Creating Parenthetical Citations Creating Parenthetical Citations

Creating Creating Parenthetical Parenthetical

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How to cite sources within your document

updated spring 2006 sgb 2

What is a parenthetical citation?

The APA system of citing sources which indicates the author's last name and the date, in parentheses, within the text of your paper.



“If you're like most people, you probably imagine that when your representative has an idea for a new law, he or she sits down, writes it up--maybe using some legalese here or there--and sends it off for consideration.

If only it were that easy. In truth, drafting legislation is an immensely complex task with which most members of Congress--I hope this won't shock you--feel uncomfortable. This is because it demands technical and legal skills that are extremely difficult to learn while juggling all the other demands that members face.”

Actual text from an article to be cited.



The Reference Documentation

Hamilton, L. (2006, February ). The hard truth of writing laws: Writing laws demands technical and legal skills that are extremely difficult to learn while juggling all the other demands lawmakers face. State Legislatures 32.2 , 17.



• A typical citation of an entire work consists of the author's name and the year of publication.

– Example: Writing laws is not as easy as it appears to be (Hamilton, 2006).



• If the author is named in the text, only the year is cited.

– Example: Hamilton (2006) points out that writing laws is not an easy job.



• If both the name of the author and the date are used in the text, parenthetical reference is not necessary.

– Example: In 2006, Hamilton argued

that writing effective legislation while balancing the other legislative duties is a complex task to learn.



• Specific citations of pages or chapters follow the year. (Direct Quotes)

– According to Hamilton, writing legislation “is an immensely complex task. . . which. . . demands technical and legal skills that are extremely difficult to learn” (2006, p.17).



“What your college professors didn't teach you: ‘The one thing that I believe we weren't taught was how to communicate both verbally and in writing in a technical manner. ... I still don't like standing in front of groups of people. I was never trained in it. And it wasn't until I was well into my career that I found I had to stand and communicate.’”

Morrissett, D. (2005, September 26). 100 Leading women in the North American auto industry. Automotive News 80.6168, 20. Reference

documentation



Morrissett points out that colleges do not teach people to communicate “in a technical manner” (2005, 20).

“What your college professors didn't teach you: ‘The one thing that I believe we weren't taught was how to communicate both verbally and in writing in a technical manner. ... I still don't like standing in front of groups of people. I was never trained in it. And it wasn't until I was well into my career that I found I had to stand and communicate.’”

Parenthetical Citation



“Because an effective technical document, manual, or help menu is often the result of successful collaboration between the technical writer and the engineer or the technical writing group and the engineering team,... these two groups [must] develop successful communication practices and maintain an effective working relationship.”




Tovey, J. (2005, May). Act well thy part: Performing technical writer and engineer. Technical Communication 52.2, 246.




Collaboration between writers and engineers is important in writing effective technical documents (Tovey, 2005).




“Within the heart of almost every technical communicator beats the desire to practice our craft independently. We dream of writing that perfect technical communication equivalent of the great novel on timelines that we set and within budgets that are totally under our control. To try to realize the dream, we might take that road less traveled--independent technical communicator, also known as freelancer.”




Hanigan, M. (2005, August). 2005 writer's market. Technical Communication, 52.3, 385.




Hanigan (2005) says most technical communicators want to work independently.

Paraphrase





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Creating Parenthetical Citations Creating Parenthetical Citations