Typical in-text citations consist of the first item located in the works cited entry--this will usually be the last name of the author--and the page number upon which the information used appears.  Parenthesis will be used around the page number, and the citation will follow.  When a parenthetical citation follows a quotation, it should be located after the closing quotation mark.  The author's name will not always be part of the information placed in the parentheses

The author's name is included as part of the in-text citation by its use in the text itself or before the page number inside the parenthesis.

Examples:

In the examination of difference between events of World War I and World War II, A. D. Harvey writes that the proper development of air transport played a major role (8).

Using online sources makes the search for appropriate resources easier and also saves time for the researcher (Rose-Wiles and Hofmann 149).

The principles behind in-text citations in MLA style are basically unchanged from what was recommended in the 7th Edition. A few details are clarified here:

• Works in time-based media are to cite the relevant time or range of times. 

• If you believe your audience will not understand the language of of quotation your are using,
  it is appropriate for you to provide the source of the translation. If you are the creator of
  the translation, add my trans. in place of a source in the citation.

If the information is derived from more than one page in the work, format the page numbers just as you do in an MLA Works Cited.

Examples: 3-4; 5-15; 23-29; 431-39; 497-503.

These are the basic formats:

1. Author named within the signal phrase

If you list the name of the author, the parenthetical citation need only contain the page number.

 Examples: Scott Allen asserts that "the abundance of caution is born of a hard lesson: 10 years ago, one patient died and another suffered irreversible heart damage at the Dana-Farber because the staff wasn't cautious enough" (A1).

Allen suggests that the staff's new procedures are a reaction to Dana-Farber's highly publicized accidental patient death in 1994 (A1).

2. Author NOT named within the paper

If the author is not named, include his/her last name in the parenthetical citation.

Example: Hospitals often need a highly publicized incident to prompt the "abundance of caution" that Dana-Farber adopted after their "hard lesson" of 1994 (Allen A1).

3. No author listed or unknown author

If you are citing a source that has no known author, such as the article "Censorship in the United States: 1620-2000," use a brief version of the title in the parenthetical citation.

Before assuming that a Web source has no author, do some detective work. Often the author's name is available but is not easy to find. For example, it may appear at the end of the source in tiny print or another page such as the home page.

Example: Even in the United States, despite its First Amendment freedoms, censorship has a long history ("Censorship" 22).

4. Work has two authors

If a work has two authors, link their names with the word and (written out, do not use an ampersand) or use the names in a signal phrase.

Examples: "Housing recovery processes take different forms internationally, but in the United States, the repair, rebuilding, or replacement of permanent housing after natural disasters is primarily driven by the market"(Zhang and Peacock 6).

Professors Yang Zhang and Waler Gillis Peacock state, "Housing recovery processes take different forms internationally, but in the United States, the repair, rebuilding, or replacement of permanent housing after natural disasters is primarily driven by the market" (6).

5. Work has more than three authors

Include only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” (Latin for “and others”).

Examples: "Individual preventative stress management provides an effective complement for dealing with organizational stress" (Quick et al. 159).

As Quick et al. contend, "Individual preventative stress management provides an effective complement for dealing with organizational stress" (159).

6. Author has more than one work in Works Cited

If more than one work by the same author is listed in the paper's Works Cited, include a reference to the specific work either within a signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation. If the title is not included in the paper, use a brief reference (shortened title) in the parenthetical citation.

Examples: In The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas L. Friedman noted, "No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's" (195).

"No two countries that both had McDonald's had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald's" (Friedman, Lexus 195).

7. Works Cited has more than one author with the same last name

If your bibliography includes two authors with the same last name, Benjamin Franklin and Barry A. Franklin, for example, include the author's first initial in the parenthetical citation. If the initial is shared too, use the full first name. Using the author's full name in the signal phrase is always an appropriate choice.

Examples: In his Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin states that he prepared a list of thirteen virtues (135-37).

Estimates of the frequency with which employers monitor employee's use of the Internet each day vary widely (Barry Franklin 195).

8. Work has no page numbers (web site, etc.)

When a source has no page numbers or any other kind of reference numbers, no number can be given in the parenthetical reference. Some articles or web sites may be unpaginated. When using unpaginated material, list the author's last name (or if not given, use a brief reference to the title). When a signal phrase that contains the author's name is used in the text, there will be no parenthetical note. Be sure to clarify where the material ends. 

Example: "Friedman realized early that to write intelligently about world economics he needed to make himself an expert in six tightly integrated domains that are usually reported separately: financial markets, politics, culture, national security, technology, and the environment" (Brand).

Although his work has been influenced by many graphic artists, it remains essentially text-based (Fitzgerald).

Robert Fitzgerald says that his work, although influenced by a number of graphic artists, is still essentially text-based.

9. Information is in two or more works

List both works in the parenthetical citation exactly as they would be listed individually, but separate them with a semicolon. List the sources in the same order they will appear in the works cited list.

Example: Forethought is key in survival, whether it involves remembering extra water on a safari trail or gathering food for a long winter in ancient times (Estes and Otte 2; Wither and Hosking 4). 

10. Indirect source (a source quoted in another source)

If you quote or paraphrase a secondary source--a source that contains information about a primary source--use the abbreviation "qtd. in" (for "quoted in") when you cite the source. The example is a statement made by Botan and McCreadie that is quoted on page 14 in a book chapter, "Workplace Surveillance" written by Joseph Kizza and Jackline Ssanyu. Only Kizza and Ssanyu are listed in the Works Cited, not Botan and McCreadie.

Example: Researchers Botan and McCreadie point out that "workers are objects of information collection without participating in the process of exchanging the information . . ." (qtd. in Kizza and Ssanyu 14).

11. Encyclopedia or dictionary

Unless an encyclopedia or a dictionary has an author, it will be alphabetized in the list of works cited under the word or entry that you consulted--not under the title of the reference work. Do not use the page number since the information in these sources is arranged alphabetically.

Example: According to the OED Online, the word defeat has been in use since the 1500s. (“Defeat”).

12. Corporate author

When the author of the work is an organization, government agency, or corporation, cite the name as you would an individual author. When giving the name of a corporate author in parentheses, shorten terms that are commonly abbreviated according to MLA style. You may use abbreviations for the source in subsequent references if you add the abbreviation in parentheses at the first mention of the name.

Examples: According to United States Army, "globalization, the Lexus, is the central organizing principle of the post–Cold War world, even though many individuals and nations resist by holding on to what has traditionally mattered to them—the olive tree" (4).

According to a study that was completed in the 1990s, the population of China around that time period was increasing by more than fifteen million annually (Natl. Research Council 15).

The Brown University Office of Financial Aid (BUOFA) has adopted a policy that first-year students will not be expected to work as part of their financial aid package (12). BUOFA will award these students a one-time grant to help compensate for the income lost by not working (14).