Parenthetical In-Text Documentation

The Modern Language Association (MLA) uses a system of parenthetical in-text documentation that eliminates the need for documentation notes at the same time that it offers full scholarly credit to sources. Use the textbook for your class, a current college handbook, and your professor's instructions as a guide for all formats. Always check with the professor about which guidelines are preferred.

Footnotes and Endnotes

For many years the conventions of scholarship required documentation notes—footnotes or endnotes—as well as a bibliography to provide full attribution of outside sources. Now, however, some academic disciplines either permit or require parenthetical in-text documentation as an alternative to documentation notes. Always consult your professor for the preferred documentation for each assignment.

Note that paraphrases and summaries must be documented as rigorously as quotations. Periods come after the parenthetical documentation for short passages within paragraphs.

• Whether you are a novice or experienced at incorporating source information using MLA standards, you must note the importance of incorporating the reference into your own sentence, making clear where the reference begins and ends, and making clear what the source is.
  • Here's an example of a quotation
    • Betty Mattix Dietsch defines the purpose of argument as "to persuade readers to accept a belief, adopt a policy, or enact a decision, proposal, or law" (285).
  • Here's an example of a paraphrase
    • Betty Mattix Dietsch describes argument's purpose as changing readers' attitudes and actions (285).
  • Here's an example of a combination of paraphrase and quotation
    • Betty Mattix Dietsch describes argument's purpose to change readers' attitudes and actions such as affecting "a decision, proposal, or law" (285).
• In the following paragraph, Sammy Smith is paraphrased and Shannon Williams is quoted. Then the student writer comments on the implications of the source information.

  The interrelation between molecular biology and plant life has gained the attention of scientists and public officials concerned about the environment. As a result, support for this academic discipline and its research projects has been increasing over the past several years. According to Sammy Smith, molecular biology holds the key to understanding the origins of plant life (72). Other research scientists have found similar importance in their study of microbes, advising conservation of resources in very specific ways. For example, microbiologist Shannon Williams claims that "forces beyond the control of conservationist groups must determine the use of undeveloped land" (134). Smith and Williams are two among several dozen scientists who have formed an organization called Microbes for the Future of Planet Earth, dedicated to raising funds for continued research. Because this field of research has become so important for the environment, the federal government should increase its support for microbiological studies.

When you include long quotations (more than four typed lines), your presentation varies.

1. Use a formal introduction followed by a colon.
2. Indent the quotation ten spaces (one inch) from the left margin using the indent function of your word processor, not the space bar or tab key.
3. Omit the quotation marks, and place the parenthetical page citation after the period. Like everything else in an MLA-style paper, the long quotation is double-spaced.

   In the pioneering pamphlet on the influence of the comma on modern thought processes, Chris Wise says:

The comma utilizes left brain functions as a way of providing clear meanings for data in the human consciousness. In many social and business situations, such information is vital to an individual's sense of self-esteem. In fact, the ability to determine whether a modifier is restrictive or nonrestrictive--and thus to determine whether or not to use a comma--is sometimes considered a mark of intelligence. (543)

Sometimes you do not know the name of the author of a source, for example, an anonymous article from a newspaper. In such cases, use a shortened form of the first element from your Works Cited listing either in your text or in your parenthetical citation. For periodicals, you must include a shortened form of the article's title or headline. Note: For Websites, absence of an identifiable author might mean an unreliable source that you should not use.

An article in the New York Times advocates the use of physical force to maintain discipline in America's elementary schools ("School Discipline" B17). Disputing the New York Times suggestion that force be used to control elementary school students, Parents Magazine endorses in-school suspension rather than corporal punishment ("Suspensions" 23-34). Parents maintains, "Children suffer from violence in all the media; they shouldn't have to endure it at school" ("Suspensions" 25).

If your paper uses more than one work by the same author, you must provide sufficient information to make that distinction, usually a short form of the title as listed in your Works Cited.

Pat Jones advocates the teaching of molecular biology to children as early as age ten (Early Instruction 229-31). However, Jones warns, "Teachers of sophisticated scientific subjects must be sensitive to the short attention spans of young students" (Teaching Science 15).

At the end of your paper, you must provide a Works Cited to list all the sources mentioned within your paper.

• One reason to identify the sources within your paper is to provide a reference for readers to find full information about your parenthetical in-text citations.
• Unless otherwise instructed, head your bibliography page Works Cited and present an alphabetized, double-spaced list of sources in standard MLA form
• Use a current reference manual to ensure that you are using the forms correctly. Some guidelines and models of typical entries are presented at Works Cited and Acknowledgments.