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A "citation in text" (or "in text citation") is when you quote, paraphrase or summarize someone else's words or ideas in your paper. Here is some basic information to get you started, but be sure to look for the specific rules for APA, MLA, Chicago, and other styles: Library’s citation page
Whenever you plan to use someone else's words or ideas, you should let your reader know by the use of a "signal phrase."
Here are some examples:
- Larsen claims, "[exact words from Larsen's article here](29)."
- In his 2010 study, Nguyen writes, "[exact words from Nguyen's study here](213)."
- Russo and Li indicate that [paraphrase of a paragraph from Russo and Li's book] (19).
In all citation styles you will need to provide a page number for an exact quote--in parentheses at the end of the quoted material, right before the period--as shown in the examples above.
Enclose the exact words from another source in quotation marks, or for longer quotes, set the text off in a block quote.
In the APA citation style, you must also provide a date, as shown in the second example above. If the first quote was in APA style, the date would precede the page number inside the parentheses (2009, 29). In the third example, it would be in parentheses at the end of the paraphrased material.
A paraphrase is defined as an accurate and complete restatement of the original passage in your own words. It should be approximately the same length as the original and present all of the major ideas. It requires a page number, just as a quote does (see example three above). Librarians and tutors (both in Building 7) can help with citations in text.