A Somewhat Scholarly Guide to MLA Parenthetical Citations

Parenthawhaaaa?

BROUGHT TO YOU BY MS . CODY

WILL PARENTHETICALLY CITE FOR FOOD

MLA CITAT ION

By now… Many of you have received glaring feedback

suggesting that you use MLA parenthetical citations frequently throughout your paper.

And I know what you are thinking.

“I completely remember learning about this, and being told to correct it. But, this whole parenthesis

thing seems kind of hard. I’ll stick a few in there, like two per page. Then… I know! I will simply introduce

each source like I am in the middle of a news broadcast with “According to…” and cheat the

system! Because it might not be right but it’s not like it’s wrong!”

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MLA GUIDE

Not so fast!

M L A h a s a s t a n d a r d c i t a t i o n f o r m a t t h a t m u s t b e f o l l o w e d c o r r e c t l y .

Parenthetical citations, as annoying as they may be, are an important component to proper MLA formatting and source citation. Parenthetical citations are the proper way for the writer to indicate to the reader that the fact, direct quote, paraphrase, or summarized piece of information presented is from another source, and not from the deep, dark recesses of your brain. It indicates that the information is from another author, and gives proper credit where credit is due.

“Are you telling me I need to do this for every piece of information in my paper? For all of that information? For 15+

pages?”

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So, now what?

So, let’s say you have three sources that you would like to use for your paper. One is an article with an author, one is an article without an author, and one is an interview. For sake of creating a thorough example, here is what this would look like on your Works Cited page…

Works Cited

"Chuck Lorre Apologizes for Bachelor Criticism by Criticizing The Bachelor’s Sexism." Reality Blurred. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2013.

Dehnart, Andy. "Eight Worst Things About 'The Bachelorette'" The Daily Beast. Newsweek/Daily Beast, 28 June 2011. Web. 24 Mar. 2013.

Kiefer, Kate. "Interview with Kate Kiefer." Personal interview. 15 Mar. 2013.

In this Works Cited, the first entry is the article without an author, the second entry is the article with an author, and the third is a personal interview.

In your paper, you must parenthetically cite each source whenever information from the source is mentioned, whether it is paraphrased, summarized, or directly quoted from the source.

***Notice the formatting and alphabetical order!***

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Now, to add the parenthetical citations… So, let’s now use parenthetical citations in a sample paragraph using three sources:

In recent years, as the popularity of reality television shows such as The Bachelor and The Bachelorette has grown, criticism of the television franchises has reached a new fervor. Recently, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette received negative commentary from The Daily Beast’s Andy Dehnart, writing: “A show about romance is bound to play into gender stereotypes and the crass expectations of a society that still has very clearly defined roles for men and women” (Dehnart 2). These very specific gender roles are not just reinforced through the reality show, but exploited. Despite the show’s obvious and deliberate sexism, both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette remain popular with audiences. Kate Kiefer, department chair of the English department at Lakes Community High School, and a weekly viewer of The Bachelor Season 22, believes that the popularity of The Bachelor/Bachelorette is greatly because of the gender role stereotypes, as this creates an environment for the men and women competing on the show to behave in a more dramatic way in front of the cameras (Kiefer), The criticism of these shows is not limited to viewers or journalists, as television producer Chuck Lorre of Two and a Half Men used one of his own television sitcoms, The Big Bang Theory, as a platform to respond to the reality show. Lorre’s “vanity card”, which runs at the end credits, criticized The Bachelor’s portrayal of women and marriage, particularly taking aim at the behavior of female contestants (“Chuck Lorre Apologizes” 1).

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How delightful!

See? That wasn’t so bad after all. Now, here is a quick reference for a variety of sources:

Book: Author’s last name and page number (Cody 23).

Article with Author: Author’s last name and page number (Cody 45).

Authorless Article: The Title of the Article and page number; you may shorten the article title in the parenthetical citation. Ex: If the title of the article is “Chuck Lorre Apologizes for Bachelor Criticism by Criticizing The Bachelor’s Sexism”, you can shorten the title (“Chuck Lorre Apologizes” 4).

Personal Interview: Last name of the interviewee. Example, if I interviewed Mrs. Kiefer, I would cite her this way (Kiefer).

Sources from the Internets: Either cite the author if there is one (Cody) or the web site name if there is no author (Deadspin).

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If you are still confused, or are using some bizarro source, these web sites are generally helpful in finding the correct parenthetical citation:

o http://www.easybib.com/kb/index/view/id/40 o http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/2/

I know how to cite things! Hooray!