MLA GUIDELINES FOR

PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION

© 2002 UWF Writing Lab

Information from MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 7th edition.

New York: MLAA, 2009.

Designed by Chris Bui and Tina Blaas

Revised by Savanna Richter

2010

According to the UWF English Department, “[p]lagiarism is the unacknowledged, or insufficiently acknowledged use of another’s ideas and/or his expression.” Purposely or unknowingly copying ideas and information from another source is plagiarism. As Linda Moore of UWF indicates, “[i]t is not wrong to use the ideas of others, but it is wrong not to give that person credit for his ideas.” Plagiarism is very serious and could result in disciplinary action, including academic suspension or even expulsion. Just don’t do it! If you use a secondary source, avoid plagiarism: cite the source.

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Whether quoting directly from a source or paraphrasing a source, you must give credit to the author or authors of the source.

In MLA, source information is given immediately following the quoted or paraphrased material.

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Which information is cited?

Direct quotations

Information taken

from secondary sources

However, cite specific information that is not considered general knowledge. For example: The earth is 149,573,000 km from the sun (“Earth”).

If in doubt, cite the information to be safe..

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Do not cite common knowledge information. For example: The earth revolves around the sun.

StylePlace the parenthetical citation at a natural pause in the sentence (“preferably at the end of a sentence”) and as close as possible to the documented material. Parenthetical references precede final punctuation.

The author’s or authors’ last names and the page number of the source appear in parentheses: (Johnson 50).

Notice that there is no comma between the name and page number and that no page marker (p., page, pp.) is necessary.

If no author is available, cite the title of the work: (“Earth” 28).

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Examples of Parenthetical Documentation:

Direct Quotation:

“The contention that Shakespeare hated the common people has found much comfort and support in the fact that he never loses an opportunity of reminding us that they smell” (Palmer 315).

Note that the citation follows the closing quotation mark but appears before the period.

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Examples of Parenthetical Documentation:

Paraphrase:

The argument that Shakespeare was repulsed by commoners is maintained by the frequent references in his plays about their smells (Palmer 315).

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Other Possible Documentation Situations

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List all authors’ last names.

(Rabkin and Greenberg 23)(Rabkin, Akin, and Bergen 6)

Give the first author’s last name followed by et al., or list all the authors’ last names.

(Lane et al. 7)(Lane, Alan, Poe, and Kern 7)

Two or three authors:

More than three authors:

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Add the first initial.(A. Smith 187)(J. Smith 43)

After the author’s last name, place a comma and the title of the work

before the page number(s). Shorten the title if necessary. If the title is introduced in the text, then it is not needed in the parentheses.

(Frye, Double Vision 85)

Authors with the same last name:

More than one work by the same author:

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Give the full title or the first major word of the title. The, a, and an are not major words.

(Human Circus 564)(“School Vouchers” 49)

Continuous (Bishop 6-10)(Stephens 28-9)

Separate (McCall 45, 89)

No author:

Multiple page numbers:

Both (Smith 52-8, 125)

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Citing Indirect Sources:Add “qtd.” before the citation for

the indirect source(qtd. In Boswell 2: 450).

Common Literature:More information than the page

number alone is needed(185; ch.13, sec. 2)

More than one work in a single parenthetical reference:

Avoid using more than two citations per reference

(Fukuyama 42; McRae 101-33)

Other Things to Know

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If the author of the source is mentioned in the text, the author’s name is unnecessary in the parenthetical citation as long as “the reference is clearly to the work of the author you mention”:

Palmer indicates “[t]he contention that Shakespeare hated the common people has found much comfort and support in the fact that he never loses an opportunity of reminding us that they smell” (315).

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Once an author has been cited, his or her name does not need to be given again. Just give the page number until a new work is cited. If a former source is referred to again, then the author’s name has to be cited again. Some instructors may prefer the author’s name in each new paragraph; some do not. Ask to be sure.

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Example -

Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two worlds: “the world of the everyday,” associated with the adults in the play, and “the world of romance,” associated with the two lovers (Zender 138). Romeo and Juliet’s language of love nevertheless becomes “fully responsive to the tang of actuality” (141).

Use single quotation marks to indicate a quote within a quote.

Example:

Everybody and everything “heard the whisper all over the house: ‘There must be more money’” (Lawrence 975).

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Quote within Quote

Any alterations to the original text should be placed in square brackets ([ ]).

Original: They caused widespread panic.

Quotation with Altered Text:

“[The tornadoes] caused widespread panic” (Cage 32).

Given his experiences, Cage might argue that tornadoes “caus[e] widespread panic” (32).

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Quote with altered text:

Explanations that follow quoted material should be placed in parenthesis.

Adding “sic” to denote exact quotation –

Shaw admitted, “Nothing can extinguish my interest in Shakespear” (sic).

Explanation of alterations or additions –

Lincoln specifically advocated a government “for the people” (emphasis added).

If any part of the quotation is left out, indicate omitted information by inserting an ellipsis (. . .).

The ellipsis can stand for omitted words, phrases, and sentences.

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Leaving out Information

If you insert ellipsis within a sentence, use three periods with a space before each and a space after the last.

When the ellipsis coincides with the end of your sentence, use three periods with a space before each following a sentence period.

If a parenthetical reference follows the ellipsis at the end of your sentence, however, use three periods with a space before each, and place the sentence period after the final parenthesis.

Ellipsis

ExamplesOriginal:Medical thinking, trapped in the theory of astral influences, stressed air as the communicator of disease, ignoring sanitation and visible carriers.

Omitted material within a quotation:

“Medical thinking . . . stressed air as the communicator of disease, ignoring sanitation and visible carriers” (101-02).

Block Quote

The parenthetical citation follows the period.

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If a direct quotation runs more thanfour typed lines in the paper, introduce the quotation and then set it off in the text by indenting it one inch (known as a block quote).

There are no quotation marks around the block quotation.

EXAMPLE

Stephens 6

According to Hemans’s account of the event, the boy refuses to leave without his father’s

consent. However, Warner suggests that Hemans’s poem is not quite accurate according to an

officer on the Swiftsure, a nearby English ship that picked up survivors from the Orient:

The son of Casabianca [. . .] had lost a leg, and was below with the surgeon, but

the father could not be prevailed upon to quit the ship even to save his own life,

preferring to die beside his son rather than leave him wounded, and a prey to the

flames, thus placing parental affection in a most trying and awful situation, as if to

show the extremities to which it may be carried. (88)

Warner adds that “[o]ther narratives say that, as the flames spread, Casabianca and his son did in

fact leave the ship together, only to be drowned before they could be picked up” (88), suggesting

that neither died on the burning ship.

{ Indent 1” No Quotation Marks quotation

} Introduce Quote

Citation follows period

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Poetry and verse are cited by line numbers. Indicate a line break with a slash (/).

Slashes are not needed for four or more lines of poetry; however, use the block quote format and copy each line as it appears in the original.

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Poetry

Example

The speaker calls “for a beaker full of the warm South, / Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene / With beaded bubbles winking at the brim” (Keats 15-7).

Remember that some professors may modify these guidelines to fit their own classes and assignments.

Just ask to be sure!

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For questions about MLA format, consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers

or call or stop by the UWF Writing Lab.

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