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Citation Resources

A guide to bibliographic citation formats and citation management tools.

Direct Quotations & Paraphrasing

In-Text Citations

After a quote, add the author's last name and a page reference. This is usually enough to identify the source and the specific location from which you borrowed the material.

Example: "But here is a man who will matter a great deal" (Jemisin 4).

If using the author's name in your text, do not include it in the parentheses.

Example: In her novel, Jemisin described the character as "a man who will matter a great deal" (4).

If you use more than one work by the same author, include the title or a shortened form of the title.

Example: "But here is a man who will matter a great deal" (Jemisin, The Fifth Season 4).

If more than one author has the same last name, add their first initial.

Example: "But here is a man who will matter a great deal" (N. Jemisin 4).

If two authors wrote the work, list them all.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Jemisin and Valentine 102-103).

If three or more authors wrote the work, list the surname of the first author followed by et al.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Jemisin et al. 4)

If no pagination information is available, but paragraphs are numbered, include a comma, then the paragraph number.

Example: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" (Jemisin, par. 5).

If no pagination information is available and paragraphs are not numbered, the work must be cited only in its entirety. Do not apply your own pagination or numbering. You may provide words in your prose that indicate about where to find the quote:

Example: In the first third of her article, Jemisin mentioned that "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."

For video or audio formats, cite the time stamp.

Example: "The Fifth Season author N.K. Jemisin answers your questions" is an interview  with Liz Flock, in which Jemisin states that "Evil is in the eye of the beholder" (00:03:33-35).