cite in text speech

Citing Sources: Citing Orally in Speeches

• Citing Sources Overview
• Citing in the Sciences & Engineering
• APA Citation Examples
• Chicago Citation Examples
• Biologists: Council of Science Editors (CSE) Examples
• MLA Citation Examples
• Bluebook - Legal Citation

Citing Orally in Speeches

• Citation Managers
• Oral Source Citations - James Madison University Communication Center
• Using Citations and Avoiding Plagiarism in Oral Presentations - Hamilton College, Dept. of Rhetoric and Communication
• Referencing: Citing in Orals - James Cook University

General Tips:

Tell the audience your source before you use the information (the opposite of in-text citations).

Do not say, “quote, unquote” when you offer a direct quotation. Use brief pauses instead.

Provide enough information about each source so that your audience could, with a little effort, find them. This should include the author(s) name, a brief explanation of their credentials, the title of the work, and publication date.

 “In the 1979 edition of The Elements of Style, renowned grammarians and composition stylists Strunk and White encourage writers to ‘make every word tell.’”

If your source is unknown to your audience, provide enough information about your source for the audience to perceive them as credible. Typically we provide this credentialing of the source by stating the source’s qualifications to discuss the topic.

“Dr. Derek Bok, the President Emeritus of Harvard University and the author of The Politics of Happiness argues that the American government should design policies to enhance the happiness of its citizens.”

Provide a caption citation for all direct quotations and /or relevant images on your PowerPoint slides.

Direct Quotations:

These should be acknowledged in your speech or presentation either as “And I quote…” or “As [the source] put it…”

Include title and author: “According to April Jones, author of Readings on Gender…”

Periodical/Magazine:

Include title and date: “Time, March 28, 2005, explains…” or “The New York Times, June 5, 2006, explained it this way…”

Include journal title, date, and author: “Morgan Smith writes in the Fall 2005 issue of Science…”

For organizational or long-standing website, include title: “The center for Disease Control web site includes information…” For news or magazine websites, include title and date: “CNN.com, on March 28, 2005, states…” (Note: CNN is an exception to the “don’t use the address” rule because the site is known by that name.)

Interviews, lecture notes, or personal communication:

Include name and credentials of source: “Alice Smith, professor of Economics at USM, had this to say about the growth plan…” or “According to junior Speech Communication major, Susan Wallace…”

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Citing lectures, speeches, or conference proceedings: MLA (9th ed.) citation guide

This guide is based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 9th ed. and provides selected citation examples for common types of sources.  For more detailed information, please consult the full manual: available in print and online .

Lecture, speech, reading or address

When citing a live presentation like a speech or lecture from a conference or an event, include the name of the sponsoring/presenting organization (after the title), and the venue (after date and before the wider location) in your works cited. 

Parenthetical (in-text) 

The presenter went to great lengths to prove his point regarding how your brain has been shaped by evolution (Crespi). 

Works cited 

A live lecture  .

Crespi, Bernie. "Darwin and Your Brain." Vancouver Evolution Festival . Simon Fraser University and University of British Columbia, 12 Feb. 2009, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver.

An online recording of a live presentation

Parker, Pardis. “Why Being a Billionaire is a Joke.” TED , Oct. 2022, www.ted.com/talks/pardis_parker_why_being_a_billionaire_is_a_joke.

Conference proceedings

A conference proceeding is the published record of a conference, congress, symposium, or other meeting sponsored by a society or association. The document will look similar to an article or book chapter (and it may in fact be a chapter in a book). To cite a conference proceeding, provide the same information as when citing a book or article , but also include additional information such as the title and date of the conference.

You may be citing an edited book of proceedings (see Edited print books ) or a single presentation, in which you would cite the author(s)/presenter(s), the title of the presentation, and the conference proceeding details similar to a book chapter or journal article .

Parenthetical (in-text)

Social media provides a platform for more minority groups to speak out (Fu).

Works cited

Whole proceedings.

Chang, Steve S., et al., editors. Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, February 12–15, 1999: General Session and Parasession on Loan Word Phenomena . Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2000.

A single presentation

Fu, Yige, et al. “Research on the Influences of Social Media to Gender Equality.” SHS Web of Conferences , vol. 148, EDP Sciences, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202214803026.

Still using MLA 8?

We've now updated our citation guides to MLA 9, but you can still use the printable version of our MLA 8 citation guide. 

Need more help? Check our Ask a Librarian services .

Citing a Speech

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Presidents’ Day is celebrated on the third Monday of February each year in the United States—and it offers the perfect opportunity to honor the life and achievements of past American presidents, especially historical standouts like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.

The holiday was initially held on February 22nd to honor the life and achievements of George Washington (it coincided with his birthday). So, what better way to commemorate the holiday than by learning to cite one of Washington’s most famous presidential speeches: his farewell address.

Below, we’ve laid out instructions on how to cite any presidential speech in three citation styles: MLA, APA and Chicago. For each style, we’ve cited Washington’s farewell address as an example.

In order to properly cite a presidential speech, you need to know the following pieces of information:

• Speaker’s first and last name
• Speech’s title
• Date the speech was delivered
• Editor’s name (if applicable)

If you found the speech in a book, you should also take note of the following:

• Book’s title
• First and last name of the book’s author
• Book’s publisher
• Book’s year of publication
• City and state the publisher is located in
• Page number(s) of the speech

If you found the speech on the internet, instead pay attention to:

• Title of the article
• Title of the webpage (if it differs from the article name)
• Where the speech was given
• Publisher of the website
• Date the article was posted
• URL of the website where the speech resides

Citing Washington’s Farewell Address in MLA Style

How it would look if found in a book :

Speaker’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Speech.” Date Speech Delivered. Title of Book, edited or translated by First Name Last Name (if applicable) , Publisher, Year of Publication.

MLA citation example (We used the book shown here ) :

Washington, George. “George Washington’s Farewell Address.” 17 Sept. 1796. George Washington’s Farewell Address: Little Books of Wisdom , edited by John Brooks, Applewood Books, 1999.

Online Transcript

How it would look if found in an online transcript :

Speaker’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Speech.” Date Speech Was Delivered. Title of Website, Publisher’s Name, Date of Publication, URL (no http:// or https://). Transcript (include if video/audio formats also available).

MLA example :

Washington, George. “George Washington’s Farewell Address.” 17 Sept. 1796. The Avalon Project , Lillian Goldman Law Library, 2008, avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp. 

Citing Washington’s Farewell Address in APA Style

Title of speech. (Publication Year of Book). In Editor’s Initial. Last Name (Ed.), Book title . City, State: Publisher.

APA citation example :

George Washington’s farewell address. (1999). In J. Brooks (Ed.), George Washington’s farewell addres s: Little books of wisdom . Bedford, MA: Applewood Books.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. (Year of Publication for Webpage). Title of the article or individual page [Format]. Retrieved from URL (no http:// or https://).

APA example :

Washington, G. (2008). Washington’s farewell address 1796   [Transcript]. Retrieved from avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp.

Citing Washington’s Farewell Address in Chicago Style

Speaker’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Speech.” Year Speech Was Delivered. In Book Title, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name. City, State: Publisher, Year Published.

