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MLA in-text citation (9th edition)

MLA uses author–page: the author’s family name and the page, no comma, no year. Try your source below.

MLA in-text citation generator

Style
Citation type
Author family names (or an organisation, e.g. World Health Organization)

Your MLA 9 parenthetical citation

(Nguyen 14)

Where it goes in a sentence

Sleep loss impairs next-day recall (Nguyen 14).

Why it looks like this: MLA in-text citations have no year and no comma: author, space, page.

The basic MLA format

Parenthetical: (Author Page), e.g. (Morrison 190). Narrative: name the author in your sentence and put only the page at the end: Morrison writes that definitions “belong to the definers” (190).

The first word of your citation must match the first word of the Works Cited entry, so readers can find it alphabetically (MLA Handbook, 9th ed., ch. 6).

SituationMLA 9 example
One author(Morrison 190)
Two authors(Nguyen and Ortiz 45)
Three or more(Nguyen et al. 45)
Organisation(World Health Organization 12)
No author, article(“Sleep and Memory” 12)
No author, book or website(Sleep Report 12)
No page numbers(Nguyen)
Two works by one author(Morrison, Beloved 88)
Two sources at once(Lee 7; Nguyen 45)
Indirect source(qtd. in Nguyen 45)
Poem (lines)(Frost, lines 18–20)
Play (act.scene.line)(Hamlet 3.1.56)

Where the MLA citation goes

At the end of the clause that uses the source, before the full stop. For a quotation, after the closing quotation mark: …“designed to make lies sound truthful” (Orwell 137). A question mark or exclamation mark that belongs to the quotation stays inside the quotation marks, and you still add a full stop after the brackets.

Long quotations

Prose longer than four lines becomes a block quote, indented half an inch, without quotation marks, with the citation after the final full stop. Details on how to cite a quote.

MLA 9 changes students notice

  • “et al.” starts at three authors (same as MLA 8).
  • Time-based media use a timestamp in hours:minutes:seconds.
  • Avoid “par.” unless the source itself numbers its paragraphs.

Questions students ask

What is the MLA in-text citation format?
Author’s family name and page number, with no comma and no “p.”: (Morrison 190). If you name the author in the sentence, give only the page: Morrison argues… (190).
Does MLA use the year in in-text citations?
No. MLA in-text citations give the author (or title) and a location such as a page. The date appears only in the Works Cited entry.
How do you cite a source with no page numbers in MLA?
Give just the author: (Nguyen). If the source numbers paragraphs or sections, you can add them after a comma: (Nguyen, par. 4). For video or audio, use a timestamp: (Nguyen 00:03:15).
How do you cite no author in MLA?
Use the title as it begins in Works Cited, shortened: (“Sleep and Memory” 12). Italicise titles of standalone works and put titles of articles or chapters in quotation marks.
When do I use et al. in MLA 9?
For three or more authors: (Nguyen et al. 45). For two, name both: (Nguyen and Ortiz 45).

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