An MLA in text citation is a short note in the body of your paper that points readers to the matching entry on your Works Cited page. In MLA 9th edition, the standard form is simple: the author’s last name and the page number, with no comma and no year between them, like (Smith 42). That compact format trips up a lot of students who are used to other styles, so this guide walks through every common situation, from one author to corporate authors, sources with no page numbers, and indirect quotations.
How MLA Parenthetical Citations Work
MLA uses an author-page system. Inside the parentheses you put the author’s surname followed by the page number where the information appears. There is no comma separating them, and you never include the publication year (that detail lives only in the Works Cited entry). This is the single biggest difference between MLA and the year-based APA in-text citation format, so if you are switching between classes, watch for it.
Every parenthetical citation has a partner entry on the MLA Works Cited page. The first word of the Works Cited entry (usually the author’s last name) must match the word you place in your in-text citation, so a reader can move from the text to the alphabetized list and find the full source instantly. If you want the citation generated for you, the MLA citation generator builds both halves at once.
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Penguin Books, 2006.
In-text: (Tan 112).
Narrative vs. Parenthetical
You can name the author in your sentence (narrative) or put everything in parentheses (parenthetical). When the author’s name appears in your sentence, leave it out of the parentheses and cite only the page number. For a deeper look at when to use each, see our guide on parenthetical vs. narrative citations.
Narrative: According to Tan, the mothers struggle to translate their hopes into English (112).
Parenthetical: The mothers struggle to translate their hopes into English (Tan 112).
One, Two, and Three or More Authors
The number of authors changes what goes inside the parentheses. For a single author, use the last name and page. For two authors, join both surnames with “and.” For three or more authors, list only the first author’s surname followed by “et al.” (Latin for “and others”). If the abbreviation is new to you, read what does et al. mean for the full breakdown.
Garcia, Lucia, and Daniel Okoro. Reading the Modern City. Riverbend Press, 2021.
In-text: (Garcia and Okoro 58).
Patel, Riya, et al. Coastlines under Pressure. Harbor Academic, 2020.
In-text: (Patel et al. 73).
Note that “et al.” takes a period after “al” because it is an abbreviation, but it is not italicized. For step-by-step help with author counts, see how to cite multiple authors.
No Author: Use a Shortened Title
When a source has no named author, MLA tells you to use a shortened version of the title in place of the name. Match the first words of the Works Cited entry so the reader can find it, and keep the formatting the title would have in the list: italics for a standalone work like a book or website, quotation marks for a part of a larger work like an article or web page. Our guide on how to cite a source with no author covers the edge cases.
“Urban Heat and Public Health.” City Climate Watch, 14 Mar. 2022, example.org/urban-heat.
In-text: (“Urban Heat” par. 4).
No Page Numbers: Web Sources and More
Many digital sources have no page numbers. In that case, cite the author’s name alone in the parentheses, or in your sentence, and add nothing else. Do not count screens or invent page numbers. If the source uses stable numbered paragraphs, sections, or chapters, you may cite those (for example, “par. 7” or “ch. 3”), but only when the numbering is built into the source itself. When you cite a website, the how to cite a website guide shows the matching Works Cited entry.
Nguyen, Hannah. “Why Cities Are Planting More Trees.” Green Futures, 9 June 2023, example.com/city-trees.
In-text: (Nguyen).
Corporate Authors and Government Sources
When an organization, agency, or company is the author, use the group’s name in place of a personal name. You can shorten a long organization name to the first noun phrase after the first full mention, and government bodies are usually cited by the smallest practical division. For agency publications, see how to cite a government website.
World Health Organization. Air Quality and Health. WHO Press, 2021.
In-text: (World Health Organization 12).
Multiple Works and the Same Last Name
If you cite two works by the same author, add a shortened title to tell them apart: (Tan, Joy Luck 112) and (Tan, “Mother Tongue” 7). If two different authors share a surname, add their first initials: (A. Smith 14) versus (J. Smith 60). When you reference more than one source for a single point, separate them with a semicolon: (Garcia and Okoro 58; Patel et al. 73).
Indirect Sources: “qtd. in”
When you quote someone who was quoted in another source (a quotation within a quotation), MLA wants you to cite the source you actually read using “qtd. in” (quoted in). List the source you read on your Works Cited page, not the original speaker. Whenever possible, track down and cite the original, but “qtd. in” is the correct fallback. For more, read how to cite a secondary source and our overview of primary vs. secondary sources.
Mensah, Akua. Voices of the Delta. Riverbend Press, 2019.
In-text: (qtd. in Mensah 90).
Block Quotes
In MLA, set off a quotation longer than four lines as a block quote: start it on a new line, indent the whole quotation half an inch from the left margin, and do not add quotation marks. With a block quote, the period comes before the parenthetical citation, not after it (the opposite of an inline quote). See how to format a block quote for spacing details, and how to cite a quote for shorter quotations.
Example ending of a block quote: . . . and the river kept its slow course through the valley. (Garcia and Okoro 58)
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Adding a comma between author and page: write (Smith 42), not (Smith, 42).
- Including the year, which belongs to APA, not MLA.
- Writing “p.” or “pg.” before the number. MLA uses the bare number: (Smith 42).
- Inventing page numbers for websites. If there are none, cite the author alone.
- Forgetting “et al.” for three or more authors, or adding it for only two.
- Using the original speaker’s name instead of “qtd. in” for indirect sources.
Tie It Back to Works Cited
Every in-text citation needs a matching Works Cited entry, and every Works Cited entry should be pointed to at least once in your text. If you are still learning the basics of the style, the MLA format guide and our broader in-text citations overview connect the pieces. For a side-by-side comparison, see APA vs. MLA. Master the (Author page) pattern, keep your two halves in sync, and let the MLA citation generator handle the formatting so you can focus on your argument.