Chicago citation example :

Washington, George. “George Washington’s Farewell Address.” 1796. In George Washington’s Farewell Address: Little Books of Wisdom , edited by John Brooks. Bedford, Massachusetts: Applewood Books, 1999.

Speaker’s Last Name, Speaker’s First Name. “Title of Speech.” Speech, Location Delivered, Date Delivered. “Title of Webpage,” Title of Site . Date Accessed. URL.

Chicago example :

Washington, George. “Washington’s Farewell Address.” Speech, Washington, D.C., 1796. “The Avalon Project: Documents in Law ,History and Diplomacy,” Avalon Project. Accessed November 6, 2018. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/washing.asp.

Need to cite more than what’s outlined above? Cite This For Me has several citing resources including a Harvard referencing generator , a guide on how to do an in-text citation ,  an annotated bibliography example you can learn from, and other bibliographic tools.

To cite a speech from a printed book in the MLA style, use the following format.

Speaker’s Last Name, First Name. “Speech Title.” Date Speech Delivered (if available). Title of Book , edited or translated by First and Last Name (if applicable), Publisher, Year.

Prakash, Navya. “An Appeal Against Logic.” The Tyranny of Reason , Thoughtful Books, 2021.

To cite a speech from an online transcript in the MLA style, use the following format.

Speaker’s Last Name, First Name. “Speech Title.” Date Speech Delivered (if available). Title of Website , Publisher Name, Date, URL (without the http(s)://). Transcript. (Include if speech is also in video or audio format)

Prakash, Navya. “An Appeal Against Logic.” The Tyranny of Reason Project , The Laws of Reason Library, 2021, www.thereasonlibrary.edu/tyrannyofreason/an-appeal-against-logic_htm. Transcript.

APA 7th Referencing

• Style summary
• Easy Referencing tool This link opens in a new window
• In-text citations
• Reference lists
• Secondary sources (as cited in)
• Streaming videos
• Film/Movie, TV, radio and podcasts
• Print books
• Book chapters
• Edited books
• Conference papers and webinars
• Dictionaries and encyclopedias
• First Nations resources and knowledges
• Images, artworks, and screenshots
• Journal articles
• Newspapers and magazines
• Lecture/Class materials, MOOCs/learning modules and personal communications
• Legal cases
• Legislation, bills and regulations
• Conventions and treaties
• Taxation rulings
• Medical databases
• Plant labels and profiles

Speeches format

• Standards, building codes and patents
• Graphs (figures)
• Theses and dissertations
• Translated and foreign works
• Websites and webpages
• Online documents (e.g. white paper, brochure, fact sheet, ppt slides etc.)
• Social media, apps, games and AI
• APA 7th quiz
• From an edited book
• From a web source
• From YouTube

Speech from an edited book

Reference the source in which you found the speech.

Reference elements

In-text citation

• Citations need to include both the original author of the speech and the secondary source in which the speech was found (e.g. an edited anthology of speeches).
• In the reference list, you will need to cite only the secondary source (i.e. the edited book) in which you found the citation.

Speech from a web source

• If you want to acknowledge the speech's title, make sure to do so in  italics . 

Speech from YouTube

• Citations need to include both the original author of the speech and the secondary source in which the speech was found (e.g. an edited anthology of speeches). 
• Because the British Broadcasting Corporation is known in its abbreviated form, the 2nd citation onwards should be shortened to BBC (2020) or (BBC, 2020). See:  in-text citation formats  for more information. 
• When quoting directly from a YouTube video, provide a time stamp.
• In the reference list, you will need to cite only the secondary source (i.e. the YouTube video ) in which you found the citation. 
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Module 2: Ethical Speech

Citing sources in a speech, learning objectives.

Explain how to cite sources in written and oral speech materials.

Tips on citing sources when speaking publicly by Sarah Stone Watt, Pepperdine University

Even if you have handed your professor a written outline of your speech with source citations, you must also offer oral attribution for ideas that are not your own (see Table below for examples of ways to cite sources while you are speaking). Omitting the oral attribution from the speech leads the audience, who is not holding a written version, to believe that the words are your own. Be sure to offer citations and oral attributions for all material that you have taken from someone else, including paraphrases or summaries of their ideas. When in doubt, remember to “always provide oral citations for direct quotations, paraphrased material, or especially striking language, letting listeners know who said the words, where, and when.” [1]  Whether plagiarism is intentional or not, it is unethical, and someone committing plagiarism will often be sanctioned based on their institution’s code of conduct.

In your speech, make reference to the quality and credibility of your sources. Identifying the qualifications for a source, or explaining that their ideas have been used by many other credible sources, will enhance the strength of your speech. For example, if you are giving a speech about the benefits of sleep, citing a renowned sleep expert will strengthen your argument. If you can then explain that this person’s work has been repeatedly tested and affirmed by later studies, your argument will appear even stronger. On the other hand, if you simply offer the name of your source without any explanation of who that person is or why they ought to be believed, your argument is suspect. To offer this kind of information without disrupting the flow of your speech, you might say something like:

Mary Carskadon, director of the Chronobiology/Sleep Research Laboratory at Bradley Hospital in Rhode Island and professor at the Brown University School of Medicine, explains that there are several advantages to increased amounts of sleep. Her work is supported by other researchers, like Dr. Kyla Wahlstrom at the University of Minnesota, whose study demonstrated that delaying school start times increased student sleep and their performance (National Sleep Foundation, 2011).

This sample citation bolsters credibility by offering qualifications and identifying multiple experts who agree on this issue.

• Turner, Kathleen J., et al.  Public Speaking . Pearson, 2017. ↵
• Jobs, S. (2005, June 14). "You've got to find what you love," Jobs says. Retrieved September 30, 2020, from http://news.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html ↵
• Tips on citing sources. Authored by : Sarah Stone Watt. Located at : http://publicspeakingproject.org/supporting.html . License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives . License Terms : Used with Permission

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

7.3 Citing Sources

Learning objectives.

• Understand what style is.
• Know which academic disciplines you are more likely to use, American Psychological Association (APA) versus Modern Language Association (MLA) style.
• Cite sources using the sixth edition of the American Psychological Association’s Style Manual.
• Cite sources using the seventh edition of the Modern Language Association’s Style Manual.
• Explain the steps for citing sources within a speech.
• Differentiate between direct quotations and paraphrases of information within a speech.
• Understand how to use sources ethically in a speech.
• Explain twelve strategies for avoiding plagiarism.

Quinn Dombrowski – Bilbiography – CC BY-SA 2.0.

By this point you’re probably exhausted after looking at countless sources, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. Most public speaking teachers will require you to turn in either a bibliography or a reference page with your speeches. In this section, we’re going to explore how to properly cite your sources for a Modern Language Association (MLA) list of works cited or an American Psychological Association (APA) reference list. We’re also going to discuss plagiarism and how to avoid it.

Why Citing Is Important

Citing is important because it enables readers to see where you found information cited within a speech, article, or book. Furthermore, not citing information properly is considered plagiarism, so ethically we want to make sure that we give credit to the authors we use in a speech. While there are numerous citation styles to choose from, the two most common style choices for public speaking are APA and MLA.

