Advanced Citation

Are you an expert on basic MLA Citation? If so, keep reading!

If you have all of the basics down for MLA format, consider utilizing more academic citation techniques. College level and graduate level writing utilizes the same MLA citation format that you just learned in previous pages with some additional rules to help make writing more clear and with less disruptions to the flow of the essay. That said, even though the ultimate goal is to streamline your writing, the additional guidelines can still be a bit complex. Thus, I only recommend beginning to utilize the following strategies once you are very comfortable with the basic MLA guidelines covered on the other pages.

Don’t worry if feel like you’re not ready to use more advanced techniques yet! You’ll have plenty of opportunities to continue to use MLA format and each time you practice it you’ll be one step closer to becoming an expert!

A signal phrase is a part of a sentence (often the introductory clause) that comes before a quote or paraphrase. In these phrases, we often introduce the title or author of a work to give context: this is called a “citation in prose” according to the MLA Handbook.

Essentially, this is when you directly refer back to the work you are quoting or paraphrasing within your sentence. Consider the following example:

According to “I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee” by Charles J. Shields, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird had a neighbor Alfred “Son” Boleware who lived in home with a “raggedy yard” with “tangled pecan trees” isolated from the world, much like Boo Radley (Shields 23).

In this example, it is somewhat repetitive to state the name of the author in the citation after we clearly stated the name of the author and text in the signal phrase in the beginning of the sentence. According to MLA, in this case, we could either:

  • Remove the mention of the author’s name from the signal phrase

  • Remove the author’s last name in the in-text citation

Edit 1: According to “I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee”, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird had a neighbor Alfred “Son” Boleware who lived in a home with “raggedy yard” with “tangled pecan trees” isolated from the world, much like Boo Radley (Shields 23).

Edit 2: According to “I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee” by Charles J. Shields, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird had a neighbor Alfred “Son” Boleware who lived in home with a “raggedy yard” with “tangled pecan trees” isolated from the world, much like Boo Radley (23).

Consider another example:

You are citing a work or webpage that has no author credited or page numbers, so your in-text citation contains the article title.

The “National Arts Education Public Awareness Campaign” states that students who participate in arts programs for at least three hours a week are four times as likely to be “recognized for academic achievement” and three times as likely to “be elected to class office” (“National Arts Education Public Awareness Campaign”).

Clearly, this is quite repetitive and, as such, a lot of unnecessary space is wasted in our essay restating the title. Thus, we should opt to either cite our article in the in-text citation or “in prose” in our signal phrase.

Edit 1: Students who participate in arts programs for at least three hours a week are four times as likely to be “recognized for academic achievement” and three times as likely to “be elected to class office” (“National Arts Education Public Awareness Campaign”).

Edit 2: The “National Arts Education Public Awareness Campaign” states that students who participate in arts programs for at least three hours a week are four times as likely to be “recognized for academic achievement” and three times as likely to “be elected to class office.”

Notice how, in Edit 2, the in-text citation is removed completely. According to MLA, since the signal phrase contains all of the relevant information that is available in prose, you do not need the in-text citation in this case!

In summary, if you find yourself repeating information between your signal phrases and in-text citation, you can choose which citation strategy to use and it is still correct.

Signal Phrases

In-Text Citation Placement

We often assume that in-text citations have to appear at the end of the sentence. Most of the time, this is true. However, there are some instances when the in-text citation should actually appear before the end punctuation.

For example,

The setting of the novel, described as “around October twentieth and everything smoky-smelling and the sky orange…at twilight” contributes to the unsettling mood (Bradbury 1), yet it also represents the themes of change and maturity.

It may seem like an error to place the citation so early in the sentence, however, MLA does allow for you to place the in-text citation prior to a punctuation mark that may divide up the sentence into separate clauses such as a comma or semicolon.

Of course, this rule only applies if: your quote/paraphrase doesn’t occur at the end of a sentence AND your quote is followed by a punctuation mark such as a comma, semicolon, colon, or em-dash that precedes the rest of your sentence.

Block Quotes

A block quote is when you include a direct quote from a text in your essay that extends past four or more lines.

Sometimes, you may find yourself wanting to cite a larger portion of your text in order to make your claim. In this case, if the quote you are citing extends past four lines, you need to format your citation completely differently. See the image below:

As you can see, a block quote has its own rules for formatting in MLA that are different from when you cite something normally. For a BLOCK QUOTE ONLY, you must:

  • Introduce your quotation using a lead-in that typically ends in a colon

  • Start a new line when typing your quote

  • Indent your block quote by 1/2 an inch (use the Ruler tool in Google Docs to do this)

  • Do NOT put quotation marks around a block quote

  • Include the ending punctuation that appears in the original text of the quote

  • Place the in-text citation AFTER the ending punctuation

  • Continue your writing after entering into a new line without an indent

If your source is a poem or written in verse (where line breaks matter) you should format your block quote similarly to how they appear in the original text.

When should block quotes be used?

As a writer, you need to evaluate whether or not you need a block quote in order to make your point. Sometimes, writers overuse block quotes because they make the essay seem longer OR if writers are not yet confident in using their own voice over the voice of other authors or experts. Because of this, sometimes using too many block quotes can weaken someone’s writing especially if the author relies too much on quoting others rather than providing their own original analysis.

When deciding if you should use a block quote, consider the following:

  • Does your reader absolutely need the full context of the quote to understand your argument/analysis?

  • Would it beneficial to paraphrase this portion of the text rather than directly quote it?

  • Do you need the entire quote or are there only a few lines or sections that could convey the main idea instead?

  • Are you using more of the author’s words in your essay or your own words?

Remember that while its important to use outside information to help support your claim your writing should be YOUR writing more than someone else’s. Your instructors want to see you applying your own knowledge, analysis, and argumentative skills in responding to the text you are citing from rather than just copying it. Using block quotes are totally fine so long as you are using them appropriately in order to enhance your writing rather than just lengthening it.