Elements of a Full Citation

Citation Requirements

A full citation on a Works Cited page is a collection of detailed bibliographic information about the source you use in your research. 

An in-text citation is a short, concise citation that is put in the body of your paper, directly after the idea or quote from the source you're citing. An in-text citation points your readers to the corresponding full citation on your Works Cited list. 

First you will learn how to create full citations, then you will learn how to do in-text citations. 

Full Citations

MLA style breaks full citations into 9 Core Elements, but to help you learn and remember the parts of a citation, the  9 Core Elements can be separated into 3 basic parts.

3 Basic Parts

1. Author
2. Title of source
3. Additional information about where the source was found

Each of these basic parts is followed by a period.

You'll need to learn how to format each of these parts, beginning with author and title.