Parenthetical Citations

Beyond one author

Two or Three Authors

• Give the last names of every author in the same order that they appear in the works-cited section. (Correct order is found on title page of the book)– According to Carlson, Eisenstat, and Ziporyn, a frequent cause

of depression in middle-age women is the care of elderly parents with failing health (198).

– Samuel Moore Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, owed much of his ambition for success to the fact that he grew up during the Depression (Vance and Scott 1).

More Than Three Authors

• Give the author’s last name as it appears in the works-cited section followed by et al. or and others with no punctuation in between.– Methane gas trapped in ice crystals on the seafloor may be an

important source of fuel in the future (Suess et al. 80).

An Anonymous Book or Work with No Author Listed

• When there is no author listed, give the title or a shortened version of the title as it appears in the works-cited section. If it’s a book, underline or italicize title; if it’s an article, place quotation marks around the title. – The Information Please Almanac states that drinking water can make

up 20 percent or more of a person’s total exposure to lead (572).– The use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems has

grown substantially over the past five years as companies attempt to adapt to customer needs and to improve their profitability ("Making CRM Work“ 3).

Two or More Works by the Same Author

• If the works-cited page lists two or more works by the same author, you’ll need more than just the author’s last name in your parenthetical citation. Give the author’s last name (unless it appears in the text, the title or a shortened version of the title, and the page reference. Place a comma between the author’s last name and title.– The German foxholes dug during World War II were almost

always deeper than the American foxholes (Ambrose, Citizen Soldiers 257).

Placement of Citations

• Place a citation as close to the quoted or paraphrased material as possible without disrupting the sentence.

• When material from one source and the same page numbers is used throughout a paragraph, use one citation at the end of the paragraph rather than a citation at the end of each sentence.

• Sign off of each source before moving on to another source’s information.

Parenthetical citations usually appear after the final quotation mark and before the period. An exception occurs, however, in quotes of four or more lines since these quotes are presented as block quotes: that is, they are indented and use no quotation marks. In such cases, the parenthetical citation goes after the period, as the following example shows:

Bolles argues that the most effective job hunting method is what he calls the creative job hunting approach: figuring out your best skills, and favorite

knowledges, and then researching any employer that interests you, before approaching that organization and arranging, through your contacts, to see the person there who has the power to hire you for the position you are interested in. This method, faithfully followed, leadsto a job for 86 out of every 100 job-hunters who try it. (57)