Question

According to MLA style, which part of this citation would be referenced as the source in an in-text citation?

Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Logan: Utah State UP, 2004. Print.

1.) Wysocki
2.)Writing new media
3.) Logan
4.)Up State UP
5.) 2004

Answer 1

The referenced source would be Wysocki, the author because in-text citations written in the paragraphs of any paper are in this form (Wysocki, 2004). It involves the author and the year of publication of the book because it would be too long to put the title in the in-text citation.

Answer 2

According to MLA style, the part of the citation that would be referenced as the source in an in-text citation is:

1. Wysocki

The abbreviation et al. means that there are multiple authors, however for the in-text citation in MLA style, one only needs to mention the last name of the author that appears in the works cited. In this case, Wysocki is the first item that appears in the works cited. As a general rule, the in-text citation should be the first item that appears in the works cited. For instance, if an article has no author then the in-text citation would include the article's title.

The in-text citation should be

(Wysocki 2004) or

According to Wysocki.... (2004)

The year helps the reader identify which book or work one is referring to, but the source is the author.