MLA Parenthetical
Reference and Endnotes/Footnotes
A. Parenthetical Reference
A parenthetical reference
(sometimes called “in-text” citation) is a reference to one of your sources in
your bibliography. It’s called parenthetical
reference because it’s in parentheses, right in the body of your paper. Using parenthetical references is important,
because it lets your reader know what you took from another source and where
they can find that source. You need to
use parenthetical references whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize from
someone else’s work.
Usually, a parenthetical
reference includes the author’s last name, or the
title of the article if there is no author, and the page number. This changes
depending on how you use the author’s text, and the information available to
you about the source.
Placement
Parenthetical references
should go at the end of the sentence.
This is less distracting to the reader.
The parentheses go between the last word and the period. If your parenthetical reference is following
a quote, it should follow the quotation marks.
“It is common knowledge that vampires are among the
most feared of the supernatural beings” (Jones 23).
Sentence vs. parentheses
Only information that is not
in the sentence goes in the parenthetical reference. If you’ve mentioned the author’s name in your
sentence, you do not need to repeat it.
Jones firmly believes that werewolves, while
frightening, don’t hold a candle to vampires (4).
When author’s names are similar or the same
The information in the
parenthetical reference should help the reader distinguish between
sources. If you have authors with the
same last name, distinguish them by using their first name or first initial. If these are the same as well, use the
article or book title.
“It
is common knowledge that vampires are among the most feared of the supernatural
beings” (L. Jones 23).
“It
is common knowledge that vampires are among the most feared of the supernatural
beings” (Louise Jones 23).
“It
is common knowledge that vampires are among the most feared of the supernatural
beings” (Jones, Vampires 23).
When there is no author
If there is no author, use
the title of the article. The title can
be shortened to just the first word (not including “the” or “a”). If the title is underlined or quoted in your
bibliography, it should be the same in your parenthetical reference.
It is common knowledge that vampires are among the
most feared of the supernatural beings (Vampires
23).
It
is common knowledge that vampires are among the most feared of the supernatural
beings (“Supernatural” 23).
When there are two entries with the same authors (or
no author) and title
If you have two resources
that have the same author (or no author) and title, extra information must be
added to distinguish it. For a non-periodical print source use the date. For a periodical source, use the title of the
periodical. For an online source, use
the title of the database or web site.
It
is common knowledge that vampires are among the most feared of the supernatural
beings (Jones, 2008).
It
is common knowledge that vampires are among the most feared of the supernatural
beings (Vampires, General OneFile).
Pages numbers and other numbering systems
Some sources might use
section numbers, and web sites might use paragraphs rather than page
numbers. If an alternate number system
in given, use that in your parenthetical reference. Note that there is a comma between last name
and number in this case.
It
is common knowledge that vampires are among the most feared of the supernatural
beings (Jones, pars 2-3).
It
is common knowledge that vampires are among the most feared of the supernatural
beings (Jones, sect 4-5).
When to cite volume number
Only cite the volume number
if you’ve used more than one volume from the same multi-volume set. The example shows that the information is
from the fifth volume on page 17.
It is firmly believed that werewolves, while
frightening, don’t hold a candle to vampires (“Supernatural”
Quoting or paraphrasing a quotation
If you want to quote or
paraphrase a quote from another article, add “qtd. in”
in front of your citation.
“It is common knowledge that
vampires are among the most feared of the supernatural beings” (qtd. in Jones
12).
B. Endnotes and Footnotes
Rather than having citation
information right in the body of your paper (which can be considered
distracting) endnotes or footnotes can be used.
This is a style choice. If you are unsure if you’re supposed to be
using parenthetical reference or endnotes/footnotes, ask your teacher! Both endnotes and footnotes are arranged
numerically, using Arabic numerals that correspond to the numbers in the
text. Each time you quote, paraphrase,
or summarize, instead of putting your citation information right there in the
paper, you add a superscript number that connects with a citation at the bottom
of the page (footnote) or at the end of your paper (endnote). Instead of arranging citations
alphabetically, they will be in the order they appear in your paper.
If you are using endnotes,
your teacher might not have you do a bibliography, since they will be very
similar. Make sure you check first! When
using footnotes, you should still have a bibliography of the sources used at
the end of your paper.
Microsoft Word will format your endnotes or footnotes
for you. In case you’re using other software, footnotes are
notes placed four lines below the text of the page to which they refer. Endnotes are double-spaced, both within and
between the notes. Footnotes should be single-spaced, with two spaces
between notes. If a footnote continues onto the next page, you should
insert a solid line across the page two lines below the text and then place the
continued note two lines below this solid line (Gibaldi 269). As you can
tell, endnotes are much easier to set up (and modify, as your paper changes)
than footnotes, so if a teacher requires notes, ask if you can use endnotes.
Both footnotes and endnotes are identified in
the paper with consecutive superscript numbers, which are placed after
punctuation marks (except dashes):
It is common knowledge that vampires are among the most
feared of the supernatural beings.2
It is common knowledge that
vampires are among the most feared of the supernatural beings3—if
only because they are harder to spot.
The first endnote and footnote for each
source includes basically the same information that is in a bibliographic
citation for that type of work, but the format is different and you should
indent only the first line of notes.
Subsequent
notes for each source usually need only include the names of authors and page
#s:
1 Jones 333-4.
If, however, you used two books by the same
author, you should also include a shortened version of the titles:
2 Jones, Vampires 62.
Works Cited
“MLA Parenthetical Reference.” NoodleTools. N.p., 2009. Web.
“MLA 2009 Footnotes and Endnotes.” The OWL at Purdue.
Purdue U, 2009. Web.
“Parenthetical Documentaion
and Endnotes/Footnotes.” Helen
“Using Notes with
Parenthetical Documentation.”
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. 1977.