APA versus MLA Source Citations

Style refers to those components or features of a literary composition or oral presentation that have to do with the form of expression rather than the content expressed (e.g., language, punctuation, parenthetical citations, and endnotes). The APA and the MLA have created the two most commonly used style guides in academia today. Generally speaking, scholars in the various social science fields (e.g., psychology, human communication, business) are more likely to use APA style , and scholars in the various humanities fields (e.g., English, philosophy, rhetoric) are more likely to use MLA style . The two styles are quite different from each other, so learning them does take time.

APA Citations

The first common reference style your teacher may ask for is APA. As of July 2009, the American Psychological Association published the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association ( http://www.apastyle.org ) (American Psychological Association, 2010). The sixth edition provides considerable guidance on working with and citing Internet sources. Table 7.4 “APA Sixth Edition Citations” provides a list of common citation examples that you may need for your speech.

Table 7.4 APA Sixth Edition Citations

MLA Citations

The second common reference style your teacher may ask for is MLA. In March 2009, the Modern Language Association published the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Modern Language Association, 2009) ( http://www.mla.org/style ). The seventh edition provides considerable guidance for citing online sources and new media such as graphic narratives. Table 7.5 “MLA Seventh Edition Citations” provides a list of common citations you may need for your speech.

Table 7.5 MLA Seventh Edition Citations

Citing Sources in a Speech

Once you have decided what sources best help you explain important terms and ideas in your speech or help you build your arguments, it’s time to place them into your speech. In this section, we’re going to quickly talk about using your research effectively within your speeches. Citing sources within a speech is a three-step process: set up the citation, give the citation, and explain the citation.

First, you want to set up your audience for the citation. The setup is one or two sentences that are general statements that lead to the specific information you are going to discuss from your source. Here’s an example: “Workplace bullying is becoming an increasing problem for US organizations.” Notice that this statement doesn’t provide a specific citation yet, but the statement introduces the basic topic.

Second, you want to deliver the source; whether it is a direct quotation or a paraphrase of information from a source doesn’t matter at this point. A direct quotation is when you cite the actual words from a source with no changes. To paraphrase is to take a source’s basic idea and condense it using your own words. Here’s an example of both:

You’ll notice that in both of these cases, we started by citing the author of the study—in this case, the Workplace Bullying Institute. We then provided the title of the study. You could also provide the name of the article, book, podcast, movie, or other source. In the direct quotation example, we took information right from the report. In the second example, we summarized the same information (Workplace Bullying Institute, 2009).

Let’s look at another example of direct quotations and paraphrases, this time using a person, rather than an institution, as the author.

Notice that the same basic pattern for citing sources was followed in both cases.

The final step in correct source citation within a speech is the explanation. One of the biggest mistakes of novice public speakers (and research writers) is that they include a source citation and then do nothing with the citation at all. Instead, take the time to explain the quotation or paraphrase to put into the context of your speech. Do not let your audience draw their own conclusions about the quotation or paraphrase. Instead, help them make the connections you want them to make. Here are two examples using the examples above:

Notice how in both of our explanations we took the source’s information and then added to the information to direct it for our specific purpose. In the case of the bullying citation, we then propose that businesses should either adopt workplace bullying guidelines or face legal intervention. In the case of the “aha!” example, we turn the quotation into a section on helping people find their thesis or topic. In both cases, we were able to use the information to further our speech.

Using Sources Ethically

The last section of this chapter is about using sources in an ethical manner. Whether you are using primary or secondary research, there are five basic ethical issues you need to consider.

Avoid Plagiarism

First, and foremost, if the idea isn’t yours, you need to cite where the information came from during your speech. Having the citation listed on a bibliography or reference page is only half of the correct citation. You must provide correct citations for all your sources within the speech as well. In a very helpful book called Avoiding Plagiarism: A Student Guide to Writing Your Own Work , Menager-Beeley and Paulos provide a list of twelve strategies for avoiding plagiarism (Menager-Beeley & Paulos, 2009):

• Do your own work, and use your own words. One of the goals of a public speaking class is to develop skills that you’ll use in the world outside academia. When you are in the workplace and the “real world,” you’ll be expected to think for yourself, so you might as well start learning this skill now.
• Allow yourself enough time to research the assignment. One of the most commonly cited excuses students give for plagiarism is that they didn’t have enough time to do the research. In this chapter, we’ve stressed the necessity of giving yourself plenty of time. The more complete your research strategy is from the very beginning, the more successful your research endeavors will be in the long run. Remember, not having adequate time to prepare is no excuse for plagiarism.
• Keep careful track of your sources. A common mistake that people can make is that they forget where information came from when they start creating the speech itself. Chances are you’re going to look at dozens of sources when preparing your speech, and it is very easy to suddenly find yourself believing that a piece of information is “common knowledge” and not citing that information within a speech. When you keep track of your sources, you’re less likely to inadvertently lose sources and not cite them correctly.
• Take careful notes. However you decide to keep track of the information you collect (old-fashioned pen and notebook or a computer software program), the more careful your note-taking is, the less likely you’ll find yourself inadvertently not citing information or citing the information incorrectly. It doesn’t matter what method you choose for taking research notes, but whatever you do, you need to be systematic to avoid plagiarizing.
• Assemble your thoughts, and make it clear who is speaking. When creating your speech, you need to make sure that you clearly differentiate your voice in the speech from the voice of specific authors of the sources you quote. The easiest way to do this is to set up a direct quotation or a paraphrase, as we’ve described in the preceding sections. Remember, audience members cannot see where the quotation marks are located within your speech text, so you need to clearly articulate with words and vocal tone when you are using someone else’s ideas within your speech.
• If you use an idea, a quotation, paraphrase, or summary, then credit the source. We can’t reiterate it enough: if it is not your idea, you need to tell your audience where the information came from. Giving credit is especially important when your speech includes a statistic, an original theory, or a fact that is not common knowledge.
• Learn how to cite sources correctly both in the body of your paper and in your List of Works Cited ( Reference Page ) . Most public speaking teachers will require that you turn in either a bibliography or reference page on the day you deliver a speech. Many students make the mistake of thinking that the bibliography or reference page is all they need to cite information, and then they don’t cite any of the material within the speech itself. A bibliography or reference page enables a reader or listener to find those sources after the fact, but you must also correctly cite those sources within the speech itself; otherwise, you are plagiarizing.
• Quote accurately and sparingly. A public speech should be based on factual information and references, but it shouldn’t be a string of direct quotations strung together. Experts recommend that no more than 10 percent of a paper or speech be direct quotations (Menager-Beeley & Paulos, 2009). When selecting direct quotations, always ask yourself if the material could be paraphrased in a manner that would make it clearer for your audience. If the author wrote a sentence in a way that is just perfect, and you don’t want to tamper with it, then by all means directly quote the sentence. But if you’re just quoting because it’s easier than putting the ideas into your own words, this is not a legitimate reason for including direct quotations.
• Paraphrase carefully. Modifying an author’s words in this way is not simply a matter of replacing some of the words with synonyms. Instead, as Howard and Taggart explain in Research Matters , “paraphrasing force[s] you to understand your sources and to capture their meaning accurately in original words and sentences” (Howard & Taggart, 2010). Incorrect paraphrasing is one of the most common forms of inadvertent plagiarism by students. First and foremost, paraphrasing is putting the author’s argument, intent, or ideas into your own words.
• Do not patchwrite ( patchspeak ) . Menager-Beeley and Paulos define patchwriting as consisting “of mixing several references together and arranging paraphrases and quotations to constitute much of the paper. In essence, the student has assembled others’ work with a bit of embroidery here and there but with little original thinking or expression” (Menager-Beeley & Paulos, 2009). Just as students can patchwrite, they can also engage in patchspeaking. In patchspeaking, students rely completely on taking quotations and paraphrases and weaving them together in a manner that is devoid of the student’s original thinking.
• Summarize, don’t auto-summarize. Some students have learned that most word processing features have an auto-summary function. The auto-summary function will take a ten-page document and summarize the information into a short paragraph. When someone uses the auto-summary function, the words that remain in the summary are still those of the original author, so this is not an ethical form of paraphrasing.
• Do not rework another student’s paper ( speech ) or buy paper mill papers ( speech mill speeches ) . In today’s Internet environment, there are a number of storehouses of student speeches on the Internet. Some of these speeches are freely available, while other websites charge money for getting access to one of their canned speeches. Whether you use a speech that is freely available or pay money for a speech, you are engaging in plagiarism. This is also true if the main substance of your speech was copied from a web page. Any time you try to present someone else’s ideas as your own during a speech, you are plagiarizing.

