PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION
Remember that you do not just document your paper by typing a bibliography. You must also document certain information inside your paper. Here is a short summary of what to document and the form you should follow:
- Quotes--quoted material must be documented to the specific source, including page number.
- Current statistics--facts and figures, percentages, etc. must be documented in the body of the paper (facts that are not debatable are considered OK).
- Case histories and case studies (real examples)--cases like real people examples or Medical Studies, etc.
- Author opinion or unusual information given by an author that no other source seems to have.
Do not over-document inside your paper. Remember that your Works Cited page covers the general information in your paper. It tells where you got your information for the paper. Do not use parenthetical (intext, internal) documentation unless it conforms to one of the above reasons.
FORM:
Normally, parenthetical documentation is placed at the end of a sentence, and covers only that one sentence. The parentheses appear inside the period of the sentence, like this (Bradshaw 3). When you are quoting more than one sentence, the period appears outside the quote. Place a space between the last letter or punctuation mark of the sentence and the parenthesis.
Example: "...xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx. Xxxx xxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxx" (Bradshaw 3).
When you use the MLA long quote form (more than 4 typed lines), the parenthetical documentation is placed outside the period:
xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xx
xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxx
xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx
xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx
xxxxxxx xxxxx. (Smith 24)
Notice that the left margin is indented 1 inch, the right margin remains the same, no quotation marks are used, and the parenthetical documentation goes outside the period--the only such case. Note: Do not split an ITC from line-to-line if possible and never page to page. If an ITC will not fit at the end of a line, put it ALL on the next line, and flush on the right margin of the page.
........ xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx
xxxxxxx xxxxx. xxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxxx.
(Smith 24)
More important information on form!
More examples can be seen in your text reading and in the sample paper .