indirect quotation research paper

MLA 9th referencing style

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What is an indirect citation?

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An indirect citation is when the ideas of one author are published in another author’s text but you have not read or accessed the original author’s work. MLA Handbook 9th edition advises using the material from original sources wherever possible. This may mean that you will have to use the citation from the secondary source to find the original source.

To reference an indirect quotation:

• Include both the original author and the author of the work where the quote/idea was found in the in-text reference with the abbreviation qtd . in . 
• In the reference list, provide the details of the author of the work in which you found the quotation or idea.
• You may use a note to clarify the relationship between the original and second-hand sources.

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APA Style Guide: Indirect Quote

• Direct Quote
• Block Quote

Indirect Quote

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An indirect quote is when you quote a source that is cited and/or quoted in another source. APA calls these ‘secondary sources.’ As a general rule, you should try to avoid using secondary sources. If there is a quote in a source from another book or article that you want to use, find the original source of that quote and cite it. Only quote a secondary source when absolutely necessary, for instance, when the original work is out of print or unavailable, or not available in English or a language you speak.

If you do use a secondary source in your paper, name the original source in your text and include the secondary source in your parenthetical citation, preceded by the words “as cited in.” You must also list the secondary source in your reference page.

In the following example, Bolling is the original source, and Jeremiah is the secondary source, given in the reference page:

In his book on Greek language, Bolling discusses why reflexive constructions are rare in the language of Homer, “[the rarity] is due partly to the competition offered by the middle voice, partly to the psychological beliefs then current.” (as cited in Jeremiah, 2012, p. 46).

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• In-text Citation: Indirect Quote (Paraphrase) Basics

APA 7th Edition: In-text Citation: Indirect Quote (Paraphrase) Basics

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Indirect Quote (Paraphrase): Basics

Indirect Quotation, or Paraphrase, refers to putting an author's ideas into your own words in your paper. Like direct quotes, the paraphrased passages require in-text citations in order to give credit to the original author. The  APA Publication Guide  states that sources should be paraphrased most of the time instead of using direct quotes (8.23). 

Original (Direct Quote):  

"The questions most people think about before retirement are 'How much money will I need?' and 'Am I saving enough?' But while financial security is certainly critical, people need to amass more than money for a successful retirement, experts say. They need to stockpile their emotional reserves, as well" (Chamberlain, 2014).

*note the use of single quotation marks around phrases within a longer passage in quotes ( APA Publication Manual  8.33).

Paraphrase:

Parenthetical Citation:

It is just as important to be emotionally prepared for retirement as financially prepared   ( C hamberlain 2014) .

Narrative Citation:

Chamberlain (2014) explains it is just as important to be emotionally prepared for retirement as financially prepared.

Indirect Quotes (Paraphrase): Parenthetical and Narrative Citation : Basic Format

Basic Format:   (Author Last Name, Year)   Example: (Bradshaw, 2013)  

Unlike Direct Quotes, page numbers are not required for Indirect Quotes. 

Avid readers of science fiction and fantasy books are more likely than readers of other genres to believe in futuristic scenarios - for example, that it will someday be possible to travel to other galaxies or power a car on solar energy  (Black et al., 2018).

Black et al., (2018)   have   shown that avid readers of science fiction and fantasy books are more likely than readers of other genres to believe in futuristic scenarios - for example, that it will someday be possible to travel to other galaxies or power a car on solar energy.

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How to Use Indirect Quotations in Writing for Complete Clarity

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
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In writing, an "indirect quotation" is a  paraphrase of someone else's words: It "reports" on what a person said without using the exact words of the speaker. It's also called "indirect discourse" and  " indirect speech."

An indirect quotation (unlike a direct quotation ) is not placed in quotation marks. For example: Dr. King said that he had a dream.

The combination of a direct quotation and an indirect quotation is called a "mixed quotation." For example: King melodiously praised the "veterans of creative suffering," urging them to continue the struggle.

