 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
When typing your paper, you will need to cite your sources in the text. Doing this allows your reader to look up the full citation in the reference list. You will typically cite the information you need immediately after the sentence in which you quote or paraphrase it. If you read through the information on this page and are still not sure how to cite something in your text, feel free to contact the library.
When your source has one author, you would normally type the last name of the author followed by a page number at the end of the sentence, without a comma or "p." before the page number. If a book by John Smith had information you cited on page 155, it would look like this:
Dogs like to bark at strangers (Smith 155).
Another way to cite your source is to put the author's last name in the text itself, and put the page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence containing the citation, like this:
Smith found that dogs like to bark at strangers (155).
If you want to cite two or more different works by the same author, for example a comparison of two poems, you would put a shortened version of the title in the citation, and list the author's name in the text. Italicize book titles and put quotation marks around article titles. When shortening the title, make it as short as possible while still being distinct. If it is possible, shortening the title to one word is best. For example, if you were comparing J.R.R. Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring and Return of the King, you would list it like this:
Tolkien wrote that hobbits were short (Fellowship 20), but that orcs were tall (Return 75).
If your source has two authors, you must type both last names in each citation. Your citations would look like this:
Dogs like to bark at strangers (Smith and Jones 45).
or
Smith and Jones found that dogs like to bark at strangers (45).
If you have more than two authors, the first time you cite them, type the first name followed by "et al." "et al." is a Latin phrase that means there were other authors you left off.
Dogs like to bark at strangers (Smith et al. 45).
or
Smith et al. stated that dogs like to bark at strangers (45).
If you have a source that does not list its author, you would cite the first few words of the citation from the references page. This would usually be the title. Be sure to italicize a book or DVD title, and put parentheses around articles and webpages. Here is what it would look like:
According to The Hobbit (57), dragons like gold.
or
Dragons like gold (Hobbit 57).
When citing webpages, you do not need page numbers. Simply put the author in parentheses.
