In-Text Citations Made Easy: MLA 9th Edition
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Chelsea Seaburn walks viewers through the essentials of MLA 9th edition in-text citations. She explains why it's important to credit authors to avoid plagiarism and discusses the two-element citation format (author’s last name and page number). Seaburn covers parenthetical and narrative citation styles, handling multiple authors, corporate authors, and citing sources with no page numbers. She also explores situations like authors with the same surname. Throughout, she provides examples to demonstrate how to create accurate in-text citations. The video also previews upcoming lessons on creating works cited entries.
Takeaways
- 📚 MLA in-text citations are used to give credit to the author and avoid plagiarism.
- 🖋️ MLA 9th edition requires two elements for in-text citations: the author's last name and the page number.
- ❌ No comma separates the author's last name and the page number in MLA citations, just a space.
- 📖 In MLA narrative citations, the author's name is worked into the sentence, while parenthetical citations place the name and page number at the end.
- 👥 When citing two co-authors, list both last names separated by 'and'.
- 👨👩👦 For works with more than two authors, list the first author followed by 'et al.' to represent the others.
- 🏢 Corporate authors can be abbreviated in parenthetical citations for readability but written out fully in prose.
- 📄 When there is no author, use the title of the work in place of the author in the in-text citation.
- 🔢 If there are no page numbers, use an alternative location marker like section, paragraph, or chapter number.
- 🧑🤝🧑 If citing two different authors with the same surname, use their first initial to differentiate them in parenthetical citations.
Q & A
What is the primary purpose of using in-text citations in MLA format?
-The primary purpose of using in-text citations in MLA format is to give credit to the original author of the information you're paraphrasing or directly quoting. This helps avoid plagiarism by properly attributing the source.
What two elements are typically included in MLA in-text citations?
-MLA in-text citations typically include two elements: the author's last name and the page number where the cited information can be found.
How do you format an in-text citation with both the author's last name and the page number?
-In MLA format, the author's last name is followed by the page number without a comma, separated only by a space. For example: (Smith 45).
What is the difference between a parenthetical and a narrative in-text citation?
-A parenthetical citation places both the author's name and the page number within parentheses at the end of the sentence. A narrative citation integrates the author’s name into the sentence itself, followed by the page number in parentheses.
How do you handle MLA citations when a source has two authors?
-When citing a source with two authors, include both last names separated by the word 'and.' For example: (Lemmerie and Ombrebatch 5).
What should you do when citing a source with more than two authors?
-When citing a source with three or more authors, use the first author's last name followed by 'et al.' For example: (Nickerson et al. 78).
How should you cite a corporate author or organization in MLA format?
-When citing a corporate author, use the full name of the organization in the in-text citation. If the name is long, MLA allows using a shortened version, such as a noun phrase that clearly identifies the organization.
What do you do if there is no known author for the source?
-If there is no known author, MLA format suggests using the title of the work as the author element in the citation. You may abbreviate the title if it's long, focusing on the first main noun.
How do you cite sources that do not have page numbers in MLA format?
-For sources without page numbers, MLA recommends using another location marker, such as a chapter, section, or paragraph number, and labeling it accordingly. For example: (Smith, ch. 2) or (Jones, sec. 4).
How should you handle citations for different authors with the same last name?
-When citing different authors with the same last name, include the first initial before the last name to differentiate between them. For example: (N. Baron 67) and (J. Baron 89).
Outlines
🎓 Introduction to MLA In-Text Citations
Chelsea Seaburn introduces the topic of MLA in-text citations, explaining that the video will cover how to properly use in-text citations in MLA 9th edition. She briefly recaps previous content on MLA formatting and outlines the agenda for the video: discussing the purpose of in-text citations and providing examples to avoid plagiarism by properly crediting authors.
📖 Importance and Basic Structure of MLA In-Text Citations
Chelsea explains why in-text citations are crucial for giving credit to sources, thus avoiding plagiarism. MLA 9th edition uses two main elements in citations: the author’s last name and the page number where the information was found. She emphasizes that there’s no comma between the two elements, only a space, and mentions the flexibility in formatting these citations using either a parenthetical or narrative style.
