Humanities Styles (MLA and ACW)

Preparing the List of Works Cited

Parenthetic (In-Text) Citations

The general format for noting sources within the body of a research paper is to include the author's last name and the page number of the reference within parentheses at the end of the reference.

The bleakness of Puritan New England is perhaps best represented by the contrast between the wild and delicately beautiful rose bush and the prison, described as the "black flower of civilized society" (Hawthorne 46).

If the author's name is included in the body of the text, then the parenthetic reference includes only of the page number.

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne paints a dismal, though perhaps not realistic, portrait of the pilgrims dressed in "sad-colored garments" (45).

For Internet sources, use parenthetic (in-text) citations, just as you would for traditional print and non-print sources. Most electronically-accessed work, however, is not paginated. Thus, for most electronic works, you may have only an author's last name.

At least one account of the life of Mary Shelley depicts a child who was "treated as if she were born beneath a lucky star" (Bridges).

Remember that the purpose of the parenthetic citation is to point to the referenced work in the list of Works Cited, and to allow the reader to find the specific location of the reference within the work. Thus, the parenthetic notation should begin with the same information as the reference in the list of works cited.

Whenever possible, you may want to include the information within the body of the text itself to avoid awkwardness. For instance,

The use of contrast, both visual, such as that between the wild and beautiful rose bush and the "black flower of civilised society, the prison" (46) in The Scarlet Letter, and contrasts of mood, such as the contrast between "Jollity and gloom" (115) in the short story "The Maypole of Merry Mount," are typical of Nathaniel Hawthorne.

For Internet or other electronic sources without pagination, however, repeat the author's name in parentheses after all direct quotes, even if the name is already included in the text. For example:

K. W. Bridge's investigation of the life of Mary Shelley reveals a child who "was treated as a unique individual" (Bridges). However, Katherine Hill-Miller, on the other hand, presents evidence that Mary Shelley was a tortured individual, subject to incestuous advances, and relegated to a role of silence.

The parenthetical note is usually placed right after the passage needing documentation, typically at the end of a sentence and inside the final punctuation mark. For block quotes, however, the parenthetical note is placed outside the final punctuation mark. See Using Sources for more information.

© 1999 by Addison Wesley Longman A division of Pearson Education