How to Reference an Author in Your Literary Paper

The following handout utilizes MLA documentation style.  If you are required to use another style format, please visit http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/Documentation.html for various examples.

When you use MLA style to cite references in your paper, it is important to remember that you need to always include the author’s name and the page number.  But there are a few ways to do this.

The two basic ways of citing your references are:

• According to Smith “most college students are good writers” (22).
• However, “they need to practice the formal elements of creating a paper” (Smith 25).

From these basics, we can explore more complicated forms.

Citing two authors:

According to Smith and Jones “most students learn good writing habits in high school” (22).

However, “they often forget skills that can help them” (Smith and Jones 22).

Citing a quotation that the author has cited:

According to Taylor, “many freshmen need more practice writing a thesis” (qtd. in Smith 24).

Consequently, “many freshmen need more practice writing a thesis” (Taylor qtd in Smith 24).

Citing an author that has two entries in your bibliography

Wells connects students’ success to their diligent practice (Writing Center 23).

• Note that in this instance, the author’s title is used to distinguish the citation from the other reference in the bibliography.

Citing an electronic source that uses paragraph numbers instead of page numbers

Organization is the key to a successful paper (Ewing, par. 24).

Practice.

Use the following short paragraph found on page 44 of Donald Murray’s text The Craft of Revision to practice citing references.

The Spanish Nobel-Prize winning novelist Camilo Jose Cela says, “...Sometimes it takes me quite a long time to discover what isn’t working, that a word is lacking or that one needs to be taken out.”  We learned to speak before we wrote, and, even if we are writers, we speak thousands upon thousands of words more than we write in a day.

1. Rewrite this quotation so that it properly references Murray.
2. Write a sentence that quotes a few words from Cela’s statement.  How would you cite this?
3. Murray’s other text Write To Learn is also cited in your bibliography.  How would you cite this paragraph?
4. Write a sentence that conveys the message of both Cela and Murray’s statements.  Cite both authors as reference for that sentence.

--The Writing Center thanks Holly Savage for contributing this handout.

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