Examples and Observations

Note: In the following quoted examples, we would normally use quotation marks because we are giving you examples and observations of indirect quotes from newspapers and books that we are directly quoting. To avoid confusion in addressing the subject of indirect quotes and also situations where you would be shifting between direct and indirect quotes, we have decided to forgo the extra quotation marks.

It was Jean Shepherd, I believe, who said that after three weeks in chemistry he was six months behind the class. (Baker, Russell. "The Cruelest Month." New York Times, Sept. 21, 1980. )

U.S. Navy Admiral William Fallon, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command said he called Chinese counterparts to discuss North Korea's missile tests, for example, and got a written response that said, in essence, "Thanks, but no thanks." (Scott, Alwyn. "U.S. May Slap China With Suit in Intellectual-Property Dispute." The Seattle Times , July 10, 2006.)

In his order yesterday, Judge Sand said, in effect, that if the city was willing to offer incentives to developers of luxury housing, commercial centers, shopping malls, and executive parks, it should also be assisting housing for minority group members. (Feron, James. "Citing Bias Order, U.S. Curbs Yonkers on Aid to Builders." The New York Times , Nov. 20, 1987.)

Advantages of Indirect Quotations

Indirect discourse is an excellent way to say what someone said and avoid the matter of verbatim quoting altogether. It is hard to be uncomfortable with indirect discourse. If a quote is something like "I'll be there prepared for anything, at the first hint of dawn," and you think, for any reason, that it might not be in the verbatim zone, get rid of the quotation marks and state it in indirect discourse (improving the logic while you're at it).

She said she would be there at the first hint of dawn, prepared for anything.

(McPhee, John. "Elicitation." The New Yorker , April 7, 2014.)

Shifting From Direct to Indirect Quotations

An indirect quotation reports someone's words without quoting word for word: Annabelle said that she is a Virgo. A direct quotation presents the exact words of a speaker or writer, set off with quotation marks: Annabelle said, "I am a Virgo." Unannounced shifts from indirect to direct quotations are distracting and confusing, especially when the writer fails to insert the necessary quotation marks.

(Hacker, Diane. The Bedford Handbook , 6th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.)

Mixed Quotation

There are many reasons why we might opt to mixed quote another rather than directly or indirectly quote him. We often mixed quote another because (i) the reported utterance is too long to directly quote, but the reporter wants to ensure accuracy on certain key passages, (ii) certain passages in the original utterance were particularly well put ..., (iii) perhaps the words used by the original speaker were (potentially) offensive to an audience and the speaker wants to distance himself from them by indicating that they are the words of the individual being reported and not his own ..., and (iv) the expressions being mixed quoted might be ungrammatical or a solecism and the speaker might be trying to indicate that he's not responsible . ... (Johnson, Michael and Ernie Lepore. Misrepresenting Misrepresentation , Understanding Quotation , ed. by Elke Brendel, Jorg Meibauer, and Markus Steinbach, Walter de Gruyter, 2011.)

The Writer's Role

In indirect speech, the reporter is free to introduce information about the reported speech event from his point of view and on the basis of his knowledge about the world, as he does not purport to give the actual words that were uttered by the original speaker(s) or that his report is restricted to what was actually said. Indirect speech is the speech of the reporter, its pivot is in the speech situation of the report. (Coulmas, Florian. Direct and Indirect Speech, Mouton de Gruyter, 1986.)

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Citing indirect sources: MLA (9th ed.) citation guide

This guide is based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 9th ed. and provides selected citation examples for common types of sources.

For more detailed information, please consult the full manual: available in  print  and  online .

Whenever you can, find and take material from the original source  instead of using secondhand information. Try finding the citation via Citation Finder , Library Search or in a database . If you need more help, just  Ask a Librarian .

See page 284 (section 6.77) in the Handbook for more on indirect sources.

