How to Cite an Author In Text in the MLA Style

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    • 1). Write your paper. Begin writing your paper as you would. You will not need to use an in-text citation until you refer to the author or an idea from the book or source you are writing about.

    • 2). Write your sentence or sentences referring to the author and his work. You can choose to either mention the name of the book in the sentence, the author's name, or both within the text of your sentence or sentences.

    • 3). Place the citation as close to the end of your idea as possible. Don't continue writing the next idea, but make sure that the citation is at the end of the sentence or sentences. If you mentioned the author's name in your sentence or sentences, create a parenthetical citation that only includes the pages numbers from which you derived the content you are writing about. If you did not use the author's name, simply put the author's last name only within the citation, followed by the page numbers.

    • 4). Open the parenthetical citation. As you are typing your paper, complete the last sentence for which the citation is needed, and after the last word, leave one space and insert a parenthesis followed by either the author's name, a space, and then the pages you derived the idea from, or just the page numbers if you mentioned the author's name in your sentence.

    • 5). Close the citation. After the page numbers, without adding any spaces, add a closing parenthesis followed by a period, which will end your sentence and close out the citation included at the end of it.

    • 6). Create more citations. As many times as you refer to an author's idea or about his work within your paper, you must follow up your sentence with a parenthetical citation. Continue this process for the entirety of your paper.

    • 7). Add your in-text citations to your works cited page at the end of your paper, including all of the authors and works you cited within your writing.

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