MLA9 gives you options for in-text citations; Parentetical citations or Parenthetical citations with Footnotes and / or Endnotes.
You can use parenthetical citation after a quote or paraphrase, and before the period at the end of the sentence. Begin with the shortest piece of information that directs to reader to the Reference in your Works Cited List:
You would then include the location within the source:
If there are no numbered divisions, there is no need to include the location in the in-text citation.
If you use a signal phrase, mentioning the author or title (whichever best directs the reader to the reference in your Works Cited List) within your sentence, you only need to note the location in parentheses at the end of the sentence, before the period.
NOTE – There is NO PUNCTUATION between the Author/Title and the location.
Citation in prose (Signal phrase):
Houston refers to the Roman practice of placing dots between words as being a “brief dalliance” (162).
Parenthetical citation:
“Roman writing had never much cared to separate words” (Houston 162).
Reference in the Works Cited List:
Houston, Keith. The Book : A Cover-To-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of our time. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016. p 162.
Citation in prose (signal phrase):
Symonds and Havens claim that “The history of books has its roots in bibliography and librarianship…” among other things.
Parenthetical citation:
There is some discussion that the history of books is a “new subject” (Symonds and Havens).
Reference in the Works Cited List:
Symonds, Matthew, and Earl Havens. “What is the History of Books?” archeologyofbooks.org, 2016, Accessed 29 Nov. 2021. archaeologyofreading.org/historiography/
Footnotes or endnotes can be used to direct the reader to additional sources or add extra information or comments that would interrupt the flow of your text. Footnotes and Endnotes DO NOT replace parenthetical in-text citations! Full references are still found in the Works Cited List at the end of your essay. Purposes for using Footnotes and Endnotes include:
If necessary, more than one note can be placed in a sentence. Place the note in the “least distracting unambiguous spot” (MLA Handbook 291), ² always after a punctuation mark, except for dashes, where the superscript number comes before the dash. ³
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1 See MLA Handbook 287; (“MLA Endnotes and Footnotes / Purdue Writing Lab”) and McCombes.
2 Notes can be made for sentences that already contain an in-text citation.
3 Discussion on this point can be found in multiple sources including MLA Handbook, McCombes and Purdue
McCombes, Shona. “MLA Footnotes and Endnotes.” Scribbr, 23 Aug. 2019, Accessed 16 Dec, 2021, www.scribbr.com/mla/footnotes-and-endnotes/.
MLA Handbook. The Modern Language Association Of America, 2021, pp. 287–91.
Purdue Writing Lab. “MLA Endnotes and Footnotes // Purdue Writing Lab.” Purdue Writing Lab, 2018, Accessed 21 Mar. 2022, owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_endnotes_and_footnotes.html.
Fig 2. Streefkerk, Raimo, and Jack Caulfield. “MLA Format for Tables.” Scribbr, 29 July 2021, Accessed 17 May 2022, www.scribbr.com/mla/formatting/.
Fig 1. Chen Rong
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Chen Rong, et al. Nine Dragons. https://jstor.org/stable/community.15623280. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;Boston, Massachusetts, USA;Francis Gardner Curtis Fund;17.1697;http://www.mfa.org/. Accessed 17 May 2022.
When using images, graphs, and tables to illustrate your argument, you still need to cite and reference each item. Place the illustrations as close as possible to the relevant parts of your text and then refer to the captions below each image or graph, or above each table. Do not include illustrations that you do not refer to in your text.
Captions begin with the Figure Number (Fig. 1), then provide enough detail to refer the reader to a Works Cited list entry (e.g. the title or description, whichever is first in your Works Cited List). Your in-text citation would then include; (Author’s Surname, Figure number).
If you are the creator or author of the item, you do not need to include your name – it is assumed that you created the item unless otherwise indicated.
When creating captions for images or graphs, you have 2 options.
1. After the Figure number, include only enough information to refer the reader to your Works Cited List (Author or Title / Description).
2. Include the full bibliographic information as part of the caption. Use this method if you are not including a Works Cited List at the end of your work. For example, if you do not include a Works Cited List at the end of a Slide Presentation.
Tables are labeled Table, assigned a number and then on the next line, given a capitalized title above the Table.
Captions and notes are then placed below the table. The caption would include enough bibliographic information to indicate where the table's information came from. Any notes can be used to give more information about the source(s) of the information and are denoted using lowercase letters and indentation. Use dividing lines as needed to differentiate between the table information and your text.