Introduction

An indirect (or secondary) source is when one author references or quotes the work of a second author, and you are interested in referencing or quoting that second author from the first author's work. It is always best to find and cite the original work for simplicity, and to have access to the full context of the second author's ideas in their original work. If you cannot find the original work, here is how you cite a source that is referenced in another source: 

• If you quote an author’s quotation of a source you did not personally consult, put the abbreviation qtd. in (for "quoted in") before the source you cite in your parenthetical citation (284).
• If the sources involved have multiple authors, follow the rules for in-text and works cited for multiple authors .

Parenthetical (in-text)

Example 1: Maryanne Wolf has quoted Marcel Proust in her work

As Marcel Proust reminisced: "There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those . . . we spent with a favourite book" (qtd. in Wolf 6).

Example 2: W.W. Norton and Company has tweeted a quote from Billy Ray Belcourt

An excerpt from Billy Ray Belcourt’s debut novel reads “I needed to insist on a form of gender that wasn’t a natural disaster but rather a sprawling field where nothing was a coffin someone could fall into” (qtd. in W.W.Norton & Company).

Works cited

Wolf, Maryanne. Proust and the Squid: The Story of the Reading Brain . Harper, 2007.

W.W.Norton & Company [@ wwnorton ]. "I needed to insist on a form of gender that wasn’t a natural disaster but rather a sprawling field where nothing was a coffin someone could fall into." Read an excerpt from @ BillyRayB's debut novel A MINOR CHORUS at @ lithub . wwnorton.com/books/A-Minor-Chorus.” Twitter, 24 Oct. 2022, 9:36 a.m., twitter.com/ wwnorton /status/1584584658162831365.

See Citing websites and other online content  for more on formatting social media citations.

Still using MLA 8?

We've now updated our citation guides to MLA 9, but you can still use the printable version of our MLA 8 citation guide. 

Need more help? Check our Ask a Librarian services .

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Indirect Citations, or How to Cite a Quote from a Source

How to Use Your Sources’ Interviews or Quoted/Paraphrased Materials

Use an indirect citation when you want to cite material from someone else that is quoted or paraphrased in one of your sources. 

For instance, a reporter may interview a communications coach and use direct quotes from the coach in their article. If you want to use a quote from the coach, use an indirect citation. Clearly attribute the quote to the coach (the person who said it), but then credit the author of the text (the reporter, in this example) in which you found the quote in the parenthetical citation and on the references page.

In-text Citation Example

When preparing for a meeting, Barbara Miller, a communications skills coach, recommended “writing down all the thoughts that might distract […] from listening and setting the paper aside until later” (as cited in Shellenbarger, 2014). 

References Page Entry  

Shellenbarger, S. (2014, July 22).Tuning in: Improving your listening skills. The Wall Street Journal . https://www.wsj.com/articles/tuning-in-how-to-listen-better-1406070727

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Embedding Direct Quotations and Incorporating Indirect Quotations (English III Writing and Research)

Introduction, direct vs. indirect quotations, embedding direct quotations, using parenthetical documentation, avoiding plagiarism, test your understanding.

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What's in This Section 

This section covers the most common ways to incorporate in-text citations. Each example will include: 

• One author, two authors, and three or more author citations showing both a narrative and parenthetical example.
• Examples that include page numbers and examples without page numbers. 

