In-Text Citations

Tutorial Home
  1. What are Citations?
  2. Citing Books
  3. Citing Articles
  4. Citing Websites
  5. Putting it Together
  6. In-text Citations
  7. Questions?
While this tutorial focuses primarily on the citations that you list at the end of your research project, it is also important to know how to include parenthetical citations when sources are either quoted directly or paraphrased within the body of your research project.

The parenthetical citation acts as a cross reference and directs the reader to the full citation in the References listing. Place your parenthetical citation at the end of a direct quote, and as near as possible to the paraphrased information.
A parenthetical citation typically includes the author's last name, the year, and the specific page number where you found the information that you are quoting or paraphrasing:

This parenthetical citation indicates that you found your information in the source with the author with the last name Gold, published in 2005, on page 32. The reader can then look in your References page and find the specific resource with Gold as the author.

If the source you are citing has two-six authors, include all author names. If there are 7 or more authors, list the first author's last name followed by "et al."

Note: Exclude the page number for parenthetical citations for websites.

For sources with no author, abbreviate the title (or article title for periodicals and websites).

When your paper is documented in this way, it will be easy for the reader to see exactly where your supporting documentation originated.

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