Parenthetical Documentation (MLA Style)

You must indicate to your readers not only what works you used in writing your paper, but also exactly what ideas and words you borrowed from each source and precisely where in the work you found the information.

Use a citation to give credit in the following ways:

· to give credit for a direct quotation

· to give credit for an opinion that you have put into your own words

· to give credit for statistics, figures, definitions, illustrations, or diagrams

Do not cite the following:

· common knowledge

· conclusions you have drawn from reading many sources

Directions for Use

Step 1

Insert a brief parenthetical arrangement in your paper wherever you incorporate another’s words, facts or ideas. Usually the author’s last name and a page reference are enough to

identify the source and the specific location from which you borrowed the material. Be sure to list the work in your Works Cited Sheet so that you readers can find complete publication information.

Example

Medieval Europe was a place both of “raids, pillages, slavery, and extortion” and of “traveling merchants, monetary exchange, towns if not cities, and active markets in grain” (Townsend 10).

• The parenthetical reference “(Townsend 10)” indicates that the quotations come from pages 10 of a work by Townsend. Given the author’s last name, your readers can find complete publication information for the source in the alphabetically arranged list of works cited that follows the text of your paper.
• However, if you include the author’s name in a sentence, you need not repeat the name in the parenthetical page citation that follows.

Example

Townsend points out that Medieval Europe was a place both of “raids, pillages, slavery, and extortion” and of “traveling merchants, monetary exchange, towns if not cities, and active markets in grain” (10).

Step 2

Be sure to include an entry for Townsend on the your Works Cited page.

Example

Townsend, Robert M. The Medieval Village Economy. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993.

For more information about using parenthetical documentation, consult MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. You’ll find this book in the school library.