Answered By: Elaine M. Patton
Last Updated: Apr 16, 2020     Views: 21

Every citation, whichever style you're using, has two parts: the in-text citation and the full citation details. Some sources, like a journal article, will include page numbers in the full citation, because the article only appears in a small piece of the whole. Sources like webpages don't include that information, and generally speaking, if something is unavailable, you'll skip including it in the citation.

For in-text citations, the rules vary by citation style as to what you do when your source lacks page numbers. Usually you can look for other identifying information like section names or paragraph numbers, if those are available.

MLA

Author, no pages (Smith)
No author, no pages ("Article")
Source has numbered paragraphs* (Smith, par. 30)
Source has numbered chapters (Smith, ch. 2)
Video or audio - use timestamp (Smith, 4:14)

*If a source does not number the paragraphs for you, you're not expected to count them in MLA.

APA

Author, no pages (Smith, 2019)
No author, no pages ("Article," 2019)
Source has paragraphs (count them) (Smith, 2019, para. 10)
Source has numbered chapters (Smith, 2019, ch. 2)
Video or audio - use timestamp (Smith, 2019, 4:14)
Source has named sections (Smith, 2019, Introduction section)

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