MLA格式文内引用_说明

MLA

格式文内引用说明

MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

Summary:

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and

cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA

Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to

Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers,

in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page. Please use the example at the

bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in MLA.

Contributors:

Tony Russell, Allen Brizee

Last Edited:

2010-04-21 07:58:21

/owl/resource/747/02/

Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style is covered in

chapter six of the

MLA Handbook

and in chapter seven of the

MLA Style Manual

. Both books

provide extensive examples, so it's a good idea to consult them if you want to become even

more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

Basic In-Text Citation Rules

In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what is known as

parenthetical citation. This method involves placing relevant source information in

parentheses after a quote or a paraphrase.

General Guidelines

?

The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1.) upon the

source medium (e.g. Print, Web, DVD) and (2.) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited

(bibliography) page.

?

Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source

information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you

provide to your readers in the text, must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand

margin of the corresponding entry in the Works Cited List.

In-Text Citations: Author- Page Style

MLA format follows the

author-page method

of in- text citation.

This means that the author's

last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must

appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page.

The

author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the

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quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses,

not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Wordsworth

stated

that Romantic

poetry

was

marked

by

a

overflow

of

powerful feelings

overflow

of

powerful

feelings

(Wordsworth

263).

Wordsworth

extensively

explored

the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

The both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the

information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named

Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the

Works

Cited

page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following

information:

Wordsworth, William.

Lyrical Ballads

. London: Oxford U.P., 1967. Print.

In- text Citations for Print Sources with Known Author

For Print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide

a signal word or phrase (

usually the author’s last name

) and a page number. If you provide

the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical

citation.

Human

beings

have

been

described

by

Kenneth

Burke

as

animals

(3).

Human beings have been described as

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first

thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry in the Works Cited:

Burke,

Kenneth.

Language

as

Symbolic

Action:

Essays

on

Life,

Literature,

and

Method

.

Berkeley: U of California P, 1966. Print.

In-text Citations for Print Sources with No Known Author

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author

name. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (e.g. articles) or italicize it if it's a

2

longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire websites) and provide a page

number.

We

see

so

many

global

warming

hotspots

in

North

America

likely

because

this

region

has “more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensiv

e programs to

monitor and study environmental change . . . ” (“Impact of Global Warming”

6).

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title

of the article appears in the parenthetical citation which corresponds to the full name of the

article which appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry in the Works Cited.

Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical

citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The

Works

Cited

entry appears as follows:

“The

Impact

of

Global

Warming

in

North

America.”

GLOBAL

WARMING:

Early

Signs

.

1999.

Web. 23 Mar. 2009.

We'll learn how to make a Works Cited page in a bit, but right now it's important to know that

parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages allow readers to know which sources you

consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the

sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

Author-Page Citation for Classic and Literary Works with

Multiple Editions

Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary

scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work like Marx and Engels's

The

Communist Manifesto

. In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the

edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the

appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section

(sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:

Marx and Engels described human history as marked by class struggles (79; ch.

1).

Citing Authors with Same Last Names

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Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is

taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors'

first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation.

For example:

Although

some

medical

ethicists

claim

that

cloning

will

lead

to

designer

children

(R. Miller 12), others note that the advantages for medical research outweigh

this consideration (A. Miller 46).

Citing a Work by Multiple Authors

For a source with three or fewer authors, list the authors' last names in the text or in the

parenthetical citation:

Smith,

Yang,

and

Moore

argue

that

tougher

gun

control

is

not

needed

in

the

United

States (76).

The

authors

state

gun

control

in

the

United

States

erodes

Second

Amendment

rights

For a source with more than three authors, use the work's bibliographic information as a

guide for your citation. Provide the first author's last name followed by et al. or list all the last

names.

Jones

et

al.

counter

Smith,

Yang,

and

Moore

's

argument

by

noting

that

the

current

spike in gun violence in America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (4).

Or

Legal

experts

counter

Smith,

Yang,

and

Moore's

argument

by

noting

that

the

current

spike in gun violence in America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (Jones

et al. 4).

Or

4