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MLA In-Text Citation Examples

(from the Purdue OWL)

Here is the original passage from page 248 of Ashley Montagu’s book, The American Way of Life (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1967), that we will be citing:

To be human is to weep. The human species is the only one in the whole world of animate nature that sheds tears. The trained inability of any human being to weep is a lessening of his capacity to be human – a defect that usually goes deeper than the mere inability to cry. And this, among other things, is what American parents – with the best intentions in the world – have achieved for the American male. It is very sad. If we feel like it, let us all have a good cry – and clear our minds of those cobwebs of confusion, which have for so long prevented us from understanding the ineluctable necessity of crying.

Now consider the various ways you can use the opinion expressed in the passage:

[1] Montagu claims that American men have a diminished capacity to be human because they have been trained by their culture not to cry (248).

[2] In his book The American Way of Life, Ashley Montagu writes, “The trained inability of any human being to weep is a lessening of his capacity to be human – a defect which usually goes deeper than the mere inability to cry” (248).

[3] According to Montagu, “To be human is to weep” (248).

[4] “If we feel like it,” writes Montagu, “let us have a good cry – and clear our minds of those cobwebs of confusion which have for so long prevented us from understanding the intellectual necessity of crying” (248).

[5] One distinguished anthropologist calls the American male’s reluctance to cry “a lessening of his capacity to be human” (Montagu 248).

[6] Montagu finds it “very sad” that American men have a “trained inability” to shed tears (248).

[7] When my grandfather died, all the members of my family – men and women alike – wept openly. We have never been ashamed to cry. As Montagu writes, “to be human is to weep” (248). I am sure we are more human, and in better mental and physical health, because we are able to express our feelings without artificial restraints.

[8] Montagu argues that it is both unnatural and harmful for American males not to cry:

To be human is to weep. The human species is the only one in the whole world of animate nature that sheds tears. The trained inability of any human being to weep is a lessening of his capacity to be human – a defect that usually goes deeper than the mere inability to cry…. It is very sad. (248)

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