In-Text Citations

General Components

All in-text citations should include the last name of the author(s) and the date. You may also elect to add a page number, especially for direct quotes.

(Smith 2004)
(Jones 2016, 12)
(Holmes and Watson 1892, chap. 2)

For sources with three or more authors, list only the first author, followed by et al.

(Smith et al. 2015)

Date Differences

Depending on the source, you may need to use n.d. (for no date), forthcoming, or a date with a letter (to differentiate different sources by the same author and date). When citing text generated by ChatGPT or similar generative AI tool, use the date generated.

(Micallef n.d.)
(Smith, forthcoming)
(Smith 2004a)
(ChatGPT, November 11, 2025)

Author Differences

For organizations, use the organization name or abbreviation, based on how you cited the source:

(Modern Language Association 2016, 12)
(CDC 2018)

If you have two authors with the same last name but different first names, include a first initial to differentiate:

(J. Smith 2007)
(M. Smith 2016)

No Page Numbers

If you are using an unpaginated source (such as an eBook or a Web page), you may use other methods to describe where the information is located:

(Smith 2006, para. 2)
(Jones 2000, chap. 4)
(Kellerman 1995, sidebar)

Incorporating In-Text Citations

There are several ways you can incorporate an in-text citation into your paper. Here are some examples for the same type of information:

Undergraduate students often do not consider paraphrasing without citations to be plagiarism (Smith 2010).

Smith (2010) notes that undergraduate students often do not consider paraphrasing without citations to be plagiarism.

According to Smith (2010, 16), "69% of undergraduate students believe that paraphrasing without providing in-text citations is not plagiarism."

Smith's (2010) study shows that undergraduate students often do not consider paraphrasing without citations to be plagiarism.