Avoid Academic Fraud

While there are numerous websites where you can download free speeches for your class, this is tantamount to fraud. If you didn’t do the research and write your own speech, then you are fraudulently trying to pass off someone else’s work as your own. In addition to being unethical, many institutions have student codes that forbid such activity. Penalties for academic fraud can be as severe as suspension or expulsion from your institution.

Don’t Mislead Your Audience

If you know a source is clearly biased, and you don’t spell this out for your audience, then you are purposefully trying to mislead or manipulate your audience. Instead, if the information may be biased, tell your audience that the information may be biased and allow your audience to decide whether to accept or disregard the information.

Give Author Credentials

You should always provide the author’s credentials. In a world where anyone can say anything and have it published on the Internet or even publish it in a book, we have to be skeptical of the information we see and hear. For this reason, it’s very important to provide your audience with background about the credentials of the authors you cite.

Use Primary Research Ethically

Lastly, if you are using primary research within your speech, you need to use it ethically as well. For example, if you tell your survey participants that the research is anonymous or confidential, then you need to make sure that you maintain their anonymity or confidentiality when you present those results. Furthermore, you also need to be respectful if someone says something is “off the record” during an interview. We must always maintain the privacy and confidentiality of participants during primary research, unless we have their express permission to reveal their names or other identifying information.

Key Takeaways

• Style focuses on the components of your speech that make up the form of your expression rather than your content.
• Social science disciplines, such as psychology, human communication, and business, typically use APA style, while humanities disciplines, such as English, philosophy, and rhetoric, typically use MLA style.
• The APA sixth edition and the MLA seventh edition are the most current style guides and the tables presented in this chapter provide specific examples of common citations for each of these styles.
• Citing sources within your speech is a three-step process: set up the citation, provide the cited information, and interpret the information within the context of your speech.
• A direct quotation is any time you utilize another individual’s words in a format that resembles the way they were originally said or written. On the other hand, a paraphrase is when you take someone’s ideas and restate them using your own words to convey the intended meaning.
• Ethically using sources means avoiding plagiarism, not engaging in academic fraud, making sure not to mislead your audience, providing credentials for your sources so the audience can make judgments about the material, and using primary research in ways that protect the identity of participants.
• Plagiarism is a huge problem and creeps its way into student writing and oral presentations. As ethical communicators, we must always give credit for the information we convey in our writing and our speeches.
• List what you think are the benefits of APA style and the benefits of MLA style. Why do you think some people prefer APA style over MLA style or vice versa?
• Find a direct quotation within a magazine article. Paraphrase that direct quotation. Then attempt to paraphrase the entire article as well. How would you cite each of these orally within the body of your speech?
• Which of Menager-Beeley and Paulos (2009) twelve strategies for avoiding plagiarism do you think you need the most help with right now? Why? What can you do to overcome and avoid that pitfall?

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. See also American Psychological Association. (2010). Concise rules of APA Style: The official pocket style guide from the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.

Howard, R. M., & Taggart, A. R. (2010). Research matters . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, p. 131.

Menager-Beeley, R., & Paulos, L. (2009). Understanding plagiarism: A student guide to writing your own work . Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, pp. 5–8.

Modern Language Association. (2009). MLA handbook for writers of research papers (7th ed.). New York, NY: Modern Language Association.

Workplace Bullying Institute. (2009). Bullying: Getting away with it WBI Labor Day Study—September, 2009. Retrieved July 14, 2011, from http://www.workplacebullying.org/res/WBI2009-B-Survey.html

Stand up, Speak out Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to Cite a Speech

Last Updated: July 6, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Danielle Blinka, MA, MPA . Danielle Blinka is a Writer, Editor, Podcaster, Improv Performer, and Artist currently living in Houston, TX. She also has experience teaching English and writing to others. Danielle holds a Bachelor of Arts in English, Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Master of Arts in English with a concentration in writing, and Master of Public Administration from Lamar University. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 32,256 times. Learn more...

Speeches can provide a lot of great information, but citing them can seem hard. Luckily, there are ways for you to cite that information. If you find the speech in a book, then you can cite the book as an edited book, using the correct writing style. Otherwise, you can follow the speech citation guidelines for the style guide you're using. Also, you can cite a speech in-text in the same way you would any other source.

Using MLA Format

• If the speech had two authors, you'd alphabetize it using the first author's last name. Then, write "and" and the second author's name. For example: Lopez, Ana and Sam Robinson.
• If you found the speech in a book, then you can format your citation for a book, using the book’s information.
• You’d start your citation like this: Weber, Alex.

• For example, you might find Alex Weber’s speech titled as “Building a Robot.”
• In cases where there is no speech name given, you can note this by giving it an appropriate title. For example, “Keynote Speech at National Robotics Conference.” In this case, you’re telling the audience that the information is from an unnamed speech you heard the author give at the National Robotics Conference.
• Your citation would like like this so far: Weber, Alex. "Building a Robot."

• For example, Alex Weber may have been presenting at the National Robotics Conference, which is the name you’d use.
• If you’re citing a class lecture, you can list the course name and course number for this entry. [4] X Research source
• At this point, your citation should look like this: Weber, Alex. "Building a Robot." National Robotics Conference,

• For a class lecture, you’d use your university. [6] X Research source
• Your citation should now look like this: Weber, Alex. “Building a Robot.” National Robotics Conference, Center for Robotics,

• Here's an example of the citation up to this point: Weber, Alex. “Building a Robot.” National Robotics Conference, Center for Robotics, 8 January 2018,

• You do not need to include the city if it’s specified in the name of the venue. [8] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source As an example, you would not need to specify Houston, TX, if the venue name was Houston Civic Center.
• This citation would like like this so far: Weber, Alex. “Building a Robot.” National Robotics Conference, Center for Robotics, 8 January 2018, George R. Brown Center, Houston, TX.

