How to Add a Narrative Citation in MonsterWriter

Applies to: Documents editor

There are two ways to cite a source in-text. A parenthetical citation puts the author and year in brackets at the end of a sentence. A narrative citation incorporates the author's name into the sentence itself, with only the year in brackets.

Inserting a narrative citation

1. 1

   Write the author's name in your sentence

   Type the author's name as part of your sentence — for example, "Smith argues that…"

2. 2

   Open the citation dialog

   Place your cursor immediately after the author name and open the citation dialog.

3. 3

   Find or add the reference

   Search for the reference by title, author, or DOI, or add it via identifier auto-fill.

4. 4

   Switch to narrative mode

   In the citation dialog, toggle the citation type to "Narrative" (sometimes labelled "Author in text" or "Name–year"). This tells MonsterWriter to suppress the author name in the brackets and show only the year.

5. 5

   Insert

   The result appears as Smith (2020) — the author name you typed flows naturally into the sentence, and MonsterWriter handles the year brackets and bibliography entry.

When to use each type

Use parenthetical citations when the source supports a claim but the author is not the focus of the sentence. Use narrative citations when you are specifically discussing a researcher's argument or finding and their identity is part of what you want to convey.

Mixing the two types throughout a paper is normal and expected in most academic styles.