In his discussion of Monty Python routines, Crystal notes that the group relished "breaking the normal rules" of language (107).
A noted linguist explains that Monty Python humor often relied on "bizarre linguistic interactions" (Crystal 108).
Note in the following examples where punctuation is placed in relation to the parentheses.
The MLA recommends using the author's name in a signal phrase to introduce the material and citing the page number(s) in parentheses.
Lee claims that his comic-book creation, Thor, was "the first regularly published superhero to speak in a consistently archaic manner" (199).
When you do not mention the author in a signal phrase, include the author's last name before the page number(s) in the parentheses. Use no punctuation between the author's name and the page number(s).
The word Bollywood is sometimes considered an insult because it implies that Indian movies are merely "a derivative of the American film industry" (Chopra 9).
Use all the authors' last names in a signal phrase or in parentheses.
Gortner, Hebrun, and Nicolson maintain that “opinion leaders” influence other people in an organization because they are respected, not because they hold high positions (175).
Use the first author's name and et al. ("and others"), or name all the authors in a signal phrase or in parentheses. Follow the same form for the entry in the list of works cited.
As Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule assert, examining the lives of women expands our understanding of human development (7).
Give the organization's full name or a shortened form of it in a signal phrase or parenthetical reference.
Any study of social welfare involves a close analysis of "the impacts, the benefits, and the costs" of its policies (Social Research Corporation iii).
Use the full title of the work or a shortened version in a signal phrase or parenthetical reference.
"Hype," by one analysis, is "an artifi cially engendered atmosphere of hysteria" ("Today’s Marketplace" 51).
If your list of works cited has more than one work by the same author, give the title of the work you are citing or a shortened version in a signal phrase or parenthetical reference.
Gardner shows readers their own silliness in his description of a "pointless, ridiculous monster, crouched in the shadows, stinking of dead men, murdered children, and martyred cows" (Grendel 2).
Include the author's first and last names in a signal phrase or first initial and last name in a parenthetical reference.
Children will learn to write if they are allowed to choose their own subjects, James Britton asserts, citing the Schools Council study of the 1960s (37-42).
In a parenthetical reference, note the volume number first and then the page number(s), with a colon and one space between them.
Modernist writers prized experimentation and gradually even sought to blur the line between poetry and prose, according to Forster (3: 150).
If you name only one volume of the work in your list of works cited, include only the page number in the parentheses.
Literary works are often available in many different editions. For a prose work, cite the page number(s) from the edition you used followed by a semicolon, and then give other identifying information that will lead readers to the passage in any edition. Indicate the act or scene in a play, or both (37; sc. 1). For a novel, indicate the part or chapter (175; ch. 4).
Dostoyevsky’s character Mitya wonders aloud about the "terrible tragedies realism inflicts on people" (376; bk. 8, ch. 2 ).
For a poem, instead of page numbers cite the part (if there is one) and line(s), separated by a period. If you are citing only line numbers, use the word line(s) in the first reference (lines 33-34).
Whitman speculates, "All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, / And to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier" (6.129-30).
For a verse play, give only the act, scene, and line numbers, separated by periods.
As Macbeth begins, the witches greet Banquo as “Lesser than Macbeth, and greater” (1.3.65 ).
For an essay, short story, or other piece of prose reprinted in an anthology, use the name of the author of the work, not the editor of the anthology, but use the page number(s) from the anthology.
Narratives of captivity play a major role in early writing by women in the United States, as demonstrated by Silko (219).
To cite a sacred text such as the Qur’an or the Bible, give the title of the edition you used, followed by location information, such as the book, chapter, and verse, separated by a period. In your text, spell out the names of books. In parenthetical references, use abbreviations for books with names of five or more letters (Gen. for Genesis).
He ignored the admonition "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (New Oxford Annotated Bible, Prov. 16.18).
Use the abbreviation qtd. in to indicate that you are quoting from someone else’s report of a conversation, interview, letter, or the like.
As Arthur Miller says, "When somebody is destroyed everybody finally contributes to it, but in Willy's case, the end product would be virtually the same" (qtd. in Martin and Meyer 375).
Separate the information with semicolons.
Some economists recommend that employment be redefined to include unpaid domestic labor (Clark 148 ; Nevins 39).
An entry from a reference work — such as an encyclopedia or dictionary — without an author will appear on the works-cited list under the entry’s title. Enclose the title in quotation marks and place it in parentheses. Omit the page number for reference works that arrange entries alphabetically.
The term prion was coined by Stanley B. Prusiner from the words proteinaceous and infectious and a suffix meaning particle ("Prion").
Give enough information in a signal phrase or in parentheses for readers to locate the source in your list of works cited. Many works found online or in electronic databases lack stable page numbers; you will have to omit the page number from the parenthetical citation in such cases. However, if you are citing a work with stable pagination, such as an article as a PDF file, include the page number in parentheses.
As a Slate analysis has noted, "Prominent sports psychologists get praised for their successes and don’t get grief for their failures" (Engber).
The source, an article on a Web site, does not have stable pagination.
According to Whitmarsh, the British military had experimented with using balloons for observation as far back as 1879 (328).
The source, an online PDF of a print article, includes stable page numbers.
If the source includes numbered sections, paragraphs, or screens, include the abbreviation (sec.), paragraph (par.), or screen (scr.) number in parentheses.
Sherman notes that the "immediate, interactive, and on-the-spot" nature of Internet information can make nondigital media seem outdated (sec. 32).
Include the reference in the text without any page numbers.
Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild both criticizes and admires the solitary impulses of its young hero, which end up killing him.
When you include an image in your text, number it and include a parenthetical reference in your text (see Fig. 2). Number figures (photos, drawings, cartoons, maps, graphs, and charts) and tables separately. Each visual should include a caption with the figure or table number and information that allows the reader to find the source on the works-cited page.
This trend is illustrated in a chart distributed by the College Board as part of its 2002 analysis of aggregate SAT data (see Fig. 1).
Soon after this sentence, readers find the figure and caption:
If you include complete source information in the figure caption and do not use the source elsewhere in your writing project, adding the source to your list of works cited is optional.
You can also choose to use just a short descriptive caption that directs readers to the works-cited page for complete citation information about the figure. In such cases, be sure that the caption begins with the words under which the source is alphabetized on the works-cited page. An image that you have personally created might appear with a caption like the following:
Fig. 4. Young woman reading a magazine. Personal photograph by author.