• Your final citation will look like this: Weber, Alex. “Building a Robot.” National Robotics Conference, Center for Robotics, 8 January 2018, George R. Brown Center, Houston, TX. Keynote Address.

Following APA Format

• If you can't find a transcript, you can look for a video of the speech. As another alternative, you can look for a book that uses excerpts of the speech or look for the sources the speaker used to support the material in the speech, which you can use instead of the speech itself.
• If you find your transcript, you can cite the speech appropriately using the format of an edited book, article , or website .
• For example: Lamar, Amy. Influential speeches on robotics . Atlanta, GA: B&B Publishers.

• This works for both a recording of the speech or a transcript.
• If you found the speech on YouTube, you should start your citation entry with the name of the posting account.
• Your citation should look like this so far: Jackson, Malik.

• For instance, the Center for Robotics may have uploaded Malik Jackson’s speech on June 3, 2018, right after its delivery.
• Here's an example: Jackson, Malik. (2018, June).

• If you watched a video of the speech, label it as a video file after the title, like this: [Video file]. In this case, you should put your period after [Video file].
• For example, your citation might look like this so far: Jackson, Malik. (2018, June). Repairing Surgical Machines [Video File].

• Your final entry might look like this: Jackson, Malik. (2018, June). Repairing Surgical Machines [Video File]. Retrieved from www.centerforrobotics.com/speeches/repairing_surgical_machines.

Citing in Chicago Style

• You can use the name of the speaker first, no matter what your source type is. However, the rest of your citation can vary, depending on the source where you found the speech. If you found the transcript in a book, the rest of the citation should be formatted like an edited book. [16] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• Your citation should look like this so far: Ray, Jane.

• Here's an example: Ray, Jane. "Choosing Robot Components.”

• If the speech was a class lecture, you should label it “Classroom discussion” instead of “Speech.” You should also include the name of your course. [18] X Research source
• For instance: Ray, Jane. "Choosing Robot Components.” Speech,

• Write it like this: Houston, TX,
• Your citation would look like this so far: Ray, Jane. "Choosing Robot Components.” Speech, Houston, TX,

• The entry will look like this: Ray, Jane. "Choosing Robot Components.” Speech, Houston, TX, January 8, 2018.

• For instance, format it like this: Ray, Jane. "Choosing Robot Components.” Speech, Houston, TX, January 8, 2018. EBSCO Database.

• For example, you could write your citation like this: Ray, Jane. "Choosing Robot Components.” Speech, Houston, TX, January 8, 2018. Robot Science. http://www.centerforrobotics.com/speeches/building_a_robot.

Creating In-Text Citations

• For example, you could write it like this: “According to Weber’s research, metal components can create more durable robots than plastic components.”
• For APA, you should also include the year in parentheses after the name. You would write, "According to Ray (2018), metal components are a better option than plastic components."
• For Chicago Style, you can use endnotes to provide the rest of the source information.

• Your passage might look like this: “Studies show that metal components last 4 times as long as plastic components (Weber).”
• For APA, you should also include the year after the last name, separating them with a comma. It will look like this: (Weber, 2018).

• For example, let’s say Amy Lamar compiled several speeches about robotics into a book, including Alex Weber’s speech. You’d include a parenthetical citation at the end of the information you took from Weber’s speech, and it would look like this: (Lamar).
• For APA formatting, you should also include the year of the publication after the author’s last name, separated by a comma. For example, (Lamar, 2018). If you’re providing a direct quote, include the page number, as well. Separate each item with a comma. For example, (Lamar, 2018, p. 45). [26] X Research source
• As above, Chicago Style will use normal endnotes .

Community Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://style.mla.org/citing-a-copy-of-a-speech/
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_other_common_sources.html
• ↑ https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/cite-write/citation-style-guides/mla/lectures-speech-reading-address
• ↑ https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/transcript-audiovisual-work-references
• ↑ https://libanswers.snhu.edu/faq/195652
• ↑ https://library.menloschool.org/chicago/speech
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/miscellaneous.html
• ↑ https://penandthepad.com/cite-speech-using-mla-format-4450320.html
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/cite-speech-mla/
• ↑ https://penandthepad.com/cite-speech-apa-1310.html

About This Article

To cite a speech in MLA format, start by writing the speaker’s last name, followed by the first name and a period. Then, write the name of the speech title with quotation marks around it. Put a period after the speech title, making sure that the period goes inside the quotation mark. After that, list the name of the event where the speech occurred, the name of the host organization, and the date of the event, all separated by commas. Following the date, you’ll need to list the venue and the city and state where it’s located, with a period after the state. Finish by writing the type of speech you’re citing, such as “Keynote Address” or “Lecture.” To learn more, like how to cite a speech in APA or Chicago Style, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Last Updated: Jun 22, 2023 Views: 87439

How you cite a speech will depend upon what citation style you are using. Check with your professor if you an unsure as to what style you should use.

The APA Style page " Transcript of an Audiovisual Work References This link opens in a new window " states that "You don’t reference the speech itself!" Instead, you find the speech in a source such as a book, film, or website and cite that. 

For example, if you are using Ronald Reagan's "Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate," you would find a source that contains the speech and then cite the source according to the proper style (website, book, etc.).

In-Text Citation

(Regan, 1987).

Reference Page

Reagan, R. (1987). Tear Down This Wall: Remarks at Brandenburg Gate  [Speech transcript]. Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library, https://www.reaganfoundation.org/media/128814/brandenburg.pdf This link opens in a new window .

See page 335 of the MLA Handbook for more examples.

(Atwood "Silencing the Scream").

Works Cited Page

Atwood, Margaret. "Silencing the Scream." Boundaries of the Imagination Forum. MLA  Annual Convention, 29 Dec. 1993, Royal York Hotel, Toronto.

Note : If you are quoting a speech published in a book or journal you will cite that source.

Chicago Style

The Chicago Manual of Style is currently in its 17th edition. 

NOTE: For lectures, papers presented at meetings, and speeches that are published in other sources, the Chicago Manual of Style indicates that the material should be cited in the medium it was published.  For example, if the lecture was published in a book, cite it as a chapter in a book.  For live lectures, paper presentations, and speeches, see the formats below.  

Lectures at Meetings

For notes and bibliography style (see section 14.217: Lectures, papers presented at meetings , of the Chicago Manual of Style).

The sponsorship, location, and date of the meeting at which a speech was given or a paper presented follow the title. This information, like that following a thesis title, is put in parentheses in a note but not in a bibliography. 

For example (don't forget to indent the second and subsequent lines):

2. Stacy D’Erasmo, “The Craft and Career of Writing” (lecture, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, April 26, 2000).

