In-Text Citations, Punctuation, and the Signal Phrase

 

The In-Text Citation:

·  Quoted material is followed by a parenthetical, also known as an in-text citation.

·  The parenthetical gives the page number(s) of the quoted material's source.

·  The parenthetical sometimes gives the author's last name, depending on the type of signal phrase you have written.

The Signal Phrase:

Definition of a Signal Phrase: A phrase that signals your reader that you are about to include a quote.

There are two types of Signal Phrases:

1) With an attribution, which means it includes the author's last name, or authors’ last names.
2) Without an attribution, which means it does not include the author's last name, or authors’ last names.

Example of a Signal Phrase with an attribution:  

Shelley held a bold view: "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world" (794-95).

Example of a Signal Phrase without an attribution:

Other artists hold a bolder view: "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world" (Shelley 794-95).

Here are two easy rules to follow:

 

1.     If your signal phrase includes the author's or authors’ name(s), then only the page number(s) go inside the parenthetical.

2.     If your signal phrase does not include the author's or authors’ name(s), then the pages number(s) and the author's or authors’ last name(s) go inside the parenthetical.

 

For additional examples on this, see Lecture 7: Read This Before Documenting Any Sources.

 

Punctuation with Quotations

Quoted material is usually preceded by a colon if the quotation is formally introduced and by a comma or no punctuation if the quotation is an integral part of the sentence structure.

Example of a formal introduction:

Shelley held a bold view: "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world" (794-95).

Example of a quotation that is an integral part of the sentence structure:

Shelley thought poets "the unacknowledged legislators of the world" (794-95).

Another example of a quotation that is an integral part of the sentence structure:

"Poets," according to Shelley, "are the unacknowledged legislators of the world" (103-04).

Quoting Indirect Sources:

What if you are reading an article about Edmund Burke, written by a writer named Boswell. Perhaps Boswell quotes Samuel Johnson's remarks about Shakespeare, and you want to quote Johnson. How would you properly compose your parenthetical? Like so:

Samuel Johnson admitted that Edmund Burke was an "extraordinary man" (qtd. in Boswell 450).

Making parenthetical and Works Cited page citations work together:

At all times, the author named in your parenthetical or signal phrase must correspond to the author named in your Works Cited page citation.

For example, if you incorrectly cited Samuel Johnson in the above example, yet you have Boswell listed on your Works Cited page, then your readers will be unable to reference the Johnson quote.


For answers to frequently asked questions on MLA Style Guidelines, visit http://www.mla.org/style_faq

For information on MLA Publications, such as style guide manuals, visit http://www.mla.org/publications

Some above examples are from MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, Second Edition, Joseph Gibaldi, ed. 1998.