MLA PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION It is also known as internal or in-text documentation. It leads the reader to complete information for your source. Entries on Works Cited page determine what is placed in parentheses. Author mentioned in text or parentheses allows reader to locate EXACT source in Works Cited list. Quotation marks indicate EXACTLY what is being used from the source. Within the parentheses is the EXACT page location of the original information or quote. RULES FOR PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION 1. Keep parenthetical citations brief and accurate. 2. Cite a summary, paraphrase, or direct quote; cite anytime you refer to something you learned from a source. 3. Common knowledge is something the average person knows. You do not need to cite common knowledge. If you are not sure if something is common knowledge, document it to be safe. 4. A parenthetical citation must point clearly to a specific citation in the Works Cited list. 5. Draft the Works Cited list in advance so you know what needs to appear in parenthetical citations. 6. Place the citation as close to relevant material as possible without disrupting sentence or without interrupting the reader s train of thought. 7. When consecutive sentences are quoted from the same source, place the citation at end of the last sentence. 8. When citing from more than one source in a paragraph, cite each source separately. 9. If all the material in a paragraph is from one source, place citation at end of paragraph. However, you must introduce the borrowed material by making reference to the author or source of the material. 10. If material continues into next paragraph, place a citation at the end of each paragraph. If there are other sources in between, cite at end of each sentence. (See list of signal verbs, clauses, and phrases.) 11. If sentences contain a quote or statistical information, cite at end of each sentence. 12. General rule of thumb: You can never be penalized for over documenting; however, under documenting can be construed as plagiarism.
EXAMPLES WITH WORKS CITED LIST Please note: Quotations are in bold print for identification purposes only. PARENTHETICAL CITATION ISSUES EXAMPLES: SEE WORKS CITED PAGE THAT FOLLOWS 1 Author(s) mentioned in text Nie and Erbring question the effect working from home may have on a worker s lifestyle: Will it reduce the hours people work, or increase them by infusing work into every sphere of life, devouring leisure time and family life? (29). 2 Author(s) not mentioned in text A question arises as to the effect working at home may have on a worker s lifestyle: Will it reduce the hours people work, or increase them by infusing work into every sphere of life, devouring leisure time and family life? (Nie and Erbring 29). 3 Citation in middle of sentence Quote followed by writer s opinion 4 Long quote: More than 4 lines Indent 1 inch Documentation after final punctuation No quotation marks needed Although Ultan characterizes President Harding as an amiable man, loyal to his friends (58), many of his photographs fail to express these qualities. Weinberger describes the paradoxical nature of the idea of belonging to the public and yet maintaining one s individuality: The public has no formal structure, no leaders, no rites or rules of membership, no objectives, no charter, no dues, but it is undeniably real. And facelessness is a requirement for admission; we think of ourselves as being part of the public precisely when we re appealing to that which we have in common with others. (18) 5 Two or three authors According to Nie and Erbring, time spent using the Internet may cause individuals to be out of touch with their social surroundings (32). From some viewpoints, time spent using the Internet may cause individuals to be out of touch with their social surroundings (Nie and Erbring 32) 6 More than three authors According to one source, Emily Dickinson described herself as small, like a wren, with eyes whose color was like the sherry left by the guest in the wineglass (Spiller et al. 908). 7 Two or more works in one parenthetical reference Although Emily Dickinson was a recluse who stated, I do not cross my Father s ground to any House or town, she continued to be involved with her neighbors by correspondence and sending food and flowers (Wood 114; Longsworth 90).
8 More than one work by the same author (Durant, Lessons 299) (Durant, Interpretations 43) 9 A work listed only by title ( Human Cloning 7) (Daily Life 43) 10 Electronic source ( William Faulkner ) 11 Volume and page number In his sections on New England, Tyler makes reference to both Frances and John Higginson (1:160; 2:166-70). 12 Two works listed by the same title As recorded in several biographical sources, Dickinson s work was rejected repeatedly during her lifetime so that the majority of it was published after her death ( Emily Dickinson, Encyclopedia; Emily Dickinson, Authors). 13 Indirect source James Katz and Ronald Rice provide evidence that online internet groups are capable of providing rich, fertile, diverse, and expanded interactions among users (qtd. in Weinberger 23). 14 Poetry 15 Plays Use line numbers when given. If there are no line numbers, use page numbers. Cite by divisions: Act, Scene, Lines. In his poem My Last Duchess, Browning uses the image of a god and sea-horse to demonstrate his relationship with his late wife: Notice Neptune, though, / Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, / Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me! (54-56). Frost ponders the woods on a snowy winter night: Whose woods these are I think I know / His house is in the village, though; / He will not see me stopping here / To watch his woods fill up with snow (228). In part one of Shakespeare s King Henry the Fourth, Falstaff expresses a grandiose self-image in his utterance, Banish plum Jack, and banish all the world (2.4.456-57). 16 Religious works The biblical account indicates that Noah sent first a raven and then a dove to determine if the flood waters abated (The Holy Bible, Gen. 8.7-12). 17 Interviews (Wiesel)
Works Cited Browning, Robert. My Last Duchess. Browning: Poetical Works. Ed. Ian Jack. New York: Oxford UP, 1970. 367-69. Print. Coates, Joseph F., et al. The Internet Will Become a More Pervasive Part of Daily Life. Torr 179-87. Print. Durant, Will. Interpretations of Life. New York: Simon, 1970. Print. -- -- --. Lessons of History. New York: Simon, 1968. Print. "Emily Dickinson." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed. 17 vols. N.p.: Gale, 1998. Gale Biography in Context. Web. 22 May 2007. "Emily Dickinson. Authors and Artists for Young Adults. Vol. 22. N.p.: Gale, 1997. Gale Biography in Context. Web. 22 May 2007. Everyday Life in Ancient Times. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 1958. Print. Frost, Robert. Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening. The Classic Hundred Poems. Ed. William Harmon. 2 nd ed. New York: Columbia UP, 1998. 228. Print. The Holy Bible. King James Version. Nashville: Nelson, 1970. Print. Longsworth, Polly. The World of Emily Dickinson. New York: Norton, 1990. Print. Nie, Norman H., and Lutz Erbring. Internet Use Decreases Social Interaction. Torr 28-34. Print. Shakespeare, William. The First Part of King Henry the Fourth. William Shakespeare: Complete Works. Ed. Alfred Harbage. New York: Viking, 1984. 672-702. Print. Spiller, Robert E., et al., eds. Literary History of the United States. Revised ed. New York: Macmillan, 1959. Print. Torr, James D., ed. The Internet. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2005. Print. Opposing Viewpoints. Tyler, Moses Coit. A History of American Literature. 2 vols. Williamstown, MA: Corner, 1973. Print.
Ultan, Lloyd. The Presidents of the United States. Danbury, CT: Grolier 1996. Print. Weinberger, David. The Internet Increases Social Interaction. Torr 18-27. Print. Wiesel, Elie. Interview with Ted Koppel. Nightline. ABC. WABC, New York. 18 Apr. 2002. Television. William Faulkner. The Mississippi Writers Page. University of Mississippi, 2007. Web. 21 May 2007 <http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/faulkner_william/>. Wood, James Playsted. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson: A Portrait. Nashville: Nelson, 1974. Print.