Teplin, Linda A., Gary M. McClelland, Karen M. Abram, and Jason J. Washburn. “Early Violent Death in Delinquent Youth: A Prospective Longitudinal Study.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychology-Law Society, La Jolla, CA, March 2005.

The Author-Date section of the Chicago Style does not include an example for Lectures. In this case, see Section 15.3 of the Manual. It says in part that “Most of the examples in chapter 14 are readily adapted to the author-date style—in almost all cases by a different ordering or arrangement of elements.” For the in-text (parenthetical) citation, you would use this basic format: (Author Last Name, Year).  See Section 14.226 of the manual for whether a bibliography entry is needed (it will depend upon how you accessed the lecture).

Audio Recordings of Speeches

For notes and bibliography style (see section 14.264 Recorded readings, lectures, audiobooks, and the like , of the Chicago Manual of Style).

Audio recordings are treated much like musical recordings. 

For example:

3. Calvin Coolidge, “Equal Rights” (speech), ca. 1920, in “American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election, 1918–1920,” Library of Congress, copy of an undated 78 rpm disc, RealAudio and WAV formats, 3:45, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml/.

4. Eleanor Roosevelt, “Is America Facing World Leadership?,” convocation speech, Ball State Teacher’s College, May 6, 1959, Muncie, IN, radio broadcast, reel-to-reel tape, MPEG copy, 1:12:49, http://libx.bsu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/ElRoos/id/1.

For author-date style (see section 15.57 Citing recordings and multimedia in author-date format , of the Chicago Manual of Style) the manual states that Audiovisual recordings and other multimedia can be cited in author-date format by adapting the recommendations and examples outlined and exemplified in  14.261–68 . 

(Coolidge [1920?])

References page (don't forget to indent the second and subsequent lines):

Coolidge, Calvin. [1920?]. “Equal Rights” (speech). In “American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election, 1918–1920.” Library of Congress. Copy of an undated 78 rpm disc, RealAudio and WAV formats, 3:45. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml/.

More information:

• Citing Sources Guide (Shapiro Library)

This information is intended to be a guideline, not expert advice. Please speak to your professor about the appropriate way to cite speeches.

McAdoo, Timothy. (2009). How to cite a speech in APA style . Retrieved from http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/10/how-to-cite-a-speech-in-apa-style.html

The Modern Language Association of America. (2016).  MLA Handbook . New York: Modern Language Association of America.

University of Chicago. (2017).  14.226 Lectures, papers presented at meetings, and the lik e. Retrieved from http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/book/ed17/part3/ch14/psec217.html

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How do I cite a copy of a speech?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook . For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook .

You should always acknowledge when a speech was accessed using a secondary source. Thus, how you cite a copy of a speech depends on where you found it and the form in which it appears. 

Republished in a Digital Book

To cite a speech republished in a digital book, follow the MLA format template . List the name of the speaker and the title of the speech. Then list the title of the book and—if given—its editor, followed by the publication details for the book. If the work exists in print as well, list the format in the “Version” slot so that your reader will know that you are citing the digital version:

Goldman, Emma. “What Is Patriotism?” Great Speeches of the Twentieth Century , edited by Bob Blaisdell, Kindle ed., Dover Publications, 2011. 

Note that you do not need to provide original publication information for the speech because you are not citing the original version. You are citing the version republished in a book.

Scanned and Housed on a website

If you cite a speech from an archive scanned and housed on a website, you should list the original publication details provided by the site. The speech document is simply housed on the website; it is not a republished version of the work. The works-cited-list entry below, for a speech by Dwight Eisenhower scanned and housed on the website Docsteach , lists the name of the speaker and the title of the speech. The date of the speech is given in the middle optional-element slot because it refers back to what precedes. The name of the collection containing the speech is given as the title of the container, followed by the location of the collection. The second container lists the name of the website, its publisher, and the URL:

Eisenhower, Dwight D. “Chance for Peace.” 16 Apr. 1953. Collection DDE-EPRES: Eisenhower, Dwight D.: Papers as President of the United States, National Archives identifier 72736172. Docsteach , National Archives, www.docsteach.org/documents/document/chance-for-peace-speech.

Republished on a website

If a speech is republished in an HTML version on a website, then cite the speech the same way you cite a speech republished in a book. The  Docsteach  site from the example above contains not only a scan of Eisenhower’s speech but also an HTML transcript. To cite this version of the speech, list the name of the speaker, the title of the speech, and—in the middle optional-element slot—the date of the speech. Then list the name of the website as the title of the container, followed by the publication details. For clarity, you might list the format in the optional-element slot at the end of the entry.

Eisenhower, Dwight D. “Chance for Peace.” 16 Apr. 1953.  Docsteach , National Archives, www.docsteach.org/documents/document/chance-for-peace-speech. Transcript.

Note that in the book example, the date of the publication is that of the book rather than that of the speech because it is the most relevant date for that version of the work. In the transcript example, the date of the speech is provided because it is provided on the transcript.

Read more on citing speeches—in particular, a lecture or speech heard online .

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• The Basics of In-Text Citation | APA & MLA Examples

The Basics of In-Text Citation | APA & MLA Examples

Published on March 14, 2022 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on February 28, 2024.

An in-text citation is a short acknowledgement you include whenever you quote or take information from a source in academic writing. It points the reader to the source so they can see where you got your information.

In-text citations most commonly take the form of short parenthetical statements indicating the author and publication year of the source, as well as the page number if relevant.

We also offer a free citation generator and in-depth guides to the main citation styles.

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Table of contents

What are in-text citations for, when do you need an in-text citation, types of in-text citation, frequently asked questions about in-text citations.

The point of an in-text citation is to show your reader where your information comes from. Including citations:

• Avoids plagiarism by acknowledging the original author’s contribution
• Allows readers to verify your claims and do follow-up research
• Shows you are engaging with the literature of your field

Academic writing is seen as an ongoing conversation among scholars, both within and between fields of study. Showing exactly how your own research draws on and interacts with existing sources is essential to keeping this conversation going.

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An in-text citation should be included whenever you quote or paraphrase a source in your text.

Quoting means including the original author’s words directly in your text, usually introduced by a signal phrase . Quotes should always be cited (and indicated with quotation marks), and you should include a page number indicating where in the source the quote can be found.

Paraphrasing means putting information from a source into your own words. In-text citations are just as important here as with quotes, to avoid the impression you’re taking credit for someone else’s ideas. Include page numbers where possible, to show where the information can be found.

However, to avoid over-citation, bear in mind that some information is considered common knowledge and doesn’t need to be cited. For example, you don’t need a citation to prove that Paris is the capital city of France, and including one would be distracting.

Different types of in-text citation are used in different citation styles . They always direct the reader to a reference list giving more complete information on each source.

Author-date citations (used in APA , Harvard , and Chicago author-date ) include the author’s last name, the year of publication, and a page number when available. Author-page citations (used in MLA ) are the same except that the year is not included.

Both types are divided into parenthetical and narrative citations. In a parenthetical citation , the author’s name appears in parentheses along with the rest of the information. In a narrative citation , the author’s name appears as part of your sentence, not in parentheses.

