The
In-Text Citation:
·
Quoted material is followed by a parenthetical, also known as an in-text
citation.
· The
parenthetical gives the page number(s) of the quoted material's source.
· The parenthetical
sometimes gives the author's last name, depending on the type of
signal phrase you have written.
The
Signal Phrase:
Definition
of a Signal Phrase:
A phrase that signals your reader that you are about to include a quote.
There are
two types of Signal Phrases:
1) With an
attribution, which means it includes the author's last name, or authors’ last
names.
2) Without an attribution, which means it does not include the author's last name,
or authors’ last names.
Example
of a Signal Phrase with an attribution:
Shelley held
a bold view: "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world"
(794-95).
Example
of a Signal Phrase without an attribution:
Other
artists hold a bolder view: "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of
the world" (Shelley 794-95).
Here
are two easy rules to follow:
1.
If
your signal phrase includes the author's or authors’ name(s), then only the
page number(s) go inside the parenthetical.
2.
If
your signal phrase does not include the author's or authors’ name(s), then the
pages number(s) and the author's or authors’ last name(s) go inside the
parenthetical.
For
additional examples on this, see Lecture 7: Read This Before Documenting Any
Sources.
Punctuation
with Quotations
Quoted
material is usually preceded by a colon if the quotation is formally introduced
and by a comma or no punctuation if the quotation is an integral part of the
sentence structure.
Example
of a formal introduction:
Shelley held
a bold view: "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world"
(794-95).
Example
of a quotation that is an integral part of the sentence structure:
Shelley
thought poets "the unacknowledged legislators of the world" (794-95).
Another
example of a quotation that is an integral part of the sentence structure:
"Poets,"
according to Shelley, "are the unacknowledged legislators of the
world" (103-04).
Quoting
Indirect Sources:
What if you
are reading an article about Edmund Burke, written by a writer named Boswell.
Perhaps Boswell quotes Samuel Johnson's remarks about Shakespeare, and you want
to quote Johnson. How would you properly compose your parenthetical? Like so:
Samuel
Johnson admitted that Edmund Burke was an "extraordinary man" (qtd.
in Boswell 450).
Making parenthetical
and Works Cited page citations work together:
At all
times, the author named in your parenthetical or signal phrase must correspond
to the author named in your Works Cited page citation.
For example,
if you incorrectly cited Samuel Johnson in the above example, yet you have
Boswell listed on your Works Cited page, then your readers will be unable to
reference the Johnson quote.
For
answers to frequently asked questions on MLA Style Guidelines, visit http://www.mla.org/style_faq
For
information on MLA Publications, such as style guide manuals, visit http://www.mla.org/publications
Some
above examples are from MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing,
Second Edition, Joseph Gibaldi, ed. 1998.