What Are Citations in Writing?

Citations are used in academic writing to let the reader know the source of ideas, opinions, and language the author has drawn from others and incorporated into a text. Citations are required when a person incorporates facts and information obtained from another source. But, they are not essential when mentioning a fact that is common knowledge. Citations should be used when directly quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, or referencing someone else’s work.

Citations let readers know who created the information, ideas, or language quoted in an essay or paper.

What Is an In-Text Citation?

In-text citations are parenthetical references used in sentences in the body of a paper or essay to let the reader know the source of the information, opinion, or language used in the sentence. Inside parentheses, the author and the year of publication of the source are mentioned. Sometimes, it is along with the page number from which the information, opinion, or language was taken.

How to Write Citations

When writing citations for a paper or essay, two kinds of citations are used:

1. In-text citations appear throughout the paper
2. Longer citations are grouped together at the end of the paper, in a Reference List or Works Cited page.

Citations in a Reference List or Works Cited page typically include the author’s name, the title of the source, publisher, and date of publication. Depending on the citation style and format of the source, the place of publication and URL may also be included.

While in-text citations are relatively similar when referring to a book, article, or other types of media in the body of a paper, the longer citations are different. To understand how to do citations for these types of sources correctly, a writer consults a citation style guide. Online citation style guides can be found on university websites, like Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab.

There are several ways that a writer can create citations. Citations can be typed directly in a word-processing application. Alternatively, word-processing applications may include a citation tool that can assist a writer in formatting citations. Stand-alone online citation generators and reference management software can also help a writer create citations. Citation generators include CitationMachine and Opendemia. Reference management software such as Zotero can also create citations. Writers need to check automatically generated citations for accuracy, however. Aspects of citation style, such as capitalization, may not be produced correctly by online citation generators.

How to Make In-Text Citations

In-text citations are parenthetical references that are added to sentences in the body of a paper or essay to let the reader know the source of the information, opinion, or language used in the sentence. In-text citations typically include only 2 or 3 pieces of information, such as the author’s last name, year of publication, and/or page number. This information is sufficient for the reader to locate the corresponding longer citation in the Works Cited page or Reference List.

To understand how in-text citations are created, it is essential to know what style or type of citation is appropriate for the paper. Each discipline has a citation style that is commonly used. The instructions for a paper typically indicate which citation style is appropriate.

Types of Citations

Several different systems are used to format citations. Common systems are MLA, APA, and Chicago style. Each subject or discipline tends to use one of these systems more often than other systems. In all these systems, a parenthetical reference is placed inside a sentence, and the period comes at the end of the sentence.

MLA Format Citations

MLA is the acronym for the Modern Language Association. MLA citation style is used in English and humanities. MLA in-text citations include the author’s last name and the page number from which the information, paraphrase, or quotation was taken.

• The bones of 60 mammoths were excavated from the airport construction site in Mexico (Williams 17).

When the author’s name is mentioned in the sentence, it will not be repeated in the in-text citation:

• As Williams explained, it came as a shock to the construction workers to see the bones (17).

When information is drawn from two different sources written by the same author, a shortened version of the title is added to the in-text citation after the author’s name and before the page number. A comma is inserted before the title.

• The mammoths may have gotten stuck in a muddy lake (Williams, Discovery 41).
• Prehistoric animal remains had previously been located at the construction site of a beach-side resort (Williams, Prehistorical Animals of Mexico 8).

When the author is named earlier in the sentence, the author’s name is omitted from the in-text citation, thus including only the shortened title and page number.

• Williams hypothesized that the mammoths may have gotten stuck in a muddy lake (Discovery 41).

For a source with two or three authors, both their last names are listed, with the word ‘and’ inserted before the last one:

• Archaeologists have made important discoveries in Central America over the last two decades (Martin and Bates 27).
• Martin and Bates predict that more discoveries will be made in Guatemala and Belize (34).

For a source with three or more authors, only the last name of the first author is listed, followed by ‘et al.’ This abbreviation means ‘and others.’

• Humans created traps to catch mammoths 15,000 years ago (Smith et al. 51).
• Smith et al. found traps that were used to catch mammoths 15,000 years ago (51).

When a website or webpage has no author, the in-text citation includes the first item that appears in the Works Cited entry for the source, which will probably be the name of the webpage. A page number is not included (“Recent Discoveries”).