General Guidelines for In-text Citations 

• In-text citations are brief references to your sources and indicate where the information came from and when it was published. They appear in the body of your work.
• The APA uses a brief Author-Date format for in-text citations. For example: Garcia (2020). This allows readers to look up the full citation listed in the reference page.
• All in-text citations will have a complete citation listed alphabetically in the reference page except: Personal communications; General mention of whole websites, software, or apps;  Research participants quotations from studies you designed.
• You can cite classroom lectures, notes, and slides as personal communication.
• When you are citing a source within a source, it is called an indirect quote.
• Information can be cited as part of the sentence (called a na rrative citation) or at the end in parentheses (known as a parenthetical citation).
• The citation is part of the sentence and the period should appear at the end (unless it is a block quote).
• If you have two or more authors, use the word 'and' for narrative citations and the ampersand '&' for parenthetical citations. 
• If you have three or more authors, use 'et al.' after the first authors last name to indicated there are additional authors. 
• If you are citing multiple works parenthetically, place the citations in alphabetical order separated by semicolons. 
• If you have citations with the same author and year, use lower case letters to distinguish between the two. For example: Gutierrez (2020a) / Gutierrez (2020b). 
• If you are quoting sources with embedded citations, include them in the quote but you do not need to cite the embedded citations in your reference page (only the source your are quoting).  
• If you are quoting material with quotations marks, use double quotation marks to indicate the quote and change the quotations marks in the quote to a single quotation mark.  

Basic In-Text Citation Styles 

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Generate accurate APA citations for free

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• APA Style 7th edition

Direct quotes in APA Style

Published on November 12, 2020 by Shona McCombes . Revised on June 16, 2022.

A direct quote is a piece of text copied word-for-word from a source. You may quote a word, phrase, sentence, or entire passage.

There are three main rules for quoting in APA Style:

• If the quote is under 40 words, place it in double quotation marks .
• If the quote is 40 words or more, format it as a block quote .
• Cite the author, year, and page number with an APA in-text citation .

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Table of contents

Citing a direct quote, quoting a source with no page numbers, quoting 40 words or more (apa block quotes), making changes to direct quotes in apa, frequently asked questions about apa style.

To cite a quote in APA, you always include the the author’s last name, the year the source was published, and the page on which the quote can be found. The page number is preceded by “p.” (for a single page) or “pp.” (for a page range).

There are two types of APA in-text citation : parenthetical and narrative.

In a parenthetical citation, you place the entire citation in parentheses directly after the quote and before the period (or other punctuation mark).

In a narrative citation, the author(s) appear as part of your sentence. Place the year in parentheses directly after the author’s name, and place the page number in parentheses directly after the quote.

Remember that every in-text citation must correspond to a full APA reference at the end of the text. You can easily create your reference list with our free APA Citation Generator.

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Some source types, such as web pages , do not have page numbers. In this case, to cite a direct quote, you should generally include an alternative locator, unless the source is very short.

The locator may be a chapter or section heading (abbreviated if necessary), a paragraph number, or a combination of the two. Use whichever locator will help your reader find the quote most easily.

For sources such as movies , YouTube videos , or audiobooks, use a timestamp to locate the beginning of the quote.

• Section heading
• Paragraph number
• Section and paragraph

If the quote contains 40 words or more, it must be formatted as a block quote. To format a block quote in APA Style:

• Do not use quotation marks.
• Start the quote on a new line.
• Indent the entire quote 0.5 inches.
• Double-space the entire quote.

Like regular quotes, block quotes can be cited with a parenthetical or narrative citation. However, if the block quote ends with a period, place the citation after the period.

• Parenthetical

Block quoting is particularly useful when you want to comment on an author’s language or present an argument that you will then critique. By setting the quote on a new line and indenting it, the passage is clearly marked apart from your own words. Therefore, no quotation marks are necessary. (O’Connor, 2019, p. 38)

Block quoting is particularly useful when you want to comment on an author’s language or present an argument that you will then critique. By setting the quote on a new line and indenting it, the passage is clearly marked apart from your own words. Therefore, no quotation marks are necessary. (p. 38)

Block quotes with multiple paragraphs

If the block quote contains multiple paragraphs, indent the first line of each paragraph after the first.

Block quoting is particularly useful when you want to comment on an author’s language or present an argument that you will then critique. By setting the quote on a new line and indenting it, the passage is clearly marked apart from your own words. Therefore, no quotation marks are necessary.