Note: Footnote citations like those used in Chicago notes and bibliography are sometimes also referred to as in-text citations, but the citation itself appears in a note separate from the text.

An in-text citation is an acknowledgement you include in your text whenever you quote or paraphrase a source. It usually gives the author’s last name, the year of publication, and the page number of the relevant text. In-text citations allow the reader to look up the full source information in your reference list and see your sources for themselves.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.

• APA Style is the most popular citation style, widely used in the social and behavioral sciences.
• MLA style is the second most popular, used mainly in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography style is also popular in the humanities, especially history.
• Chicago author-date style tends to be used in the sciences.

Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.

The most important thing is to choose one style and use it consistently throughout your text.

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Caulfield, J. (2024, February 28). The Basics of In-Text Citation | APA & MLA Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 9, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/in-text-citation-styles/

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Presentations, Speeches, and Projects

• Citing Your Sources in a Presentation

• Citing Sources in a PowerPoint Presentation

There are several ways to cite sources in a project depending on the source and your instructor's requirements.

Most instructors want you to cite your sources the same as you would if you were writing a paper for your in-text citations.

Some instructors instead have you number your sources on your Works Cited or References page and then use the number as the in-text citation. You would follow your instructors requirements.

For images, see Finding and Citing Images in a Project .

Citing Sources in a Presentation

• Intro to Verbal Citations
• Additional Verbal Citation Resources

When preparing your presentation, remember that all sources used must be cited in both the Works Cited page and in-text.  For a speech you will need to verbally give credit to your sources. Verbally citing a source can be as simple as stating, "Dr. Bob, a Professor at Clemson University, stated in a 2019 Forbes article, ..."   Other examples could be, "The World Health Organization published the following Zika virus statistics on April 12, 2016...," or "According to Neal's book we learned..."

By verbally citing your sources you are lending credibility to your topic and making  your position stronger. Be sure to vary the language in which you verbally cite sources to keep your presentation more interesting (don't say "According to..." every time). 

• Oral Citations Video (Video) A brief tutorial on creating and delivering oral citations in public speaking. Topics include the importance of oral citations, when oral citations are necessary, and how to create and deliver oral citations in a speech. (5 mins.)
• Orally Citing a Source in a Speech (Video) by Janene Davison This is a basic primer on how to incorporate indirect and direct quotes into your presentation. (4 mins.)
• Tips on citing sources when speaking publicly by Sarah Stone Watt Gives example of written sources versus orally attributions.

Most instructors want you to cite your sources the same you would if you were writing a paper for your in-text citations where you include an in-text on the slide where you used the information, and a Works Cited or References list of all your sources on a slide at the end of your presentation.

Some instructors instead have you number your sources on your Works Cited or References slide and then use the number as the in-text citation. Follow your instructor's requirements.

For images, see   Finding and Citing Images in a Project .

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MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

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Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (9 th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the  MLA Handbook  and in chapter 7 of the  MLA Style Manual . Both books provide extensive examples, so it's a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

Basic in-text citation rules

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations . This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

• The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
• Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

In-text citations: Author-page style

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . Oxford UP, 1967.

In-text citations for print sources with known author

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . University of California Press, 1966.

In-text citations for print sources by a corporate author

When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g., nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly long parenthetical citations.

In-text citations for sources with non-standard labeling systems

If a source uses a labeling or numbering system other than page numbers, such as a script or poetry, precede the citation with said label. When citing a poem, for instance, the parenthetical would begin with the word “line”, and then the line number or range. For example, the examination of William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” would be cited as such:

The speaker makes an ardent call for the exploration of the connection between the violence of nature and the divinity of creation. “In what distant deeps or skies. / Burnt the fire of thine eyes," they ask in reference to the tiger as they attempt to reconcile their intimidation with their relationship to creationism (lines 5-6).

Longer labels, such as chapters (ch.) and scenes (sc.), should be abbreviated.

In-text citations for print sources with no known author

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name, following these guidelines.

Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.

Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to Lighthouse .

If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:

"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs . 1999. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.

If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation.

Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

Author-page citation for classic and literary works with multiple editions

Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's  The Communist Manifesto . In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:

Author-page citation for works in an anthology, periodical, or collection

When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the  internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in  Nature  in 1921, you might write something like this:

See also our page on documenting periodicals in the Works Cited .

Citing authors with same last names

Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:

Citing a work by multiple authors

For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:

Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations , vol. 108, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1

For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al.

Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine , vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.

Citing multiple works by the same author

If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author :

Citing two books by the same author :

Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when appropriate, the page number(s):

Citing multivolume works

If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)

Citing the Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:

If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:

John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).

Citing indirect sources

Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited within another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:

Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source.

Citing transcripts, plays, or screenplays

Sources that take the form of a dialogue involving two or more participants have special guidelines for their quotation and citation. Each line of dialogue should begin with the speaker's name written in all capitals and indented half an inch. A period follows the name (e.g., JAMES.) . After the period, write the dialogue. Each successive line after the first should receive an additional indentation. When another person begins speaking, start a new line with that person's name indented only half an inch. Repeat this pattern each time the speaker changes. You can include stage directions in the quote if they appear in the original source.

Conclude with a parenthetical that explains where to find the excerpt in the source. Usually, the author and title of the source can be given in a signal phrase before quoting the excerpt, so the concluding parenthetical will often just contain location information like page numbers or act/scene indicators.

Here is an example from O'Neill's  The Iceman Cometh.

WILLIE. (Pleadingly) Give me a drink, Rocky. Harry said it was all right. God, I need a drink.

ROCKY. Den grab it. It's right under your nose.

WILLIE. (Avidly) Thanks. (He takes the bottle with both twitching hands and tilts it to his lips and gulps down the whiskey in big swallows.) (1.1)

Citing non-print or sources from the Internet

With more and more scholarly work published on the Internet, you may have to cite sources you found in digital environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's  Evaluating Sources of Information  resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited page.

Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. However, these sorts of entries often do not require a page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:

• Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
• Do not provide paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
• Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like  CNN.com  or  Forbes.com,  as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Miscellaneous non-print sources

Two types of non-print sources you may encounter are films and lectures/presentations:

In the two examples above “Herzog” (a film’s director) and “Yates” (a presentor) lead the reader to the first item in each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:

Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo . Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.

Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Address.

Electronic sources

Electronic sources may include web pages and online news or magazine articles:

In the first example (an online magazine article), the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below).

In the second example (a web page), a parenthetical citation is not necessary because the page does not list an author, and the title of the article, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide,” is used as a signal phrase within the sentence. If the title of the article was not named in the sentence, an abbreviated version would appear in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:

Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant , 13 Jun. 2003, www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2009. 

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL , 2 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Accessed 2 April 2018.

Multiple citations

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:

Time-based media sources

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

When a citation is not needed

Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations, or common knowledge (For example, it is expected that U.S. citizens know that George Washington was the first President.). Remember that citing sources is a rhetorical task, and, as such, can vary based on your audience. If you’re writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, you may need to deal with expectations of what constitutes “common knowledge” that differ from common norms.

Other Sources

The MLA Handbook describes how to cite many different kinds of authors and content creators. However, you may occasionally encounter a source or author category that the handbook does not describe, making the best way to proceed can be unclear.