APA Format Citations

APA is the acronym for the American Psychological Association. APA citations are used in psychology, nursing, education, and social sciences. Like MLA citations, APA citations include the author’s last name. Unlike MLA citations, APA citations include the year of publication.

• The bird-like dinosaur had large eyes and excellent hearing, so scientists concluded that it could hunt at night (Robbins, 2021).

Like MLA citations, when the author’s name is mentioned in the sentence, the name is not repeated in the in-text citation:

• As Robbins (2021) reported, the bird-like dinosaur had large eyes and excellent hearing so it could hunt at night.

When language from the source is quoted, a comma is inserted after the year, and the page number is inserted after the abbreviation ‘p.’ If multiple page numbers are cited, the abbreviation ‘pp.’ is used. Note that these abbreviations are not used in MLA style.

• The dinosaur had long legs and a small head and looked like “an unusual chicken” (Robbins, 2021, p. 5).

For a source with two authors, both their last names are listed, and the ampersand symbol is placed before the last one:

• The bones around the eye indicated that the dinosaur could see in the dark (Choiniere & Benson, 2021).

For a source with three or more authors, only the last name of the first author is listed, followed by the abbreviation ‘et al.’

• Their discovery was contested by another research team working in Australia (Lopez et al., 2021).

When a website or webpage has no author, a short version of the title is placed in quotation marks and used in place of the author’s last name (“Mammoth Bones,” 2016).

Chicago Format Citations

The Chicago citation style that uses in-text citations is called the Chicago Author-Date style. This style is commonly used in the sciences. The in-text citation format is the same for books, articles, and electronic sources.

When an entire source is being referenced, the in-text citation includes the author’s last name and the year of publication. In contrast to MLA style, the year is included in the in-text citation. In contrast to APA style, there is no comma between the last name and year.

• The newly discovered dinosaur was a large plant-eating sauropod (Stachel 2021).

Like MLA and APA citations, when the author’s name is mentioned in the sentence, the name is not repeated in the in-text citation:

• As Stachel (2021) reported, the newly discovered dinosaur was a large plant-eating sauropod.

When information is drawn from a specific page or range of pages, the page number or range is included. After the year, a comma is inserted, followed by the page number(s) for the information being cited.

• The bones were identified by scientists as a new species of dinosaurs 17 years after a farmer found them (Stachel 2021, 5).

For a source with two or three authors, the last names of all of them are listed with the word ‘and’ inserted before the last one:

• Hocknull and Mackenzie (2021) discovered a new type of dinosaur in Australia.
• A new type of dinosaur was discovered in Australia (Hocknull and Mackenzie 2021).
• The discovery was contested by another research team working in Australia (Lopez, Johnson and Chen 2021).

For a source with four or more authors, only the last name of the first author is listed, followed by the abbreviation ‘et al.’:

• Their discovery was contested by another research team working in Australia (Lopez et al. 2021).

When a website or webpage has no author, the organization’s name is used in the in-text citation instead of the author’s last name (Google 2016). With Chicago Author-Date style guides, note that this style is different from than Chicago Notes-Bibliography style. Chicago Notes-Bibliography style is used in the humanities and uses footnotes or endnotes instead of in-text citations.

Importance of Using Citations

Citations help readers retrace sources of information, ideas, and language for use in their research and writing.

Citations are essential when writing a paper for several reasons. First, they give credit to the other authors who created and shared the ideas or information used in the paper. Second, citations help a writer avoid plagiarism. To avoid plagiarism, a writer must also use quotation marks around language quoted from the source and make sufficient changes in the language and grammar when paraphrasing a source. Third, citations help readers conduct their research. Citations enable readers to revisit the sources of an author that was used to construct their interpretations and arguments while writing on a similar topic.

Lesson Summary

In-text citations are parenthetical references used in sentences in the body of a paper or essay to let the reader know the source of the information, opinion, or language used in the sentence. Inside parentheses, the author and the year of publication of the source are mentioned, sometimes along with the page number from where the information, opinion, or language was taken. Citations are required when incorporating facts and information obtained from another source, but they are not crucial when mentioning a well-known fact. Citations should be used when directly quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, or referencing someone else’s work.

Several different systems are used to format citations. Common systems are MLA, APA, and Chicago style. MLA in-text citations are author-page citations, while APA and Chicago in-text citations are author-date citations.

In MLA style, when information is drawn from two different sources written by the same author, a shortened version of the title is used in the in-text citation. Citations are essential when writing a paper for several reasons. It enables readers to revisit the sources that the author used to construct their interpretations and arguments.