In-Text Citation: The Basics
For a Handy Take Home Page Click Here (2 pages. Please Double Side)
When you are creating a project, writting an essay or research paper you must stated IN YOUR TEXT, where you got your information from.
Citation can be used in two ways:
- in-text (parenthetical reference)
- footnotes or end notes
Here at SCHS we prefer using In-text citation. It is easier to format and quickly informs the reader of the source material.
In-Text Citation has direct connection to your Works Cited Page.
Whatever is listed FIRST in your Works Cited entry is placed in brackets in your text.
Works Cited:
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Bantam Books, 1996.
In-Text:
(Dickens 5)
Works Cited:
Focus on the Family. Raising Teenagers in the 21st Century. Dallas: Chapel Hill Press
In-Text
(Focus 75)
Works Cited:
"Media Giants". A History of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Hamilton: Simon and Schuster; 2004.
In-Text:
(“Media” 3)
Works Cited:
Holy Bible. New Living Translation. Wheaton: Tyndale, 1996.
In-Text:
(Romans 5:12)
How to set up in-text citations
1. Author named in the text
Christine Haughney reports that shortly after Japan made it illegal to use a handheld phone while driving, "accidents caused by using the phones dropped by 75 percent" (8).
2. Author named in parentheses
Most provinces do not keep adequate records on the number of times cell phones are a factor in accidents; as of December 2000, only three provinces were trying to keep such records (Sundeen 2).
3. Author unknown
As of 2001, at least three hundred towns and municipalities had considered legislation regulating use of cell phones while driving ("Lawmakers" 2).
4. Page number unknown
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police opposes restrictions on the use of phones while driving, claiming that distracted drivers can already be prosecuted (Jacobs).
5. Indirect source (source quoted in another source)
According to Richard Retting, "As the comforts of home and the efficiency of the office creep into the automobile, it is becoming increasingly attractive as a work space" (qtd. in Kilgannon A23).
6. Encyclopaedia or dictionary
Common dictionaries DO NOT need to listed in your Works Cited Page but they need to be mentioned in your text.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines peanut as ; "a pea-shaped mut that ripens underground".
The word crocodile has a surprisingly complex etymology ("Crocodile").
7. Verse plays and poems
In his famous advice to players, Shakespeare's Hamlet defines the purpose of theatre, "whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature" (3.2.21-23).
When Homer's Odysseus comes to the hall of Circe, he finds his men "mild / in her soft spell, fed on her drug of evil" (10.209-11).
For poems that are not divided into parts, use line numbers. For a first reference, use the word "lines": (lines 5-8). Thereafter use just the numbers: (12-13).
8. Bible
When citing the Bible, name the edition you are using in your works cited entry. In your parenthetical citation, give the chapter, and verse, separated by a colon. Common abbreviations for books of the Bible are acceptable.
Consider the words of Solomon: "If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them water to drink" (Prov. 25:21).
If you use more than one translation in your paper, cite the translation the first time you use it and then not again untill you change.
Consider the words of Solomon: "If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them water to drink" (NKJV Prov. 25:21).
We are also told that is doing so we will 'heap burnging coals' on thier heads (Prov 25:22).
Consider the words of Solomon: "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink" ( NIV Prov. 25:21)
