References! References! References!

You have completed your bibliography and are writing your paper and need to refer to a source.  Should you refer to the author, the page title, the URL or something else?  The Purdue OWL provides a clear answer:

• 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 in the corresponding entry in the Works Cited List.

For example if your bibliography entry looks like this:  

Lundman, Susan. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow, www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html.*

You are required to state the last name of the author, "Lundman," in your reference, since the name of the author is what comes first in your bib. entry.  The last name of the author is then your "signal word."

If there is no author last name in your bibliography, then you will refer to the first thing provided in your correctly formatted MLA bib. entry.  In order of preference, these would typically be:

1. Author.
2. If no author:  use the title of the source. (Title of article or web page or abbreviated title)
3. If no title of source:  use the title of the "container" (Title of web site or abbreviated title.  Note this is NOT a URL)

Which brings us to another rule:

In-text citations for sources with no known author

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

We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has "more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change" ("Impact of Global Warming").

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title of the article appears in the parenthetical citation which corresponds to the full name of the article which appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry in the Works Cited. 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. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.

For sources with multiple authors:

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

Best and Marcus argue that one should read a text for what it says on its surface, rather than looking for some hidden meaning (9).

The authors claim that surface reading looks at what is “evident, perceptible, apprehensible in texts” (Best and Marcus 9).

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

According to Franck, et al, “Current agricultural policies in the U.S. are contributing to the poor health of Americans” (327).

The authors claim that one cause of obesity in the United States is government-funded farm subsidies (Franck, et al. 327).

For sources with no author available:

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