📝 Formatting Options: Parenthetical vs. Narrative Citations
The paragraph dives into the differences between parenthetical and narrative citation formats in MLA. Parenthetical citations place both the author’s last name and page number at the end of a sentence within parentheses. In narrative citations, the author's name is integrated into the sentence, and the page number follows the author’s first mention.
📚 Example of Standard In-Text Citations
Chelsea presents the first example, where the author and page number are included. She highlights the process of selecting the correct page number when paraphrasing from multiple pages, explaining that only the page containing the paraphrased content is included. Both parenthetical and narrative citation examples are shown to illustrate how these formats are applied.
👥 Citing Two Authors in MLA
The discussion focuses on how to cite two co-authors in MLA. Chelsea explains that both authors' last names should be included, separated by the word ‘and.’ The same rules apply to both parenthetical and narrative citations, and examples are provided for clarity, showing how to correctly format such citations.
👨👩👧 Citing More Than Two Authors
Chelsea explains how to cite sources with more than two authors. The citation should include the first author’s last name followed by ‘et al.,’ indicating there are additional authors. She also touches on the reasoning behind why the first author is listed, usually because of their significant contribution to the work.
🏢 Citing Corporate Authors
This paragraph discusses how to cite corporate authors such as organizations or groups. Chelsea advises using the shortest noun phrase when the corporate author’s name is long and suggests abbreviating where possible to maintain readability. She explains the difference between parenthetical and narrative citations for corporate authors, emphasizing brevity in the parenthetical form.
❓ Citing Sources Without Authors
The focus here is on how to handle citations when no author is known. Chelsea explains that in such cases, the title of the work should replace the author’s name. The first element from the Works Cited entry is used for the in-text citation, with examples showing how to shorten titles for parenthetical citations and include full titles in narrative ones.
🔖 No Page Numbers in Citations
Chelsea explains how to cite works that don’t have page numbers. Instead of pages, another marker (e.g., section, chapter, or line) is used to guide the reader to the location of the source material. She also gives examples of how to cite works where an alternative numbering system, like sections or paragraphs, is needed.
👬 Citing Authors with the Same Surname
The paragraph covers how to differentiate between two different authors with the same surname. In parenthetical citations, the first initial of the author’s first name is added to avoid confusion. In narrative citations, Chelsea suggests using the full first name initially and then using the first name in subsequent mentions.
📖 Differentiating Works by the Same Author
This paragraph discusses how to cite multiple works by the same author. The in-text citation includes the author’s last name, a shortened title of the work, and the page number. Examples are provided for both parenthetical and narrative citations, showing the proper placement of the title to distinguish between different works.
📜 Conclusion and Final Tips
Chelsea wraps up the lesson, reminding viewers to download a PDF guide for MLA 9th edition to help them master the citation process. She also promotes a YouTube feature that allows viewers to support content creators and encourages them to engage with the video by liking and subscribing. Finally, she hints at future videos covering more MLA topics.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡MLA In-Text Citations
💡Works Cited
💡Author Element
💡Page Number
💡Parenthetical Citation
💡Narrative Citation
💡Two Authors
💡Et al.
💡Corporate Author
💡No Page Number
Highlights
Introduction to MLA in-text citations and their role in avoiding plagiarism by giving proper credit to the authors.
MLA 9th edition in-text citation format requires two elements: the author's last name and the page number, without a comma between them.
Explanation of how to handle page ranges for in-text citations when the source material spans multiple pages.
The two formatting options for in-text citations: parenthetical (elements in parentheses at the end of the sentence) and narrative (elements incorporated into the sentence).
The first in-text citation using a narrative format should include the author's full name, but subsequent mentions require only the last name.
When citing sources with two authors, both last names should be included, separated by 'and'.
For sources with three or more authors, include the first author's last name followed by 'et al.' in both parenthetical and narrative citations.
How to cite corporate or group authors by using abbreviations where appropriate or the shortest noun phrase in parenthetical citations.
In cases where there is no known author, the title of the work replaces the author element in both the works cited and in-text citations.
For sources without page numbers, MLA suggests using an alternative numbering system, such as section, chapter, or line numbers.
Guidelines for citing authors with the same surname: include the initial of the first name to differentiate them.
