MLA has certain expectations when you are using citations within your essay. An “in-text” citation is when you quote from a piece of writing other than your own. At the end of the quoted words, you must make a citation telling the reader whose words those actually are. You should use a set of parentheses at the end of the quoted words, before the end punctuation of the sentence. Inside the parentheses, you type the last name of the author whose words you have quoted and then the page number on which those words were found. It might look like this: (Hemingway 211)
At the end of your paper, you should create an extra page called a Works Cited page. Type Works Cited at the top and then list all the books or periodicals or online sources from which you have drawn information for your paper. The authors of those written words will be listed first, and then title of the written source and its publishing information. A works cited entry might look like this:
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Random House, 1987.
Sometimes you use only one book as a resource for your essay – usually if you are writing a literary analysis of a particular piece of literature. When there is only one book on your Works Cited list and all your “in-text” citations come from that one book, you need only put the page number in parentheses. (43) The reader will know that that page number comes from the only book on the Works Cited Page.
It is important to credit other writers when you use their words or their research in your writing. Use the correct MLA citation rules to make your writing looked polished and professional.