Why use in-text citations? Isn’t Works Cited enough?

The in-text citation gives your audience (the reader) a trail that shows where you found the information in each paragraph.

In-text Citation Formula

(author’s last name + page number)

Paraphrase from My Paper:Genres may change at any given moment as new ones

are created by blending elements from other genres. An

author must carefully decide when and how to blend the

literary elements in a specific genre. In mysteries, for

example, an author will generally use suspense

throughout the novel. Suspense is a technique that

makes this type of genre a mystery (Roberts 75).

in-text citation

Here’s the trail …

The information at the end of the paragraph (Roberts 75) provides a trail between the information and the Works Cited. Make the citation with the author’s last name and page number, if known. Add parenthesis and a period.

What if the source doesn’t have a page number?

Then don’t list a page number!

What if the author is not known …

Go back to the trail. Look at the Works Cited. What information can you give about the source? Try a shortened title.

Paraphrase from My Paper:Life’s experiences may help an author to script a story

within a specific genre. Mystery author, Leslie Caine,

used her personal life experience to launch into the world

of mystery writing. While working in a restaurant in

Boston, Caine was held as a hostage for twelve hours.

In addition to her career in journalism, this experience

added to her ability to add suspense to her mystery

writing (“Writing Via Interior Design.”).

in-text citation for a source without an author

Does the trail changewhen I use a signal phrase or a direct quote?

Signal Phrase:

According to Gillian Roberts, author of books about writing mysteries, the structure of the story is particularly important, as well as developing the plot through false leads and red herrings. Mystery authors build their stories using characters, and need to create a history for their characters within the plot (48).

author’sname

page number

For Direct Quotes:

Gillian Roberts, author of books about writing mysteries, states, “A character can do anything that you like if he or has reason and the reason comes out of his story” (48).

author’sname

page number

Use“ “

marks.

summarize (unless the info is common knowledge)

paraphrase

directly quote

When should you use in-text citations?

Remember the trail:

In-text citation

Works Cited

Exact Source

Lets Try

http://history-world.org/Industrial%20Intro.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/watt_james.shtml

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/