How to Cite Paragraph Numbers from Short Stories
Citations can seem a bit confusing and overwhelming at times. It's the little bits of information that can throw us off. One such citation that may have you stumped is citing paragraph numbers in a short story. Most short stories don't have paragraph numbers, therefore citing them is unnecessary. If you do run into a scenario where you need to cite paragraph numbers of a short story, break it down: Learn to cite a short story, then learn to cite paragraph numbers.
Instructions
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1
Develop a signal phrase that includes the short story's title and author. Short story titles should be in quotation marks:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is the story of a woman's journey into madness (306--319).
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2
Cite the page numbers of the source in parentheses. If the author's name was not used in the signal phrase, it should be cited in the parentheses:
"The Yellow Wallpaper" is the story of a woman's journey into madness (Gilman 306--319).
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3
Cite the paragraph number in parentheses. This is most commonly done for electronic sources and should be done only if the author inserted paragraph numbers in the story:
The introductory paragraph of Smith's story sets the mood (par. 1).
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Tips & Warnings
If there is no page number or paragraph number to cite, then you need only the author's name in the citation.
Do not cite paragraph numbers if they are not numbered in the source.
Do not cite page numbers if they are not numbered in the source (for example, on a website).
Do not cite page numbers from sources you printed out yourself if they aren't included in the original source. Different printers and programs will cut pages off differently.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit writing image by Alison Bowden from Fotolia.com
