What is an in-text citation?
Answer
In-text citations should be in the body of your work to reference where the research came from.
Citations include three key pieces of information: the author’s surname, the year the work was published and the page number or paragraph number where the specific information being cited can be found in the original source.
There are two ways of formatting in-text citations:
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When you provide information from a source but do not name the author in your writing, the citation should be placed in round brackets within or at the end of the sentence:
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Referencing is an important factor in achieving good results for assignments (Neville, 2021, p. 109).
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Further research (Noel, 2025, p. 16; Luan, 2024, pp. 2-3) clarified the findings ...
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When you do name the author in your writing, the date and page number should be placed in brackets directly after the author’s name:
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Neville (2021, p. 24) states that referencing is necessary for academic success.
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Wider research conducted by Pears and Shields (2025, p. 16) found that ...