To cite a book in MLA format within your text, place the author’s last name and the page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence: (Smith 45). No comma separates them, and the period goes after the closing parenthesis. That basic pattern covers most situations, but the details shift depending on how many authors the book has, whether you name the author in your sentence, and a few other variables worth knowing.
The Basic Author-Page Pattern
MLA in-text citations follow a simple formula: give the reader just enough information to find the full entry on your Works Cited page. For a book, that means the author’s last name and the page number you’re drawing from. No “p.” or “pg.” before the number.
You have two ways to handle it. A parenthetical citation puts everything inside the parentheses:
The novel portrays the city as a living organism (Morrison 78).
A signal phrase weaves the author’s name into your sentence, so only the page number goes in parentheses:
Morrison portrays the city as a living organism (78).
Both are correct. Use whichever reads more naturally. If you mention the author’s name in the sentence, repeating it inside the parentheses is redundant.
Two Authors and Three or More
When a book has two authors, include both last names joined by “and”:
(Dorris and Erdrich 23)
When a book has three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name followed by “et al.” (Latin for “and others”):
(Wysocki et al. 76)
The same rule applies if you use a signal phrase: “Wysocki et al. argue that visual rhetoric shapes meaning (76).”
Books With No Listed Author
Some books, especially reference works or institutional publications, don’t credit a personal author. When that happens, use a shortened version of the book’s title in place of the author name. Since it’s a book (a long work), italicize it:
(Encyclopedia of Civil Rights 245)
Shorten the title to a noun phrase when the full title is long. Drop articles like “A,” “An,” or “The” from the beginning of your shortened version. The goal is to keep the parenthetical citation brief while still letting readers match it to the correct Works Cited entry.
Corporate or Organizational Authors
If a book is authored by an organization rather than a person, use the organization’s name in your citation:
(American Medical Association 17)
Long organizational names can feel intrusive inside parentheses. You can abbreviate common words (for example, “Nat’l” for “National”) or, better yet, move the organization’s name into a signal phrase so only the page number sits in parentheses:
The American Medical Association recommends annual screening for adults over 50 (17).
Citing a Specific Chapter or Essay in an Edited Book
When you’re citing a chapter or essay from a collection (an anthology, for instance), the in-text citation still uses the author of the piece you’re quoting, not the book’s editor. If you read Muriel Harris’s essay in a collection edited by Ben Rafoth, your in-text citation reads:
(Harris 30)
Your Works Cited entry will then list Harris as the author, the essay title in quotation marks, the book title in italics, and the editor’s name. The in-text citation just needs to point readers to that entry.
Multivolume Works
For books published across multiple volumes, add the volume number before the page number, separated by a colon and a space:
(Quintilian 2: 47)
That tells readers you’re referencing page 47 of volume 2. If your paper only uses one volume of the set, you can cite it like a regular book and note the volume in your Works Cited entry instead.
Classic and Religious Texts
Classic literary works often exist in many editions, so page numbers alone aren’t helpful. After the page number, add a semicolon and then the chapter, section, or other division so readers with any edition can find the passage:
(Austen 224; ch. 12)
For the Bible, skip page numbers entirely. Cite the abbreviated book name, chapter, and verse, and include the edition title on first reference:
(Authorized King James Version, Gen. 1.1)
After that first citation, you can drop the edition name and just cite the book, chapter, and verse.
Indirect Sources
Sometimes a book quotes someone else, and you want to use that original quote. If you can’t track down the original source, use “qtd. in” (short for “quoted in”) to show you found it secondhand:
Alexander Pope wrote, “A little learning is a dang’rous thing” (qtd. in Damrosch 239).
Your Works Cited page lists Damrosch’s book, not Pope’s original work, since that’s the source you actually read. Use this sparingly. Whenever possible, find and cite the original.
Where Punctuation Goes
For regular quotations and paraphrases, the period comes after the closing parenthesis, not before:
The narrator describes the house as “weights and measures” (Morrison 3).
Block quotations (used for prose passages longer than four lines) follow the opposite rule. Indent the entire quote, end it with a period, and then place the parenthetical citation after that period with no additional punctuation:
The narrator describes the room in meticulous detail, cataloging every object as though committing it to memory for the last time. (Morrison 3)
This is one of the few places in MLA where punctuation goes before the citation rather than after.
Multiple Books by the Same Author
If your Works Cited page lists two or more books by the same author, a last name and page number alone won’t tell readers which book you mean. Add a shortened version of the title, in italics, after the author’s name:
(Morrison, Beloved 3)
(Morrison, Song 55)
A comma separates the author’s name from the title. The title is shortened to just enough words to distinguish it from the other works.
No Page Number Available
Some book formats, like certain e-books, don’t have stable page numbers. If no page number is available and the book doesn’t use another numbering system (like chapters or sections), simply give the author’s last name with no number:
(Morrison)
If the book uses chapter numbers or numbered sections, include those instead so readers can locate the passage:
(Morrison, ch. 3)
The core principle of MLA in-text citation stays the same regardless of the situation: give readers the shortest piece of information they need to find the full source on your Works Cited page.