MLA In-Text Citations (URGENT)

[Destroyer2000]

I'm trying to figure out how to cite a website from inside the text. I'm using Wikipedia, and I want to cite it within the text, but I don't know how. Any advice? I don't have the MLA Handbook, so yeah...it's aprpeciated, thank ye.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Parenthetical citations are simply there so the reader knows where to look in your Works Cited page for where your source came from.

If your work's cited page has "Smith, Robert. The guide to blah blah blah. Blah blah press. Page 63", then your parenthetical citation would go as follows

"Blah blah blah blah this is how you blah blah" (Smith 63).

Note that A. The period is AFTER the closing parenthesis, B. It's NOT in the quotations, C. There is no comma between "Smith" and "63". You will be marked down if you make an error. Since Smith is the first word found in your Works Cited page for that source, Smith is what will be used for your parenthetical citation.

If you have no page, then you simply don't add a page number.

I don't know how Wikipedia would be properly cited, but whatever is supposed to be first is what's to be parenthetically cited.

[Radical Dreamer]

Parenthetical citations are simply there so the reader knows where to look in your Works Cited page for where your source came from.

If your work's cited page has "Smith, Robert. The guide to blah blah blah. Blah blah press. Page 63", then your parenthetical citation would go as follows

"Blah blah blah blah this is how you blah blah" (Smith 63).

Note that A. The period is AFTER the closing parenthesis, B. It's NOT in the quotations, C. There is no comma between "Smith" and "63". You will be marked down if you make an error. Since Smith is the first word found in your Works Cited page for that source, Smith is what will be used for your parenthetical citation.

If you have no page, then you simply don't add a page number.

I don't know how Wikipedia would be properly cited, but whatever is supposed to be first is what's to be parenthetically cited.

QFT. Although, using a Wikipedia page (which, for future reference, is generally not the most reliable of reliable sources) counts as an internet source, and you sometimes don't need page numbers for those. I'd have to look it up in my MLA citation manual to be sure, but you'll probably want to use (Smith para. 4) instead of (Smith 63), "para." meaning "paragraph."

[Mr. SmartyPants]

For extra reference, I'll post excerpts from one of my papers for class.

Do note that you shouldn't just cite things that are in quotation marks. If you took somebody else's idea, but rephrased it so that it isn't a direct quote, you should still cite it.

If you are going to quote a bunch of sentences (Like a whole paragraph), a box quote is recommended. When you do so, you don't need quotation marks, but you do need to single space it and double-indent it.

Their origin stems from a virus known as Solanum, a latin word used by Jan Vanderhaven who first “discovered” the disease. The virus Solanum works by traveling through the bloodstream, from the initial point of entry to the brain... all bodily functions cease. By stopping the heart, the infected subject is rendered “dead”. The brain, however, remains alive but dormant, while the virus mutates its cells into a completely new organ... this new organism is a zombie, a member of the living dead (Brooks 2).

-Box quotes have the period before the opening parenthesis!

According to the Zombie Survival guide, there are a number of choices when it comes to firearms. It states that “you will not find a better weapon than the semiautomatic rifle” (Brooks 47). One of the best choices of this would be the M1 Carbine. The Modern Firearms website details the M1 Carbine as such: “In general, M1 Carbine was a really compact and handy weapon. It was lightweight and short enough to be more suitable for jungle combat, than a full-size battle rifles such as M1 Garand. It also offered relatively high practical rate of fire due to large-capacity, detachable magazines and low recoil” (Popenker).

-The Popenker citation does not have a page number because the source does not have page numbers. (The indents will not show up on CAA, by the way)

Works Cited Page

Brooks, Max. The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead. New
York: Three Rivers Press, 2003.

Popenker, Maxim. “M1 Carbine (USA)” Modern Firearms & Ammunition Site. 21 April 2008

<http://world.guns.ru/rifle/rfl08-e.htm>.

Wilson, Tracy V. "How Zombies Work." 28 October 2005. HowStuffWorks.com. 21 April

2008. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/zombie.htm>.

First off, it is vital that one barricades all entrances of a shelter. While it may be costly, lives hang in balance. A ten-foot chain-link fence, steel-barred windows, and barred doors are highly recommended as methods of protection (Brooks 66).

-No quotation marks used! However, I still used Brooks' idea, so I have to still credit him.

Hope it helps.

[QtheQreater]

QFT. Although, using a Wikipedia page (which, for future reference, is generally not the most reliable of reliable sources) counts as an internet source, and you sometimes don't need page numbers for those. I'd have to look it up in my MLA citation manual to be sure, but you'll probably want to use (Smith para. 4) instead of (Smith 63), "para." meaning "paragraph."

Quick note: it's "par." not "para." for paragraph (and "pars." for multiple paragraphs, if necessary). At least, that's how I've seen it.

[Warrior4Christ]

I thought it was the author's last name and year of publication in brackets (Smith 2003)... But maybe that's a different style.

[ich1990]

For MLA, you format it just like MSP said. However, because indents don't show up here on CAA, I would like to point out that, on your works cited page, for any citation that is more than one line long, all lines of that cite need to be indented except for the first one. For instance:

(First line is not indented.)

or

(First line is not indented.)
(Second line is indented.)

or

(First line is not indented.)
(Second line is indented.)
(Third line is indented.)
etc.