When citing works by the same author but different titles, include the author's last name, a comma, and the title in italics before the page number.
Parenthetical citations should be concise but complete, allowing readers to find the source in the works cited page.
For narrative citations, authors and titles can be woven into the sentence, with page numbers placed at the end.
The importance of correctly formatting the works cited page in MLA to match the in-text citations and ensure consistency throughout the document.
Transcripts
hello everyone welcome to the smart
student my name is chelsea seaburn the
topic of today is we're going to cover
mla in-text citations so in the previous
video we went over all the basic
formatting principles you need to know
for mla 9th edition now we're going to
start getting into the works cited and
referencing and all that fun stuff now i
have just a few opening points to make
about in-text citations for mla and then
we're going to jump into a bunch of
examples that show you all the different
ways that you might include those
in-text citations sound good
[Music]
all right so opening point number one
why do we include in-text citations in
the first place
it's simple really is that's the way
that you give credit to the author where
you found your information that you're
including in your paper so in other
words if you're including paraphrase
material or you're directly quoting
another author or another source in
general
that in-text citation is how you avoid
plagiarism because again that's how you
credit the author
so when it comes to mla in creating
in-text citations and reference list
entries
it's not much different from other
formatting principles you need to create
a full reference list entry in your
works cited page at the end of your
document and then you need to include
that in-text citation after the
information that is either paraphrased
or directly quoted now the next question
to ask is well what do we include in
those in-text citations so firstly what
you include in the in-text citations are
referred to as elements and mla 9th
edition follows a two element formatting
pattern
in that you should always include the
author's last name followed by the page
number that the source information came
from
now a couple quick notes about this is
that first please take note how there is
no comma separating these two elements
you should always include one space and
that's it also if the material spans
more than one page go ahead and include
that page range
and then lastly please note how for the
page or page range you don't include the
abbreviation for either of those just
the page numbers will suffice now the
last thing you need to know before we
can jump into those examples is the two
different ways that you can choose to
format those in-text citations so you
can use either a parenthetical or a
narrative formatting pattern and the
parenthetical is where you're going to
include both of those elements in
parentheses typically at the end of your
sentence now when it comes to the
narrative there's a little more
flexibility here
so a narrative in-text citation simply
means that you're going to incorporate
the elements into the wording of the
sentence
[Music]
all right so here we are let me explain
what you're looking at before we jump
into this first example
all right so for each example what i've
done is in the highlighted portion is
going to be the name of the example so
for instance this first one i'm going to
show you what a standard in-text
citation looks like when you have the
author and the page element present
then underneath that you have the full
works cited reference list entry that
way you can see how the two correspond
together
lastly i've included an example of a
parenthetical and a narrative in-text
citation for this example in an actual
sentence so you can see it in real time
and by the way
works cited in prose is the way mla
refers to a narrative in-text citation
prose simply means you're writing the
last note i'd like to make before we
dive in is that keep in mind that each
example i explain
i'm probably going to explain less and
less because a lot of this information
is going to be repetitive so just keep
that in mind
but let's go ahead and start with this
standard example so like i said all
elements are present we've got all the
good information there's nothing crazy
going on here
i want you to first look at the works
cited reference list entry because this
is where we're going to pull the two
elements from
starting with the author element which
as you can see we include the last name
only
then you want to include that one single
space before you include the page number
and this actually brings me to a good
point because i want you to take note
how there is a page span so a range of
pages included in the works cited
however i'm only included 193 in my
citation why is that this is because in
this example the portion that i
paraphrased only comes from page 193
now let's say this paraphrase was a lot
longer and the information the ideas
came from a few pages then i would
include the page span but that's why
there's only 193 in this example
moving down to the real-time examples
though here is what the parenthetical
would look like as you can see enclosed
in parentheses you have the space and
the punctuation comes at the end of the
sentence now
works cited in prose if you'll remember
i mentioned that if you include the
author or you're going to speak about
them more than once
the first time you want to include the
full name so i'm going to include naomi
barron the first time and then remember
the page number is always going to come
after the first mention of the author
and you don't have to put it after that
because from there on all you need to
include is the author's last name just
like you see it is in this second
sentence here great let's go ahead and
