Q. Do I include the title if I quote single words from different pages in a book, ex. Padgett describes the character as "dumb" (Fish 3) & "weak" (152)?

In your example, you should just list the page numbers because you mentioned the author in the preceding text. If there is an author, an in-text citation consists of either:

• The author’s last name and page number, when the author’s name is not in the lead sentence.
• The page number only, if the author’s name is mentioned.

So your example would look like this:

Padgett describes the character, variously, as "dumb" (3), and "weak" (152).

I don’t think the following applies to you, but I’m including it just in case. You would only have to worry about differentiating titles if each page number was from a different essay in an anthology or collection. Because the example you gave seems to have the same title, you do not need to worry about that.

If the pages cited are from different essays in an anthology, then you would need to have separate references for each essay, and correspondingly, separate in-text citations.

Example:

Padgett, Muriel. "Listen to Me." A Tutor's guide: Helping Writers One to One. Ed. Ben Rafoth. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2000. 3. Print.

Padgett, Muriel. "Talk to Me." A Tutor's guide: Helping Writers One to One. Ed. Ben Rafoth. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2000. 152. Print.

So, in this case, where the page numbers come from different essays in an anthology or collection, your in-text citations would look like:

Example:

Padgett describes the character, variously, as "dumb" and "weak" (“Talk to Me” 3 ), and "boring" (“Listen to Me” 132).

For examples of the 2^nd situation, which I don’t think applies to you, look for the section titles Citing multiple works by the same author from Purdue Owl in the 1st link and the section A Work in an Anthology, Reference, or Collection in the 2nd link.