Julius Caesar Speech: MLA In-text Citation Guidance
If a student is going to use a direct quote from lines 12-14 of the Julius Caesar speech above, which would be the correct MLA in-text citation?
A) “Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral …He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious;” (12-14)
B) "Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral …He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious; (12-14)
C) “Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral …He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious;”. (Page 12-14)
Eliminate D) “Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral …He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious;” (LINE 12-14)
Answer:
For MLA in-text citation, with the choices given, you can eliminate C and D right away. You do not put "Page" nor "Line" before the numbers. You simply put the number of the page or line in the parenthesis.
Now you are left with A and B. When you quote, you need to enclose the whole quote in the quotation marks. As you can see B is not fully closed. Let's say that it may be a typo of the question, but nevertheless, B would still be wrong because the page numbers should be within the sentence, thus the period (.) should be after the page numbers indicated, not before.
If you look at A, it fits the criteria. "Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral …He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious;" (12-14).
When citing a direct quote in MLA format, it is important to follow the guidelines for accuracy and consistency. The in-text citation should include the author's name and the page number or line number where the quote is found.
In this case, the correct MLA in-text citation for a direct quote from lines 12-14 of the Julius Caesar speech would be option A: "Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral …He was my friend, faithful and just to me: But Brutus says he was ambitious;" (12-14).
Remember to always double-check your citations to ensure they are formatted correctly and provide the necessary information for proper attribution.