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Parenthetical Citations
The following information about
parenthetical citations comes from:
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/research/mlaparen.html#placement
In MLA style,
in-text citations, called parenthetical citations, are used to
document any external sources used within a document (unless the
material cited is considered general knowledge). The parenthetical
citations direct readers to the full bibliographic citations listed
in the Works Cited, located at the end of the document. In most
cases, the parenthetical citations include the author's last name
and the specific page number for the information cited. Here are
general guidelines for in-text citations.
Use of Authors' Names
Always mention the author's name—either in the text itself or in the
parenthetical citation—unless no author is provided.
If the author's
name is mentioned in the text
If the author's name is used in the text introducing the source
material, then cite the page number(s) in parentheses:
Branscomb argues that
"it's a good idea to lurk (i.e., read all the messages without
contributing anything) for a few weeks, to ensure that you don't
break any of the rules of netiquette"
(7) when joining a
listserv.
If the author's name is not mentioned in the text
If the author's name is not used in the sentence introducing the
source material, then include the author's last name in the
parenthetical citation before the page number(s). Note that no comma
appears between the author's name and the page number(s).
The modern world
requires both the ability to concentrate on one thing and the
ability to attend to more than one thing at a time: "Ideally, each
individual would cultivate a repertoire of styles of attention,
appropriate to different situations, and would learn how to embed
activities and types of attention one within another"
(Bateson 97).
Tom Peters talks about a company that facilitates
employees' renewal by shutting down its factory for several hours
per week while teams work through readings on current business
topics (57).
If there are
two or three authors
If a source has two or three authors, place all of the authors'
last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:
A team can be
defined as "a small number of people with complementary skills who
are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach
for which they hold themselves mutually accountable"
(Katzenbach and Smith 45).
If there are
four or more authors
If a source has four or more authors, include the first author's
last name followed by et al. (Latin for and others), either in the
text or in the parenthetical citation. You can also name all of the
authors:
Cogdill et al. argue
that "making backchannel overtly available for study would require
making its presence and content visible and its content persist,
affecting the nature of the backchannel and raising social and
ethical issues" (109).
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