Creating Creating Internal Internal CitationsCitations

Creating Creating Internal Internal CitationsCitations

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What is an internal citation?

The MLA system of citing sources within your paper. Internal citations are always in parentheses. This gives credit to the original author and avoids plagiarism.

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A work by a single author would look like this in your paper:

Fairy tales reflect the emotions and fears of children (Smith 23).

OR

Smith states that “fairy tales reflect the emotions and fears of children” (23).

You put the author’s last name and page number after the information you used from the book.

The end punctuation ALWAYS comes after the final parenthesis.

Text from a book to be cited

A work by Two Authors• You will include

both authors’ last names in the parentheses, as well as the page number where the information starts.

• For example:The historian’s job

is to search for clues and solve mysteries (Davidson and Lytle 6).

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A book by Three Authors

• You will put each author’s last name in the order it is listed followed by the page number.

• For example:Psychology began a

new phase of inquiry (Cowen, Barbo, and Crum 31).

• This internal citation DOES include commas inside the parentheses!

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A book by more than Three Authors

• List only the first author, followed by et al. (This means “and others”).

• For example:The European

government believed it could change their views (Bower et al. 395).

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Information from a Website

• If an author is listed, you will use their last name.

• If no author is listed, you will use the first 2-3 words of the site name in quotation marks.

• For example:Due to the fact that

utilizing solar energy is not cost effective, many researchers are looking for new ways to preserve energy (“Solar Power”).

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Works Cited Page• A works cited page is a list of

sources that you referenced in your paper.

• A works cited page only contains sources used (internally cited) within your essay.

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Format• Works Cited written in top center• Double spaced – 12 font• Sources are alphabetized – alphabetize by

site name if no author is listed• 2nd line of source is indented• Site name is italicized• Dates are written day/month/year.

- For example: 11 July 2012

Books• Author (last name, first name). Title of the book. City

where book is published: Publisher. Copyright date. Format.

• All of this information is usually found in the first few pages of a book. The copyright date will have a © next to it. Use the most recent year listed.

• Some books will just say published in the USA, and that is what you will put for the city.

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Website• Example:Smith, John. Energy Quest. 11 June 2012. Web. 3 January 2012.

In your paper, your citation would be: • “The world is facing an energy crisis” (Smith).  If there was no author for the website, it would look like this:

• “The world is facing an energy crisis” (“Energy Quest”).