According to the MLA Handbook, you must “insert a brief parenthetical acknowledgement in your paper wherever you incorporate another’s words, facts, or ideas” (Gibaldi 204).  Generally speaking, your parenthetical documentation will include the author’s name and the page number from which the information came.

Example:

The post-colonial landscape is littered with moments of "astonishment rather than irritation" (Gordimer 93).

Note: If you acknowledge the author within the text, you need only supply the page number.

Example:

Gordimer describes the character’s reaction of "astonishment rather than irritation" (93).

If your list of Works Cited has multiple entries by the same author, you must give the title of the work from which the information comes.  If the title is long, you may abbreviate it.

Example:

The post-colonial landscape is littered with moments of "astonishment rather than irritation" (Gordimer, Selected Stories 93).

If you summarize ideas from a source with the source’s name in the text, you need cite only the page number from which the ideas came from.

Example:

Zesmer argues that Lady Macbeth’s swoon upon hearing the news that her husband has murdered the two grooms is not a fake, but rather is an indication of her genuine shock at the excesses of her husband’s violence (348).

If you summarize ideas from a source without the author’s name in the text, you must then cite both the name of the source and the page number.

Example:

Macbeth’s escalating violence ultimately leads him to deny the meaning of his own life (Bloom 38).