move on to the next example but i do
apologize because i need to correct this
right here
this is the title of the container it
should appropriately be italicized by
the way if you need help with creating
the full reference list entries for your
works cited page be sure to check back
next week because that's the topic i'm
going to cover
but for now let's stick to in-text
citations
going down the line
our next example we're going to talk
about how to create your in-text
citation when there's co-authors more
specifically you have two
so let's go ahead and take a look at the
works cited as you can see we have j
lemmery and paul ombre batch i believe
that's how you pronounce that we're
going to say it's ombre batch here we go
for the parenthetical what you want to
do for the author element is still
include the last names but you're gonna
separate them by the word and
next note how the space stays the same
and you would include the page range so
in other words in this example what
we're paraphrasing this information was
pulled from page four and five
looking at the works cited in prose
here's how you would include two authors
you want to type out both authors full
names just like before jay lemmerie
you're going to separate them with the
word and paul umber batch also just like
before you're going to include the pages
after the first mention of the author if
you plan on mentioning them a second or
third time in your prose so i went ahead
and included it here because as you can
see the next sentence includes them as
well in which i only include their last
names from here on out not too terribly
different from the first example
let's go ahead and talk about what to do
if you have more
than two authors so we're staying with
co-authors but now let's talk about
anytime you have more than two so three
or greater because things change a
little bit here but they're still fairly
simple to remember
so any time you have three or more
authors you want to include the first
author's last name
and then the abbreviation at all which
stands for and others
if you'll note there's a period after it
and everything else will stay the same
so coming down here to the full
reference list you can see that you have
that first author who is raymond
nickerson
and then at all signifying that there's
three or more
by the way if you're wondering
why this author gets chosen to be the
one listed and not included in the at
all this is because the first author is
generally the one who contributes the
most to this piece of work just
something to keep in mind but moving
down here to the example portion here's
what it would look like in a
parenthetical in-text citation if you'll
take note it looks exactly like every
other example in this case
however i do want to talk about the work
cited in prose because it does vary just
a little bit if you'll note it says
nickerson and colleagues it does not use
nickerson and the abbreviation at all
so any time that you want to include
a work cited in the prose and there are
more than three authors this is the
correct way to format the author element
you're going to use the first name
and write out the word and colleagues
and then go ahead and write out your
sentence from there on you would be able
to use just the last name nickerson and
of course you're going to add the page
just as normal but let's go ahead and
move on to the next example where we're
going to change directions just a little
bit
so we're moving on from what to do when
you're citing authors and now let's talk
about what to do
when you're trying to cite a corporate
author in other words it's an
organization a corporation or a group
and so this is what the in-text citation
would look like for the parenthetical
however the rules vary a little between
works cited and pros in parentheticals
so let's go ahead and actually start
with the works cited entry first
so as you can see here for the author
element the author is a corporation
which is the national academy of
sciences
and the royal society so this is what
we're going to use for our author
element in our corresponding in-text
citation however let's talk about this
so starting with the parenthetical what
mla suggests is that
one if you can use abbreviations where
it's appropriate go ahead and do so to
avoid interrupting the flow of reading
with overly long phrases as you can see
this group author is actually pretty
long and if there isn't anything to
abbreviate that would make sense you
want to use the shortest noun phrase so
as you can see here
national academy would be the shortest
noun associated with this full group
author however coming down here to the
works cited in prose you're welcome to
go ahead and type out the full name of
the corporation
at least for the first one then again if
you were to include another
narrative citation with this same group
author you could use the shortened noun
phrase instead but now let's talk about
what you would do if there is no known
author
so the rule of thumb here is that
anytime there's not an author you want
to match the author element to the first
element in the works cited entry
so
in this example what they've used is the
title of the work rather than an author
because there was no author present and
that's generally what you're going to
use
in the works cited place but that's
diving more into the works cited
reference list page lesson so i'll cap
it at that for now let's go ahead and go
through the parenthetical and works
cited in pros because quite frankly
they're very similar to what we just
went over
the same rules apply in that you want to
keep
the author element brief in the
parenthetical citation so you want to
shorten it to the noun phrase here as
well so as you can see
reading is perfectly acceptable and then
coming down here and i have that
highlighted the wrong color let's change
that for consistency and then here as
you'll see you would include the full
