Introduction to an In-Text Citation
Select each tab in the box below to:
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Learn how to quote a source directly.
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Learn how to paraphrase, or put something in your own words.
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Learn the proper way to cite a source in-text.
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Learn about "common knowledge", and when you need to cite basic information.
Most of the examples on this page are formatted in APA style. These are meant to be examples of the general concepts, but you should check the style guide for your required citation format to make sure you've got everything right. You can find more information about different styles on the Style Guides page.
Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Citing
Use quotation marks (" ") to indicate when words are not your own.
Direct quotations are used to:
- Indicate to the reader which words are yours and which come from you source.
- Tell the reader where the quote comes from.
Here are some examples
We'll use this sentence from Paul Krugman's April 5, 2010 New York Times Magazine article, "Climate Change - Building a Green Economy":
But while the direct regulation of activities that cause pollution makes sense in some cases, it is seriously defective in others. because it does not offer any scope for flexibility and creativity. Consider the biggest environmental issue of the 1980s - acid rain.
A quote with no citation
Here there are quotation marks, but the writer forgot to mention where the quote came from.
"But while the direct regulation of activities that cause pollution makes sense in some cases, it is seriously defective in others, because it does not offer any scope for flexibility and creativity."
A citation with no quotation marks
Here there is a citation, but there are no quotation marks to indicate that these are Krugman's own words. This looks like paraphrasing, but it's not.
But while the direct regulation of activities that cause pollution makes sense in some cases, it is seriously defective in others, because it does not offer any scope for flexibility and creativity (Krugman, 2010, para. 9).
Here's how the citation should look
You need to have both quotation marks
"But while the direct regulation of activities that cause pollution makes sense in some cases, it is seriously defective in others, because it does not offer any scope for flexibility and creativity" (Krugman, 2010, para. 9).
Notice the use of quotation marks to set off Krugman's text, and the parenthetical note at the end.
What about longer quotes?
If you're quoting a long passage of more than three or four lines (not usually recommended, but occasionally necessary and effective), use an indented block quote. Here you omit the quotation marks ― the indentation serves to tell the reader the words are not your own.
Unfortunately, Paul Krugman (2010) has argued, one-size-fits-all regulations are not always effective.
Consider the biggest environmental issue of the 1980s ― acid rain. Emissions of sulfur dioxide from power plants, it turned out, tend to combine with water downwind and produce flora-and wildlife-destroying sulfuric acid. . . . Imposing a tough standard on all plants was problematic, because retrofitting some older plants would have been extremely expensive. By regulating only new plants, however, the government passed up the opportunity to achieve fairly cheap pollution control at plants that were, in fact, easy to retrofit. (para. 9)
Additionally, note the use of the ellipsis (. . .), which indicates that part of the original text has been removed. Long quotes should be used sparingly, and anything you can do to shorten them is good. This example also shows a
Paraphrasing is restating, in your own words, the important ideas or information from a source.
Paraphrasing is not just changing the words a bit so you don't have to worry about citing.
The best way to reduce the number of quotes you use is to take the author's words and rewrite them in your own words, using a shorter, more concise form. This is the art of paraphrasing.
Let's see how best to paraphrase this quote from Krugman's article:
But while the direct regulation of activities that cause pollution makes sense in some cases, it is seriously defective in others. because it does not offer any scope for flexibility and creativity. Consider the biggest environmental issue of the 1980s - acid rain.
Examples of Paraphrasing: the Good and the Bad
A Bad Paraphrase
Here is an example of an attempt at paraphrasing that simply exchanges words for new ones, while leaving the basic structure and intent of the sentence intact.
Though sometimes the active policing of pollution-causing behavior is sensible, at other times it is badly flawed, since there is no capacity for change or originality.
Despite the changes, it's still the same sentence. Putting something into "your own words" means rewriting the material into a new and different form.
You have to actually
A Good Paraphrase
This second example conveys the spirit of the original text, but with original wording. This is proper paraphrasing.
Unfortunately, one-size-fits-all pollution regulations that cannot accommodate unique situations or new developments may not be very effective (Krugman, 2010, para. 9).
Keep in mind that you still need to cite your source when paraphrasing, just as you do when using a direct quote.
The words in this last example are no longer Krugman's. The
Style, sentence structure, and ideas matter just as much as words.
