What are these?

• Parenthetical citations are little notes that tell the reader where you found your information. They are placed in parentheses—thus, why they are called parenthetical citations.

• They help to avoid plagiarism.• MLA tells us that there is a certain format

for doing these with rules to follow. Let’s take a look…

Book by ONE Author

• Give author’s last name and page #

• Here’s one way to do it:– “The misery of that house began many years

before Jem and I were born ” (Lee 9).

Book by ONE Author

• Here’s another way:

• If you use the author’s name in introducing the quotation or info, just give the page #– Lee gives the reader a glimpse into the life of

the Radley family, saying, “the misery of that house began many years before Jem and I were born” (9).

Book by TWO or More Authors

• Give both authors’ last names and page #– Today, Lee prefers a private existence, giving

few interviews and speeches (Smith and Chen 91).

Magazine or Newspaper Article in Print (off the shelf)

• Give author’s last name and page #.– “The Great Depression was one of the worst periods in

United States history. By 1932, 30% of the American population was unemployed” (Jones 14).

– OR

– Jones has said that “the Great Depression was one of the worst periods in United States history. By 1932, 30% of the American population was unemployed” (74).

Online Sources

• From an ONLINE SOURCE with no page numbers:– Include the first item that appears in this list

(author’s last name, first few words of article name, website name, film name).

– You do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers because it was found online.

Example for Online Source

• To Kill a Mockingbird is loosely based on the Scottsboro trials, and the discrimination and racism against blacks who were convicted without evidence or a fair trial (Scottsboro Boys Trial).

• “Lee’s command of language and descriptive word choice makes To Kill a Mockingbird a classic American novel” (Smith and Segal).

Anonymous Works

• Anything without an author. These may include: company websites, pamphlets, brochures, etc. – Shorten the title of the work– The full title is “A Classic American Novel:

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.”– A number of scholars have commented on the

importance of discussing Lee’s unreliable narrator, Scout (“A Classic”).

Using Long Quotations• If you include a quotation that is more than 4 lines, you need to set it off

from the regular text. You must include at least TWO of these in your paper (no more, no less).

Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her

narration:

They entirely refused to have it in bed with them,

or even in their room, and I had no more sense,

so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it

would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else

attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr.

Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting

his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got

there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense

for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of

the house. (Brontë 78)

Quotation Within a Source

• If a source contains a quotation said by someone other than its author, use the abbreviation “qtd. in” to indicate that the author did not say it—another source did.– Marshall McLahan has said that racism today

“still exists behind the scenes” (qtd. in “Recent Trends”).

Other questions? Consult me or the English dept. web page for resources on how to cite properly!

Tonight’s Homework:

• Add correct parenthetical citations to your outline. Tomorrow we will practice parenthetical citations again.