In these cases, it's typically acceptable to apply the general principles of MLA citation to the new kind of source in a way that's consistent and sensible. A good way to do this is to simply use the standard MLA directions for a type of source that resembles the source you want to cite.

You may also want to investigate whether a third-party organization has provided directions for how to cite this kind of source. For example, Norquest College provides guidelines for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers⁠ —an author category that does not appear in the MLA Handbook . In cases like this, however, it's a good idea to ask your instructor or supervisor whether using third-party citation guidelines might present problems.

MLA Tricky Citations

Most sources you come across for will follow the basic structure for an MLA citation. Even sources you might think are unusual, like a pamphlet, a magazine advertisement, or a message posted to a discussion forum, all can be cited using the same format outlined in our resource on MLA citation basics . There are however, a few sources and situations that might require a slight change to the format. The following examples should help with some of the more common, but still tricky, citations you may be faced with.

Note : All MLA documents, Works Cited pages included, should be double-spaced. The following examples are single-spaced for the purposes of this resource only.

Group/corporate author

When a source has a group or corporation as an author, cite that group name the same as you would an individual author. For Works Cited entries, when the author and publisher are the same, skip the author, and list the title first. Then list the corporate author only as the publisher.

Food literacy can help mitigate childhood obesity because “being food literate empowers us to make informed choices” (Food Literacy Center).

Works cited:

“What is Food Literacy?” Food Literacy Center , 2015, http://www.foodliteracycenter.org/what-food-literacy. Accessed 28 Nov. 2016.

Multiple sources by the same author

To distinguish a source from others by the same author, include a shortened title for the work you are quoting. In the Works Cited, only give the author’s name in the first entry. For all following entries, replace the author’s name with three hyphens. These entries should be alphabetized by title.

We will be better equipped to design valuable education plans at each level if we understand that becoming an effective writer is a long-term, multidimensional process of development (Bazerman, “Understanding”).

Bazerman, Charles. “Understanding the Lifelong Journey of Writing Development.” Infancia y Aprendizaje , vol. 36, no. 4, Nov. 2013, pp. 421-441.

---. “Writing with Concepts: Communal, Internalized, and Externalized.”  Mind, Culture, and Activity , vol. 19, no. 3, 2012, pp. 259-272,  ERIC , doi: 10.1080/10749039.2012.688231.

Speeches, lectures, or other oral presentations

To cite a speech, lecture, or other oral presentation, cite the speaker’s name and the title of the speech (if any) in quotation marks. Follow with the title of the particular conference or meeting, the name of the organization, and the venue and its city (if the name of the city is not listed in the venue’s name). Use the descriptor that appropriately expresses the type of presentation (e.g., Lecture, Reading, Conference Presentation, etc.).

Losh, Elizabeth. “Leave No Trace: Digital Erasure and the Composition Classroom.” Western States Rhetoric and Literacy Conference, 21 Oct. 2016, University of California, San Diego. Keynote Address.

Government document

Cite the author of the publication if the author is identified. Otherwise, start with the name of the national government, followed by the agency (including any subdivisions or agencies) that serves as the organizational author. For congressional documents, include the number of the Congress and the session when the hearing was held or resolution passed as well as the report number.

United States, Congress, Senate, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Hearing on the Geopolitics of Oil. Government Printing Office, 2007. 110th Congress, 1st session, Senate Report 111-8.

To cite an interview you conducted, list the person you interviewed (last name first), identify it as a “Personal Interview” (if conducted in-person), an “Email Interview,” or a “Telephone Interview,” and provide the date of the interview.

Sloane, Sarah. Personal Interview. 12 May 2015.

Dissertation or master's theses

To cite a published dissertation or master's thesis, cite the work as you would a book (with an italicized title), but include the designation Dissertation (or MA/MS thesis) followed by the degree-granting school and the year the degree was awarded. You may also include the University Microfilms International (UMI) order number.

Bishop, Karen Lynn. Documenting Institutional Identity: Strategic Writing in the IUPUI Comprehensive Campaign . Dissertation, Purdue University, 2002. UMI, 2004.

To cite an unpublished dissertation or master's thesis, put the title in quotation marks and end with the date the degree was awarded.

Works  cited:

Graban, Tarez Samra. "Towards a Feminine Ironic: Understanding Irony in the Oppositional Discourse of Women from the Early Modern and Modern Periods." Dissertation, Purdue University, 2006.

Work of art

To cite an original work of art (the primary source, not a reproduction in a book), provide the artist's name, the title of the artwork in italics, the date of composition, and the medium of the piece. Finally, name the institution that houses the artwork followed by the location of the institution (unless the location is included in the title of the institution, e.g., Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

Chagall, Marc.  Rain . 1911, oil and charcoal on canvas, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.

Indirect source

To cite a source quoted within another source, identify the original source in your sentence to introduce the quotation and use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For the Works Cited page, cite the source you consulted not the original source (in this case, cite Koosed and Schumm).

According to Hardin and Hardin, “respect for authority, individualism, sacrifice 'for the team,' and hard work" are key values that come out of American sports and sports media (qtd. in Koosed and Schumm).

Multiple sources in one sentence

To cite multiple sources in the same in-text citation, separate the sources by a semi-colon.

Playing a “pro-social” video game can increase the perceptions of a player’s humanity and increase positive humanity traits (Greitmeyer; Happ, Melzer, and Steffgen).

Authors with the same last name

If two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or their full names if different authors share initials) in your in-text citation. In the Works Cited page, alphabetize these sources by first name (e.g., Brown, Penelope would come before Brown, Thomas).

Mitigating devices can also show up as hedges (e.g.,  perhaps ) or other means of impersonalizing (P. Brown).

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Electrical Engineering and Systems Science > Audio and Speech Processing

Title: rall-e: robust codec language modeling with chain-of-thought prompting for text-to-speech synthesis.

Abstract: We present RALL-E, a robust language modeling method for text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis. While previous work based on large language models (LLMs) shows impressive performance on zero-shot TTS, such methods often suffer from poor robustness, such as unstable prosody (weird pitch and rhythm/duration) and a high word error rate (WER), due to the autoregressive prediction style of language models. The core idea behind RALL-E is chain-of-thought (CoT) prompting, which decomposes the task into simpler steps to enhance the robustness of LLM-based TTS. To accomplish this idea, RALL-E first predicts prosody features (pitch and duration) of the input text and uses them as intermediate conditions to predict speech tokens in a CoT style. Second, RALL-E utilizes the predicted duration prompt to guide the computing of self-attention weights in Transformer to enforce the model to focus on the corresponding phonemes and prosody features when predicting speech tokens. Results of comprehensive objective and subjective evaluations demonstrate that, compared to a powerful baseline method VALL-E, RALL-E significantly improves the WER of zero-shot TTS from $6.3\%$ (without reranking) and $2.1\%$ (with reranking) to $2.8\%$ and $1.0\%$, respectively. Furthermore, we demonstrate that RALL-E correctly synthesizes sentences that are hard for VALL-E and reduces the error rate from $68\%$ to $4\%$.

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