite easy.

Please use the information below to assist you in making an accurate in-text citation to ensure you are not plagiarizing borrowed information.

Basic Formatting

If a page number is provided, follow the formats below:

In-Text Citation

(Jones 378).

 

In-Text Citation, Two Authors

​List the two author's last names.

(Jones and Miller 378).

 

In-Text Citation, Three or More Authors

You will put et al. to indicate after the first author's last name to indicate and others.

(Jones et al. 378).


When no page number is provided, please follow the formats below:

In-Text Citation, No Page Number Provided

(Jones).

 

In-Text Citation, Two Authors, No Page Number Provided

List the two author's last names.

(Jones and Miller).

 

In-Text Citation, Three or More Authors, No Page Number Provided

You will put et al. to indicate after the first author's last name to indicate and others​.

(Jones et al.).


If no author is provided, please follow the format below:

In-Text Citation, No Author. ("Use Title Instead").

If the source is titled "Clay Pot Snowman Tutorial", your in-text citation will be (“Clay Pot Snowman Tutorial”).

If the title is very long, shorten it by using only the first word. For example, the title “Allergies: Basic Info You Need to Know.” would be (“Allergies”).

A Real Example

Flores-Cornejo, Fiorela, et al. “Association between Body Image Dissatisfaction
and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents.” Revista Brasileira de
Psiquiatria
, vol. 39, no. 4, Oct. 2017, pp. 316–322. Academic Search
Complete,
doi:10.1590/1516-4446-2016-1947.

If I were to quote a line from page 320 of the above article, it would look like this:

"Those who had ever used alcohol were 40% more likely to report depressive symptoms, while those who had ever used tobacco were 50% more likely to endorse such symptoms, after adjusting for all variables in the equation" (Flores-Cornejo et al. 320).

**REMEMBER: The In-text Citation should match the first item listed for that citation in the Works Cited*

 

Tutorial Video