Q. How do parenthetical citations/in-text citations work in MLA?

To cite a source in MLA format from your paper, you have two options:

1) Parenthetical citations - this comes at the end of a sentence, and includes the author name and page number:

Example:

A recent study linked age with increasing risk of development PTSD (Johnson 36).

2) In-text citations - with this option, the author appears within the sentence, with the page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence.

Example:

Johnson proposes that age might be a risk factor in the development of PTSD (36).

If you are citing multiple sources in a sentence, you can separate the sources using a semicolon:

Example:

Researchers agree that males have increased odds of acquiring an Internet addiction (Gordon, 68; Small 212; Lam 533).

For more information on in-text citations, see Purdue Writing Lab's Basics of In-Text Citations page.