Parenthetical Documentation (in text citation)

What are we doing? Parenthetical documentation is used when writing your paper to denote what source you are using and where it can be found in that source (last name/title page number). Citing properly inside of your paper gives you credibility as an author; the more transparent you are about your support the more trustworthy you become.

Matching For parenthetical documentation to be done properly, the information in the parenthesis MUST match the citation entry on your Works Cited page EXACTLY. This is either the author’s last name or the title (including the quotes or italics). If it is a title, you can shorten the title to save room and time. Also, you must have a page number. If there is no page number (like with websites) you must put in its place paragraph numbers (para.) or no page (n. pag.).

Format The parenthetical documentation always goes at the END of the sentence, in between the last quote/last word and the period. In Cooking Food 101, “99% of cooks prefer margarine over butter” (Smith 90). But, how do you know where this information comes from?

Format “99% of cooks prefer margarine over butter.” This quote came from page 90 of: Smith, Kyle. Cooking Food 101. New York: Penguin, 2010. Print. Therefore, the parenthetical documentation would look like: (Smith 90).

Multiple Authors If you have multiple authors, you include their last names as well. Citation: Smith, Kyle, and Sarah Johnson. Cooking Food 101. New York: Penguin, 2010. Print. (Smith and Johnson 90) Smith, Kyle, Sarah Johnson, and Herbert Hoover. Cooking Food 101. New York: Penguin, 2010. Print. (Smith, Johnson, and Hoover 90)

Multiple Authors If you have multiple authors, you include their last names as well. Citation: Smith, Kyle, et al.Cooking Food 101. New York: Penguin, 2010. Print. (Smith et al. 90)

Titles If your citation begins with the title, all you do is duplicate the title. You can shorten the title as much as you can, as long as it can be differentiated from all other entries that begin with titles. Citation: Cooking Food 101. New York: Penguin, 2010. Print. (Cooking Food 101 90) “Butter”. Cooking Food 101. New York: Penguin, 2010. Print. (“Butter” 90)

Introducing Quotes When you put in direct quotes, you must ALWAYS introduce them. They cannot stand alone. There are two main ways to introduce quotes: Use the name of the author/person from whom the quote came. When you do this, you do not have to include the author’s last name in the documentation because it is part of the sentence. Use the author’s WHOLE name: Ex. According to Kyle Smith, “99% of cooks prefer margarine over butter” (90). Make it part of a sentence: Ex. Studies have shown that, “99% of cooks prefer margarine over butter” (Smith 90).

Introducing Quotes You can also put the introduction at the end of the sentence: Use the name of the author/person from whom the quote came. Ex. “99% of cooks prefer margarine over butter,” according to Kyle Smith (90). Make it part of a sentence. Ex. “99% of cooks prefer margarine over butter,” studies have shown (Smith 90).

Quotes by Citees However, in many cases, you will find you want to quote someone that the author is quoting. When you run into this problem, remember, the parenthetical documentation MUST match the Works Cited entry. Therefore, you mention the person who is CITED in the sentence, and in the parenthetical documentation, you use the proper MLA information: According to Jim Johnson, “99% of cooks prefer margarine over butter” (Smith 90). “99% of cooks prefer margarine over butter,” studies have shown (Johnson qtd. in Smith 90).

Formatting Quotes 1) Direct quotes are always in quotation marks. 2) Quotes over four lines are indented following the previous line’s colon. They are NOT in quotation marks. Also, the MLA comes AFTER the period instead of before. For example, if I was putting a quote here: I love peanuts. I love peanuts. I love peanuts. I love peanuts. I love peanuts. I love peanuts. I love peanuts. I love peanuts. I love peanuts. I love peanuts. I love peanuts. I love peanuts. (Smith 90)