However, it is important not to rely on long quotes to make your point for you. Each quote must be introduced and explained or discussed in your own words. (O’Connor, 2019, p. 38)

In general, a direct quote should be an exact reproduction of the original. However, there are some situations where you may need to make small changes.

You may change the capitalization of the first word or the final punctuation mark in order to integrate the quote grammatically into your sentence, as long as the meaning is not altered.

Any other changes must be marked following these APA guidelines.

Shortening a quote

If you want to omit some words, phrases, or sentences from the quote to save space, use an ellipsis (. . .) with a space before and after it to indicate that some material has been left out.

If the part you removed includes a sentence break, add a period before the ellipsis to indicate this.

• No sentence break
• Sentence break

Clarifying a quote

Sometimes you might want to add a word or phrase for context. For example, if a pronoun is used in the quote, you may add a name to clarify who or what is being referred to.

Any added text should be enclosed in square brackets to show that it is not part of the original.

Adding emphasis to quotes

If you want to emphasize a word or phrase in a quote, italicize it and include the words “emphasis added” in square brackets.

Errors in quotes

If the quote contains a spelling or grammatical error, indicate it with the Latin word “sic”, italicized and in square brackets, directly after the error.

To include a direct quote in APA , follow these rules:

• Quotes under 40 words are placed in double quotation marks .
• Quotes of 40 words or more are formatted as block quote .
• The author, year, and page number are included in an APA in-text citation .

You need an APA in-text citation and reference entry . Each source type has its own format; for example, a webpage citation is different from a book citation .

Use Scribbr’s free APA Citation Generator to generate flawless citations in seconds or take a look at our APA citation examples .

When you quote or paraphrase a specific passage from a source, you need to indicate the location of the passage in your APA in-text citation . If there are no page numbers (e.g. when citing a website ) but the text is long, you can instead use section headings, paragraph numbers, or a combination of the two:

(Caulfield, 2019, Linking section, para. 1).

Section headings can be shortened if necessary. Kindle location numbers should not be used in ebook citations , as they are unreliable.

If you are referring to the source as a whole, it’s not necessary to include a page number or other marker.

The abbreviation “ et al. ” (meaning “and others”) is used to shorten APA in-text citations with three or more authors . Here’s how it works:

Only include the first author’s last name, followed by “et al.”, a comma and the year of publication, for example (Taylor et al., 2018).

In an APA in-text citation , you use the phrase “ as cited in ” if you want to cite a source indirectly (i.e., if you cannot find the original source).

Parenthetical citation: (Brown, 1829, as cited in Mahone, 2018) Narrative citation: Brown (1829, as cited in Mahone, 2018) states that…

On the reference page , you only include the secondary source (Mahone, 2018).

In academic writing , there are three main situations where quoting is the best choice:

• To analyze the author’s language (e.g., in a literary analysis essay )
• To give evidence from primary sources
• To accurately present a precise definition or argument

Don’t overuse quotes; your own voice should be dominant. If you just want to provide information from a source, it’s usually better to paraphrase or summarize .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

McCombes, S. (2022, June 16). Direct quotes in APA Style. Scribbr. Retrieved July 4, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/direct-quotes/

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MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

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Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the  MLA Handbook  and in chapter 7 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 using parenthetical citations . This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

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 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 on the Works Cited page.

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 quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

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 . Oxford UP, 1967.

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.

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 on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . University of California Press, 1966.

In-text citations for print sources by a corporate author

When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g., nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly long parenthetical citations.

In-text citations for sources with non-standard labeling systems

If a source uses a labeling or numbering system other than page numbers, such as a script or poetry, precede the citation with said label. When citing a poem, for instance, the parenthetical would begin with the word “line”, and then the line number or range. For example, the examination of William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” would be cited as such:

The speaker makes an ardent call for the exploration of the connection between the violence of nature and the divinity of creation. “In what distant deeps or skies. / Burnt the fire of thine eyes," they ask in reference to the tiger as they attempt to reconcile their intimidation with their relationship to creationism (lines 5-6).

