How to reference an author in an essay

In-text references should immediately follow the title, word, or phrase to which they are directly relevant, rather than appearing at the end of long clauses or sentences. In-text references should always precede punctuation marks. Below are examples of using in-text citation.

Author's name in parentheses:

One study found that the most important element in comprehending non-native speech is familiarity with the topic (Gass & Varonis, 1984).

Author's name part of narrative:

Gass and Varonis (1984) found that the most important element in comprehending non-native speech is familiarity with the topic.

Group as author:
First citation: (American Psychological Association [APA], 2015)
Subsequent citation: (APA, 2015)

Multiple works: (separate each work with semi-colons)

Research shows that listening to a particular accent improves comprehension of accented speech in general (Gass & Varonis, 1984; Krech Thomas, 2004).

Direct quote: (include page number and place quotation marks around the direct quote)

One study found that “the listener's familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (Gass & Varonis, 1984, p. 85).

Gass and Varonis (1984) found that “the listener’s familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (p. 85).

Note: For direct quotations of more than 40 words, display the quote as an indented block of text without quotation marks and include the authors’ names, year, and page number in parentheses at the end of the quote. For example:

This suggests that familiarity with nonnative speech in general, although it is clearly not as important a variable as topic familiarity, may indeed have some effect. That is, prior experience with nonnative speech, such as that gained by listening to the reading, facilitates comprehension. (Gass & Varonis, 1984, p. 77)

Academic writing styles require in-text citations to give credit to a source when a writer refers to someone else's work. Though basic guidelines are similar, citation requirements vary depending on the documentation style used. Consider which documentation style is most appropriate for your area of study. Most college assignments require either Modern Language Association or American Psychological Association style.

MLA Style

MLA uses the author-page method for in-text citations. Place the author's last name either in a signal phrase within the referenced sentence or in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Place the page number in parentheses after the sentence unless the work has no page number. A signal phrase citation would look like this: In his essay "Social Change," Dr. John Smith writes, "Positive social change gives people the ability to improve the future" (27). Format a parenthetical citation like this: "Positive social change gives people the ability to improve the future" (Smith 27). Always use quotation marks for direct quotes.

APA Style

APA in-text citations require the author-date method. The author's last name and the year of publication appear in the text. It includes the page number when using direct quotes. Here is an example of a citation within the sentence: Smith (2010) noted in his essay, "Positive social change gives people the ability to improve the future" (p. 27). Format a parenthetical citation like this: Positive social change can improve a person's future (Smith, 2010). Here is an example of a parenthetical citation with a direct quote: "Positive social change gives people the ability to improve the future" (Smith, 2010, p. 27). Notice the formatting of the page number (p. 27) differs from MLA style.

Need help with a citation? Try our citation generator.

Key words: author-date, citation, in-text references, strong author, weak author, reporting words

In your academic writing, you have to support your points with concrete evidence taken from a variety of valid sources, and name the author/source of your evidence in your writing. UNE units use a number of different referencing styles that follow particular rules.

Please note that the APA referencing style is used in this workshop.

About citing authors

Referencing is a very important academic convention that recognises that academic writing builds on previous research. In nearly all assignments, you are required to refer to the work of others. You must ALWAYS explicitly acknowledge these sources as:

  • an in-text reference in the body of your assignment
  • an item in the list of references at the end of your work.

There are a number of referencing styles in place at UNE, and you must know the appropriate style for your study units. These activities will assist you to understand the general principles of referencing which you can adapt to suit other referencing systems.

The APA Author-date referencing style

Locate the ASO factsheets on Plagiarism and APA in-text referencing before you start the activities for this workshop.

The APA Author-date referencing style uses in-text citations (integrating the names of authors in your paragraph) to credit information to the correct source. This format is the same for all types of references (e.g. print, multi-media, Internet). In-text references contain THREE ITEMS:

  1. the name/s of author/s
  2. year of publication
  3. page number or paragraph number (if no page number is available)

When you write up your reference list at the end of your essay, each author mentioned in-text must be included in this reference list.

Exercise 1: Author-date referencing

Read this example and note the format for citing in-text authors:

Placing the author in your writing

There are two techniques you can use to put the names of authors in your writing.

Click on each link for a description.

Narrative citation

BEFORE you give the information, you use the surname/s of the author/s as part of your writing followed by the year, page in brackets.

Example

According to Elton (2009, pp. 106-109), students who show mastery in assignment writing …

Parenthetical citation

Parenthetical citation
AFTER you have given the information, you place a bracket around the surname/s of the author/s year, page.

Example

Recent studies into student assignment writing show that … (Elton, 2009, pp. 106-109)

Exercise 2: Author orientation

Read this paragraph and identify the author orientation.

Students develop a strong understanding of the content and writing conventions of subject areas through assignment tasks. Literacy researchers (Johns, 2004, pp. 199-208; Taylor, 2006, pp. 156-159) claim that writing and understanding go hand in hand. Smith and Brown (2005, p. 1) argue that “to master your learning materials and extend your understandings, you need to write about the meanings you gain from your research”. Furthermore, while students are researching, reading and writing in their discipline, they also learn how to “crack the code” of the discipline (Bloggs et al., 2003, p. 44). It is a case of students learning by doing. By researching and writing essays with appropriate feedback from their lecturers, students are learning subject matter and how to write in their disciplines.

1.

(Johns, 2004, pp. 199-208; Taylor, 2006, pp. 156-159)

Narrative citation

Incorrect.

Parenthetical citation

Correct!

2.

Smith and Brown (2005, p. 1)

Narrative citation

Correct!

Parenthetical citation

Incorrect.

3.

(Bloggs et al., 2003, p. 44)

Narrative citation

Incorrect.

Parenthetical citation

Correct!

Reporting words for authors

There are many ways to bring your authorities (authors) into your writing. It is very important that you choose the correct words to match the meaning you are making in your writing. Following is a sample list of reporting words to help you make correct choices:

Reporting words for incorporating author names

A: acknowledges, adds, admits, affirms, agrees, argues, asserts assumes, assures
C: challenges, claims, clarifies, comments, concedes, concludes
D: declares, demonstrates, denies, describes, disagrees, discusses, doubts
E: elaborates, emphasises, explains
I: implies, infers, informs
M-O: maintains, mentions, notes, observes
P-Q: points out, presents, proves, questions
R: reasons, recognises, refutes, relates, remarks, reports, requests, responds, reveals
S: shows, states, suggests
T-W: thinks, urges, warns

Don’t do this!

  • Don’t just dump information into your paragraph. A paragraph needs ‘flow’, so use reporting words and phrases to introduce your information and transitional words to help it all ‘hang together’.
  • Don’t just write a whole paragraph from one source and put a name at the end of the paragraph. Each idea in a paragraph is referenced at SENTENCE LEVEL.
  • Avoid using citations in the topic and concluding sentences of a paragraph.

How do you cite an author in a sentence?

The in-text citation should occur in the sentence where the cited material has been used: Signal phrase reference (author's name) appears within the sentence with page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Full parenthetical reference (author last name and page number) appears at the end of the sentence.

How do you reference in an essay example?

An in-text citation using MLA will simply have the author last name (or title if no author) followed by the page number. No comma between author and page number. For example: (Richards 456) Richards is the author last name, and 456 is the page number.