Combining Quotes and Paraphrasing
Finally, you can also combine a paraphrase with a direct quote if you wish to capture some of the original text while putting the rest into your own words.
Unfortunately, one-size-fits-all pollution regulations that “[do] not offer any scope for flexibility and creativity” may not be very effective (Krugman, 2010, para. 9).
Use this technique only if there are specific words in the original text that you feel
Citing is More than a Name
This not the right way to quote someone.
Here's a bad example of a citation. The author's name is included, but no other identifying information that tells the reader where this information came from.
Krugman states, "But while the direct regulation of activities that cause pollution makes sense in some cases, it is seriously defective in others, because it does not offer any scope for flexibility and creativity."
In-text Citations
Whether you're quoting or paraphrasing, always include a reference indicating the source you used.
Proper citation formats differ between the various style guides, but (with some exceptions) you'll usually need to include:
- The author's name
- The date of publication
- The page number (or paragraph number if no page numbers are available)
You will need to check with each style guide for the exact formatting required, but here are a couple of examples from the most common styles.
APA Example
This is a successful in-text citation for a paraphrase done in APA style:
Unfortunately, one-size-fits-all pollution regulations that cannot accommodate unique situations or new developments may not be very effective (Krugman, 2010, para. 9).
Chicago Example
MLA will look very similar to APA, but Chicago uses a completely different method: footnotes.
Unfortunately, one-size-fits-all pollution regulations that cannot accommodate unique situations or new developments may not be very effective.1
1 Paul Krugman, "Building a Green Economy,"
The New York Times Magazine , April 5 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/magazine/11Economy-t.html.
Here, each citation gets a number that refers to a note either at the bottom of the page (footnotes) or at the end of the paper (endnotes).
Notice that the Chicago format requires more information in the citation than APA.
The Bibliography
In addition to the in-text citations covered above, whatever style you use, you will need to include a full citation of every source in the list of sources that you include at the end of your paper.
The various style guides have different names for this list:
- "Works Cited" in APA
- "Bibliography" in Chicago
- "Reference List" in MLA
Each style has different rules about what is included and how it should be formatted. The basic concept is the same in each, and each full citation will contain:
- Author: Who created the work? (It can be an individual or a group author.)
- Date: When was the work published?
- Title: What is the name of the work?
- Source: What information is needed to retrieve the work?
Check with your professor or the individual style guides to see how it should be done.
What about Common Knowledge?
Students often wonder,
- Do I really need to go find an atlas to cite if I'm just pointing out that "Madrid is the capital of Spain?"
- Or cite a particular edition of the Periodic Table when I refer to Na as the chemical name for Sodium?
- What if I want to mention the fact that Barack Obama was the 44th President of the United States?
Some facts are so basic that you don't need to cite them - this is called Common Knowledge, and it can be applied to anything that can reasonably be assumed that you (and your reader) know already.
How do I know what is Common Knowledge?
Most Americans (should) know who the current President is, but they might not know who the First Lady is, and almost certainly won't know who sits on The Cabinet. If your paper is intended for a foreign audience, they may not have the same body of general knowledge.
Unfortunately, it can be hard to tell when something is common knowledge or not. So you may want to err of the side of caution and cite a source anyway.
Common Knowledge applies to technical terms and academic jargon.
Take this passage from Krugman's article, for example:
...the right way to curb an activity, in most cases, is to put a price on it. So Pigou proposed that people who generate negative externalities should have to pay a fee reflecting the costs they impose on others - what has come to be known as a Pigovian tax. The simplest version of a Pigovian tax is an effluent fee: anyone who dumps pollutants into a river, or emits them into the air, must pay a sum proportional to the amount dumped.
If you decide to paraphrase this bit in your paper about pollution policy, you can use the words "Pigovian tax" without needing to put quotes around it since it is a standard term in Economics. Krugman didn't invent those words or idea, nor the term "negative externalities".
You still need to cite it though, as you do any time you paraphrase something from a source, because you are sharing his ideas.
An example of citing Common Knowledge
The concept of cap and trade, as an attempt to compensate for the negative externalities produced by pollution, is in some ways simply a new incarnation of the Pigovian tax (Krugman, 2010, paras. 9-12).