11.4 Signal Phrases

A signal phrase, also known as an attributive tag, is a device used to smoothly integrate quotations, paraphrases, and summarized content into an essay. It is important to use signal phrases to clearly attribute supporting evidence to its author or authors and to avoid interrupting the flow of an essay. Signal phrases can also be used as meaningful transitions, moving your readers between your ideas and those of your sources.

A signal phrase consists of:

• an author’s name and
• an active verb indicating how the author is presenting the material.
• A signal phrase may also include an author’s credentials and/or affiliations as well as the title and/or publisher of the source text.

MLA Guidelines: 

• If you are referring to an author for the first time in your essay, you should include that author’s first and last name in your signal phrase as well as the author’s relevant credentials or affiliations (you might also want to include the title of the source text).
• After the initial introduction of the author, any subsequent signal phrase referencing that same author should contain the author’s last name only.

APA Guidelines:

• Signal phrases should contain no author first names at any point in an essay – only last names.
• Author credentials are unnecessary in APA signal phrases, although you may want to include credentials if they are especially relevant to the content or if you are incorporating journalistic and other popular sources into your essay.
• Place the year of publication in parentheses after the author’s last name.

In essays written according to MLA and APA guidelines, it is acceptable to refer to an author as “the author” as long as it’s perfectly clear to whom you are referring. In APA, it is common to see references to “researchers.”

Signal Phrase Verb Tense

MLA style guidelines: signal phrase verbs are in present tense.

• Pollan observes, “Americans today are having a national conversation about food and agriculture that would have been impossible to imagine even a few short years ago” (29).

APA style guidelines: signal phrase verbs are in past or present perfect tense.

• Pollan (2009) observed that “Americans today are having a national conversation about food and agriculture that would have been impossible to imagine even a few short years ago” (p. 29).
• Pollan (2009) has observed that…

Notice how each signal phrase verb is followed by the word “that” or a comma, which is then followed by one space before the opening quotation mark.

You may have noticed that in-text citations are formatted differently based on citation style (APA guidelines require placing “p.” before the page number, where as MLA guidelines require the page number only). See section 12.6 for more information on APA in-text citations and section 12.2 for MLA citations.

Varying Your Verbs

You should also vary your signal phrase verbs (rather than simply using “states” throughout your entire essay) in order to maintain your readers’ interest and to indicate the author’s intended use of the excerpted material. See below for examples of strong signal phrase verbs.

Types of MLA Signal Phrases

In most instances, the first time the author is mentioned in an MLA-style essay, as well as including the author’s first and last name in a signal phrase, it is also a good idea to include the author’s credentials and the title of the source.

While providing the author’s credentials and title of the source are the most common types of signal phrases, there are others we should be aware of. In the examples below, the information relevant to the type of signal phrase is underlined.

Type: Author’s credentials are indicated.

Presenting an author’s credentials should help build credibility for the passage you are about to present. Including the author’s credentials gives your readers a reason to consider your sources.

• Example: Grace Chapmen, Curator of Human Health & Evolutionary Medicine at the Springfield Natural History Museum, explains…

Type: Author’s lack of credentials is indicated.

Identifying an author’s lack of credentials in a given area can help illustrate a lack of authority on the subject matter and persuade the audience not to adopt the author’s ideas. Pointing to an author’s lack of credentials can be beneficial when developing your response to counter-arguments.

• Example: Matthew Spencer, whose background is in marriage counseling, not foreign policy, claims…

Type: Author’s social or political stance, if necessary to the content, is explained.

Explaining the author’s social or political stance can help a reader to understand why that author expresses a particular view. This understanding can positively or negatively influence an audience. Be careful to avoid engaging in logical fallacies such as loaded language.

• Example:  Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Roland Hayes, prominent civil rights activist, preaches…

Ralph Spencer, who has ties to the White Nationalist movement, denies…

Type: Publisher of the source is identified.

Identifying the publisher of the passage can help reinforce the credibility of the information presented and you can capitalize on the reputation/ credibility of the publisher of the source material.

• Example: According to a recent CNN poll…

Type: Title of the Source is included.

Informs the reader where the cited passage is being pulled from.

• Example: In “Understanding Human Behavior,” Riley argues …

Type: Information that establishes context is presented.

Presenting the context that the original information was presented can help the audience understand the author’s purpose more clearly.

• Example: In a speech presented during a Free Speech rally, Elaine Wallace encourages …