Longer labels, such as chapters (ch.) and scenes (sc.), should be abbreviated.

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, following these guidelines.

Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.

Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to Lighthouse .

If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. 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. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.

If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation.

Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, 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:

Author-page citation for works in an anthology, periodical, or collection

When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the  internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in  Nature  in 1921, you might write something like this:

See also our page on documenting periodicals in the Works Cited .

Citing authors with same last names

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:

Citing a work by multiple authors

For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:

Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations , vol. 108, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1

For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al.

Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine , vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.

Citing multiple works by the same author

If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author :

Citing two books by the same author :

Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when appropriate, the page number(s):

Citing multivolume works

If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)

Citing the Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:

If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:

John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).

Citing indirect sources

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

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

Citing transcripts, plays, or screenplays

Sources that take the form of a dialogue involving two or more participants have special guidelines for their quotation and citation. Each line of dialogue should begin with the speaker's name written in all capitals and indented half an inch. A period follows the name (e.g., JAMES.) . After the period, write the dialogue. Each successive line after the first should receive an additional indentation. When another person begins speaking, start a new line with that person's name indented only half an inch. Repeat this pattern each time the speaker changes. You can include stage directions in the quote if they appear in the original source.

Conclude with a parenthetical that explains where to find the excerpt in the source. Usually, the author and title of the source can be given in a signal phrase before quoting the excerpt, so the concluding parenthetical will often just contain location information like page numbers or act/scene indicators.

Here is an example from O'Neill's  The Iceman Cometh.

WILLIE. (Pleadingly) Give me a drink, Rocky. Harry said it was all right. God, I need a drink.

ROCKY. Den grab it. It's right under your nose.

WILLIE. (Avidly) Thanks. (He takes the bottle with both twitching hands and tilts it to his lips and gulps down the whiskey in big swallows.) (1.1)

Citing non-print or sources from the Internet

With more and more scholarly work published on the Internet, you may have to cite sources you found in digital environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's  Evaluating Sources of Information  resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited page.

Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. However, these sorts of entries often do not require a page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:

• Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
• Do not provide paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
• Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like  CNN.com  or  Forbes.com,  as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Miscellaneous non-print sources

Two types of non-print sources you may encounter are films and lectures/presentations:

In the two examples above “Herzog” (a film’s director) and “Yates” (a presentor) lead the reader to the first item in each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:

Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo . Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.

Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Address.

Electronic sources

Electronic sources may include web pages and online news or magazine articles:

In the first example (an online magazine article), the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below).

In the second example (a web page), a parenthetical citation is not necessary because the page does not list an author, and the title of the article, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide,” is used as a signal phrase within the sentence. If the title of the article was not named in the sentence, an abbreviated version would appear in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:

Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant , 13 Jun. 2003, www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2009. 

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL , 2 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Accessed 2 April 2018.

Multiple citations

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:

Time-based media sources

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

When a citation is not needed

Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations, or common knowledge (For example, it is expected that U.S. citizens know that George Washington was the first President.). Remember that citing sources is a rhetorical task, and, as such, can vary based on your audience. If you’re writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, you may need to deal with expectations of what constitutes “common knowledge” that differ from common norms.

Other Sources

The MLA Handbook describes how to cite many different kinds of authors and content creators. However, you may occasionally encounter a source or author category that the handbook does not describe, making the best way to proceed can be unclear.

In these cases, it's typically acceptable to apply the general principles of MLA citation to the new kind of source in a way that's consistent and sensible. A good way to do this is to simply use the standard MLA directions for a type of source that resembles the source you want to cite.

You may also want to investigate whether a third-party organization has provided directions for how to cite this kind of source. For example, Norquest College provides guidelines for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers⁠ —an author category that does not appear in the MLA Handbook . In cases like this, however, it's a good idea to ask your instructor or supervisor whether using third-party citation guidelines might present problems.