Research PaperParenthetical/In-Text Citations

What is a parenthetical citation? Always give credit for any information,

ideas, or actual wording you get from another source. Do this by naming the author and page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence in which you use the author’s idea. This is called parenthetical citation.

When do you use parenthetical citations?

Whenever you do one of the following things – Use a direct quotation Summarize information from your article Paraphrase information from your article

Basically, whenever you present information that you have gathered from an outside source

Why use in-text citations? If you do not acknowledge your sources

and present found information as your own, you are plagiarizing.

Plagiarism = Zero on the assignment!

A quick how-to guide. In a parenthetical citation, include the author

and page number at the end of the sentence in which you use that source. For many Americans ”consuming has

become our strongest habit” (Crone 59). If the author is named in your sentence, place

only the page number at the end. Example: Meredith Crone claims that “consuming

has become our strongest habit” (59).

ONLINE SOURCE: Cite the author’s last name (or title of article, if author is not stated) because few electronic documents contain page numbers. Example: (Clark)

Sources with no author For a source with no author, use the first

significant word of the title by which you’ll alphabetize your entry on the Works Cited page.

For example, “Hospitals Turn to Advertising” in the New York Times would be cited as (“Hospitals” 47) because “Hospitals” is used to begin the Works Cited entry.

IMPORTANT!!! The period that ends the sentence

goes AFTER the parentheses. Break up long quotes with an ellipses

(…). Note – When using an ellipses, you

need to make sure that your quote still makes sense to the reader. An ellipses should not disrupt the flow/readability of the sentence.

Essay Format 1. Double-space your entire text, including all block

quotations and the Works Cited page, with no extra space before or after a title or between paragraphs.

2. Headers: place a header (your last name plus page number) in the upper right-hand corner of each page (e.g. Smith 1), including the Works Cited page.

3. On the left-hand corner of the first page, type your name, your instructor’s name, the course title, and the date on separate lines, double-spacing between the lines. Then enter the title of your text, centered, capitalizing the first word and all major words.