mla parenthetical abbreviations for words

If your quote is longer than forty words, set it off in a block text by beginning a new line, indenting one inch, and do not add quotation marks. In most cases, you only need to list the author’s last name and the page number(s) where you got your information. In order to avoid plagiarism, it is extremely important that you cite all words and ideas that you got from somewhere else.

There are slight differences depending on which style you are using – APA or MLA.

So how do you do it? As the names imply, you are going to put the information about the source in parentheses in the text of your paper, as opposed to a footnote where the source information is at the bottom of the page or an endnote where it goes at the end of your paper. This is more obvious when you are directly quoting from a source, but it is also needed when you have summarized or paraphrased from a source and even if you got an idea from somewhere else. It sounds painful, but it doesn’t have to be! Basically parenthetical documentation, or in-text citations, means that you are telling the reader where you got any and all information that did not come from inside your own head.

Mla parenthetical abbreviations for words