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MLA Style: Basics

This guide is intended to help you cite sources in MLA style, avoid plagiarism, learn what MLA style is and includes, find examples of MLA style, lead you to campus resources that can help you cite sources in MLA, and more.

In-Text Citations

MLA Style requires an in-text citation to indicate the sources that were consulted and used in your work.  The in-text citation must correspond with the entry on the Works Cited page,

MLA in-text citations follow the Author-Page style, meaning the author's last name and the page number(s) of the quotation or paraphrase must appear in the text. Page numbers always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.

General Format

Parenthetical Citation

(Author page#)

Citation in Prose

Author stated that ... (page#).

For Example

One Author

Parenthetical Citation

(Ramugondo 189)

Citation in Prose

Ramugondo stated that ....... (189).

Two Authors

Parenthetical Citation

(Leon and Andrews 250-258)

Citation in Prose

Javier F. Leon and Ronald Andrews argue that ....... (250-258).

Three or More Authors

Parenthetical Citation

(Zhang et al. 11)

Citation in Prose

Zhang and colleagues concluded from their experiments that ....... (11).