Final answer:
They direct the reader to the full citation on the Works Cited page and are used after quoted or paraphrased material.
Step-by-step explanation:
In-text citations are inserted in the body of your essay to document your source. You must provide the last name of the author, followed by a page number, enclosed in parentheses.
For example, a properly formatted in-text citation might look like this: (Smith 26). This format applies when you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a piece of information from a source.
No 'p.' or 'pp.' should precede the page number, and if you are indicating a range, you should use a hyphen.
The purpose of an in-text citation is to provide a brief reference that points readers to the more detailed citation information listed on the Works Cited page.
When quoting, a signal phrase can introduce the quoted material, and the in-text citation appears at the end of the sentence, after the quoted or paraphrased material and before the period.
If there is no author, an abbreviated title of the work is used instead.