In-text Citations How-To

Read Carefully! Important!! After you have used quoted or paraphrased material from another source, you must cite. You do that by including an in-text citation. Remember: Whether you have used one word or an entire sentence from your source, you MUST cite. Not doing so is plagiarism.

How? In parentheses, at the end of your sentence, add the author name (if there is one). If not, use the title of the article. Follow the author name or title by either the page number (book, magazine, etc.) OR the paragraph number (for an Internet source).

Example: “The goal of this process is not to create cloned human beings, but rather to harvest stem cells that can be used to study human development and to treat disease” (Johnson 4). Notice the author name and page number at the end of the sentence? The punctuation (. ? !) always comes at the end of the entire sentence.

Example: “Many researchers hope that one day stem cells can be used to serve as replacement cells to treat heart disease” (“Fact Sheet” par. 4). So what’s the difference? This time no author name was available, so the title of the article was used. We know it is an online source because page numbers are not listed; paragraph numbers are used instead.

Example of how this should look in your paper: Many people question whether or not cloning is ethical and whether or not it should be legal. This continues to be a huge debate in our country, but many say that the reason to continue this process is “not to create cloned human beings, but rather to harvest stem cells that can be used to study human development and to treat disease” (Johnson 4).

More Examples: “In February [2007], about 1000 protestors marched outside the U.S. Capitol” (Gogoi 1). “Opponents are fighting cloned food for many reasons. One criticism is that the science involved in cloning is so new” (Gogoi 3).

More Examples: “Gallup polls report that over 61% of Americans think it is immoral to clone animals” (Gogoi 4).  Again, note that after the quote in parentheses, the author name and the page number are included. Outside of the parentheses, you should have a period.

Example of how to indent long quotations: Although many view abortion as the “only alternative,” many people view this issue differently: There are no medical circumstances in which a partial-birth abortion is the only safe alternative. We take care of pregnant women who are very sick, and babies who are very sick, and we never perform partial-birth abortions.... There are plenty of alternatives.... This is clearly a procedure no obstetrician needs to do. (“Why Can’t We Love Them Both”)

More Examples: “In these cases the pregnancy may have to be terminated to save the mother’s life. But left alone, both might die. Treatment here is not abortion but premature delivery. This attempts to save both lives” (“Why Can’t We Love Them Both” par. 36).