This is the most common form of in-text citation. It comprises the author(s) last name and the year of publication. It is called a parenthetical citation because this information is enclosed in parentheses. The parenthetical citation appears at the end of the sentence where data from the source was used and appears before the period because it is a part of the sentence. See the example of a parenthetical citation below:

Students reported they prefer writing on a computer rather than with paper and pen (Cheung, 2016).

The narrative citation is used when the author's name is used in a sentence. In this case, the year of publication enclosed in parentheses follows the author's name in the sentence. See the example of a narrative citation below:

In his survey, Cheung (2016) found that undergraduate writers produced higher quality writing when composing on a computer rather than with paper and pen.

In-text citations have two functions. First, they alert the reader that information from the source material was used in a sentence where the in-text citation appears. It lets the reader know who's work influenced the writer's position or conclusions. Second, it serves as a finding tool so the reader can quickly find the complete reference in the list. The reference and in-text citation need to match.