JESSICA LIU: Are you supposed to cite your sources in MLA style? Then you need to keep watching. In this video, you'll learn what to include in an MLA in-text citation, where to place in a sentence, and how to deal with missing information. Hi, I'm Jessica from Scribbr. Here to help you achieve your academic goals. 

An in-text citation is a concise way to identify the source of certain information. You should include an in-text citation every time you paraphrase or quote from a source. It helps the readers to locate the corresponding entry in the reference list at the end of your paper. The in-text citation consists of the author's last name and the page number-- yep, easy as that. 

Now, you can integrate your in-text citation in a sentence using a parenthetical or narrative citation. Place a parenthetical citation directly after the relevant quote or paraphrase and before the period or other punctuation mark. If you've already named the author in the sentence, add only the page number in parentheses, like this. This is called a narrative citation. 

Now, if a sentence is supported by more than one source, you can combine the citations in a single set of parentheses. Separate the two sources with a semicolon. By the way, you can generate your in-text citations and works cited lists super easily with Scribbr's free MLA citation generator. Just click, and it's copied. 

But what if there's more than one author? 

Good question right there. If a source has two authors, name both. If a source has more than two authors, name only the first author, followed by et al., which means "and others." 

This one doesn't have an author. What do I do? 

If the author's unknown, the in-text citation must match the first element of the works cited entry. This may be the name of an organization or a shortened version of the title. If the title is longer than four words, shorten the title to the first word or phrase. Now, depending on the type of source, if it's a self-contained work-- for example, a whole website or an entire book-- put the titles in italics. If the source is contained within a larger whole-- for example, a page on a website or a chapter of a book-- put the title in quotation marks. 

There's no page number on this one. 

If a source does not have page numbers but is divided into number parts-- for example chapters, scenes, or times-- use these numbers to locate the relevant passage. If the source does not use any numbering system, include only the author's name in the in-text citation. Don't include paragraph numbers unless they're explicitly numbered in the source. 

Let's take a look at some exceptions. If you cite more than one work by the same author, add a shortened title to signal which source you're referring to. In this example, the first source is a whole book, so the title appears in italics. The second is an article published in a journal, so the title appears in quotation marks. To distinguish between different authors with the same last name, use the author's initials or, if the initials are the same, full first names in your in-text citations. 

Sometimes you might want to say something that you found quoted in a secondary source. If possible, always seek out the original source and cite it directly. If you can't access the original source, make sure to name both the original author and the author of the source that you accessed. Use the abbreviation qtd dot in, which is short for "quoted in," to indicate where you found a quotation. 

[INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC] 

Now go on and cite your sources, either manually or with help from Scribbr's citation generator. Before you do that, make sure to drop a like and subscribe for more academic content. I'll see you in the next one. 

[INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC]