parenthetical citations in

Parenthetical Citations

in disgustingly gross detail.

Huh?

We use parenthetical citations to give credit to the people’s

thoughts we use.

We give credit for:

direct quotes

paraphrasing

summarizing

The general, garden variety citation:

We see Scout admit that she lies to her father when she says, “I said I could like it very much, which was a lie, but one must lie under certain circumstances” (Lee 128).

Two things to note:We see Scout admit that she lies to her father when she

says, “I said I could like it very much, which was a lie, but one must lie under certain circumstances” (Lee 128).

1. The author’s name and

page number appear

without a “p” or comma

• we know the number

is a page

• we don’t need a

comma, either

2. Punctuation appears outside the quotation

“Certain circumstances:”When the quotation has pertinent

punctuation in it that changes the meaning if omittedThe older waiter in Hemingway's "A Clean,

Well-Lighted Place" asks himself, "What did he fear?" (79).

But notice, there is still a closing punctuation mark after the citation

Speaking of Hemingway…You might have noticed that the citation

didn’t have an author in it! The older waiter in Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-

Lighted Place" asks himself, "What did he fear?" (79).

That’s because I already gave the author credit!Do you see it?

Trickery:Citing the author this way

(in the sentence itself) accomplishes two things:

1. it cites the author (duh)

2. it varies your sentence structure automatically for you!

this = good

writing

What about those pesky internet sources?

Cite the author, forget the page number(no pages

in cyberspace)

What about those pesky internet sources?

No author? Should you really use the site?

if no one takes credit for it, is it a credible site?

If you must, citethe website

What about those pesky internet sources?

If you MUST use one without an author, use the article title:

Internet Example (Preferable)

There is no truth to the rumor that al-Qaeda has poisoned the Coca-Cola supply in our country

(“Coca-Cola No Al Queda”).

Internet Example (Preferable)

What if there

is no title?

Internet example (no title?):There is no truth to the rumor that al-

Qaeda has poisoned the Coca-Cola supply in our country (snopes.com).

Note:• I did not give the complete

URL, only a snippet• the complete URL goes in

your reference page

• Also note that the good folks at “snopes.com” DO take credit for their work

• Their names are Barbara and David Mickelson and they do a nice job fact-checking…

But again,Try to use as few

unaccredited web pages as humanly possible

Source validity is a huge concern when the source takes no credit for their work

Side note:

NEVER let a quote stand alone! It must have an

entrance OR an exit

NEVERNEVER NEVER

NEVER

Multiple authors:If more than one

author wrote your article, they need to be cited.

This applies to: less than three authors

If less than or including three, cite them all!

Multiple authors example: There has been a drastic increase in

frivolous lawsuits in the United States in the last ten years (Dewey, Cheatum and Howe 45).

Note all authors credited with last name only.

More than three authors?Bust out the Latin stick!

“et al” is your pal!“et al” literally

translates to “and others”

Cite the first author, then slap an “et al” after it!only applies to

references with more than three authors!

Finally, the interview sources: Cite the last

name of the interviewee

Then that it was an interview

Interview example:As junior students, we were told that this

paper is “dummy proof and it’s impossible to do wrong if you try” (Lesh interview).

Note the same rules apply:1. no comma2. punctuation outside of the

parentheses

SO THERE YOU GO:IN TEXT (Parenthetical) CITATIONS

EASY