What do you know about making research papers using MLA format? Bet you have heard about a 12 pt. standard font, 1-inch margins on all sides of your paper, double spaces, and so on.
 
These are general requirements for making research papers using MLA format. For more details, you can always look up in any MLA style manual. By the way, do you know that some of those official requirements have been changed? Thus, before you get down to writing your research paper using MLA format, find and study carefully MLA 2009 Formatting and Style Guide.
 
In this article, we want to talk about arranging in-text citations in research papers using MLA format.
 
General guidelines
 
When you write a research paper using MLA format, you have to use parenthetical citation. This means that a source of information should be placed in parentheses after a quotation or paraphrase.
 
Keep in mind that any source of information that appears in the text of your MLA term paper or research paper should also appear on the Works Cited page.
 
More details about arranging citations in research papers using MLA format
 
So, how exactly should you organize in-text citations in a research paper using MLA format? All citations appear in the text. You write a quotation or paraphrase and then put the author’s last name and page number (where the quotation was taken from). Mind that a complete reference to the source of information should appear on the Works Cited page.
 
By the way, if you write a research paper using MLA format, the author’s last name can appear straight in a sentence, but the page number should always be put in parentheses, e.g. Fukuyama stated that we may be witnessing “the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution” (175).
 
So, these are general rules of organizing in-text citations in research papers using MLA format. Use MLA Formatting and Style Guide for more details.
 
On our blog, you can also find general guidelines on how to make term papers using APA format.