What is an in-text citation?

First, find out what a citation is.

An in-text citation is a citation that is put into your writing so the reader knows that the previous sentence was paraphrased or quoted from another’s idea. It normally contains a small amount of information, and the full citation would be found in your works cited, bibliography, or references page.

Only some citation styles use in-text citations, like MLA and APA.

In-text citations are often formatted differently based on the citation style.