name as well you don't need to include
after the colon but reading at risk
would be an acceptable author element if
you're going to cite the work in your
prose and as you can see the page
numbers are just as they were in all the
other examples so not too bad the last
thing i do want you to take note of is
that
the
wording is an italicized font this is
because
the font is italicized in the works
cited that's all but let's go ahead and
move on and this next example has a
couple of important things that i want
to point out that we haven't seen yet so
now let's move on to what to do if there
is no page number all right so first and
foremost the author element stays just
as it is but this example demonstrates
an author where they have two last names
that's fine if you're ever in your works
cited reference list entry and you see
something like this is the last name go
ahead and use exactly what you see in
your works cited that's fine
but what to do when there is no page
number basically what mla suggests is
that you use an alternative location
marker
that regards a numbering system and then
you'll want to use an abbreviated label
to note that it's not a page so as you
can see here section 4
signifies where this source came from
you could do chapter 2 or maybe line
100. again section works para works for
paragraph the list goes on and on it
really depends on the type of source
you're trying to cite but when it comes
to how to create the in-text citations
i'm going to say here that they follow
the exact same principles we've been
following this whole time so there's not
much to note about that as you can see
here everything stays the same and by
the way if you're ever trying to cite
something that doesn't have a page
number and you're not sure
what to label the marker simply ask
yourself how can i accurately get the
reader to this information so if it's a
paragraph it's a paragraph if it's a
line it's a line but that's just a good
way to simplify this because i know
sometimes it's hard to come up with that
label when there's no hard and fast rule
for you to reference in the moment but
we have two examples left that's the
good news and i will say that these are
the less common scenarios but it's
important that you understand how
how to do them correctly in case you run
into it so let's talk about what to do
when you have two different citations
coming from two different authors
however they have the same surname so as
you can see here
baron is a surname for both jamie and
naomi so how do you differentiate
between them
in your works cited in your in-text
citations all right so i'm going to
address these one at a time because they
each follow a different rule
when it comes to the parenthetical
in-text citation the way you would
differentiate is by including the
initial of the first name followed by
the last name so as you can see here n
baron would signify that this
information came from naomi
great then if you're going to cite the
work in prose you want to include the
full name first just as before
however any preceding time that you
include the author's name from then you
would use the first name rather than the
last name because
obviously if we use baron from here on
out it would be confusing to know which
one it came from so
to take all that confusion away you'll
simply use the first name instead the
next question is what do you do when
they have the same surname
because well it's the same person so as
you can see here we're talking about
tony morrison however
in this first works cited we're talking
about beloved and down here it's playing
in the dark
so under mla 9th edition what you're
going to do is include the author's last
name for the author element
and the page number just as normal
however we're going to add in a third
element including the title or the
shortened noun version of the title just
as we would if we were including the
title and replace of the author element
so you're just combining a few of the
practices that you've learned
to signify the differences in these
sources so this is what it would look
like down in the parenthetical as i
already said you have the author element
please note that there is a comma
separating the author from the title
the title is italicized but you know
that from before because it's italicized
in the works cited
and then we have the page number perfect
now coming down here to the works cited
in prose
i have two examples just because i
wanted to demonstrate the two options
you have in the first six i'm going to
put a sentence here so you can see it a
little better here we go
in the first example
note how the author element and the
title element
are worked into the wording of the
sentence
and the page number is at the end just
as normal that's completely acceptable
you can work these two elements
into the sentence or you can choose to
only include the author element and
include the title
with the page number at the end of the
sentence either way is fine and yes if i
were going to include morrison or at
least
refer to beloved more than once i would
type out his full name tony morrison the
first time and then morrison proceeding
afterwards
all right friends welcome back one more
time don't forget to go download the pdf
version of mla 9th edition if you're
getting used to it you're getting the
hang of it why not have it on your
computer
but for everyone who watches video all
the way through thank you so much for
being here by the way youtube has this
awesome new feature that allows the
audience to support their creators if
you have a video that you like or you
want to let them know that you want more
material like this it's called youtube
things you can find it down below where
the like subscribe and all those good
buttons are at in the meantime thank you
for being here and i will see you in the
next video
[Music]
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