What is the difference in a works cited and an in-text citation? (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference in a works cited and an in-text citation? ›

Answer. Works cited, also known as a bibliography, or references, is a list at the end of your paper of all of the articles, books, etc. that you refered to in your paper. In-text citations are when you give credit to another author in the text of your paper.

This means two things: including information about the source directly in the text we have written (in-text citations), and. including a list of materials used at the end of the essay (a Works Cited page)

Inline citations—also called in-text citations—are used to show the sources that you've quoted or paraphrased within a body of text of an academic paper. They act as signposts for the sources mentioned in the reference list, bibliography, or works cited at the end of your paper.

(As you will recall from the first essay of this year, the cited work is a paper or book that has been mentioned in the references of other works, and the citing work is the one that contains the references.)

APA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the year of publication, for example: (Field, 2005). For direct quotations, include the page number as well, for example: (Field, 2005, p. 14).

An in-text citation (sometimes called a parenthetical reference) is a brief reference (often just an author's last name and a date or page number) made within the body of your essay that helps identify an idea's original source.

The Works Cited page is the list of sources used in the research paper. It should be its own page at the end of the paper. Center the title, "Works Cited" (without quotation marks), at the top of the page. If only one source was consulted, title the page "Work Cited".

There are two types of in-text citations in APA format: parenthetical and narrative. Parenthetical citations include the author(s) and the date of publication within parentheses. Narrative citations intertwine the author as part of the sentence with the date of publication (in parentheses) following.

The “reference list” or “bibliography” which contains all secondary sources is usually printed at the end of a paper or academic publication. “In-text citation” refers to an abbreviated form used in the text of a publication.

These citations often have minimal information, such as author name, title, or page number, and directly follow the quotation. Full citations are listed in a Reference, Works Cited, or Bibliography page at the end of the essay/paper and give all of the information for each source.

What are two important differences between citations and references? ›

Amount of information: Citations give minimal information whereas references provide all the details. Length: It follows therefore that citations are short, either comprising the last names of authors and the year of publication or appearing as footnotes. In contrast, references are long and often run to several lines.

“Cite” is a verb meaning “to mention” or “to make reference to”: She cited the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences in her paper. “Site” is a noun meaning “location”: Raleigh is the site of the new mine.

Works cited, also known as a bibliography, or references, is a list at the end of your paper of all of the articles, books, etc. that you refered to in your paper. In-text citations are when you give credit to another author in the text of your paper.

Reference list entries include the four elements of the author, date, title, and source.

When it comes to writing an essay, including in-text citations is invaluable for demonstrating that you have done your research and supported your claim. In-text citations are not just important for those reasons. They can also help you avoid committing plagiarism by referencing where you got your information from.

The most obvious difference that you'll see in an MLA paper and an APA paper is the title of the citation page. Papers written in MLA format will have a Works Cited page. The APA citation page, on the other hand, will be labeled References.

In Text Citations

Both APA and MLA cite sources within a paper by using parenthetical, in-text references. MLA uses the author's last name and the page number as reference. APA uses the author's last name and the year of publication. If a direct quote is used, APA requires author's name, year, and page number.

Using In-text Citation

MLA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the page number from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken, for example: (Smith 163). If the source does not use page numbers, do not include a number in the parenthetical citation: (Smith).

There are two types of in-text citations in APA format: parenthetical and narrative.