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Contents
- What are parenthetical citations
- Uses of parenthetical citations
- MLA parenthetical citations
- APA parenthetical citations
- Alternatives to parenthetical citations
What are parenthetical citations
Parenthetical citations are brief references to published literature, enclosed in round brackets (i.e., parentheses). They’re very common in academic writing, especially in the Introduction, Background, Literature Review, and Discussion sections of a research paper. Parenthetical citations are always accompanied by a full reference list or Works Cited list, at the end of the document or chapter.
Uses of parenthetical citations
Researchers use parenthetical citations for the following reasons:
- To back up a claim by showing that existing studies support that claim
- To direct interested readers to other studies on the same topic
- Give credit: Parenthetical citations indicate who has originated a theory or proposed a concept or who has made X discovery. By providing citations, you make it clear that you are not stealing anyone else’s ideas.
- Prevent plagiarism: Because you are giving credit to the original authors, you are allowed to use key terms or phrases from their works (sometimes with quotation marks). Remember that you cannot lift an entire sentence or block of text verbatim from another source, but you can certain use their constructs or concepts in your own words.
- To support fact-checking: Readers can look up the sources you cite and verify whether the numbers, statistics, or facts you’re mentioning are true or not.
MLA parenthetical citations
- Basic form: The author’s last name and the page number, with no comma and no “p.” between them, such as (Kingston 42). Two authors are joined with “and” (Smith and Ortega 90); three or more use “et al.” (Nguyen et al. 15).
- Placement: The citation goes at the end of the sentence or clause containing the borrowed material, after any closing quotation mark but before the period, for example, Kingston describes the ghost as “a sitting duck” (48).
- Signal phrases: If you name the author in your own sentence, don’t repeat it in the parentheses. Just give the page, for example, According to Kingston, the villagers acted out of fear (52).
- Missing page numbers: If your source has no page numbers (like web pages, films, most databases) just give the author’s name. If the source already includes numbered divisions like chapters, paragraphs, or timestamps, use an abbreviated label like (Austen, chap. 4). Don’t count or number paragraphs/chapters if the original author hasn’t.
- No author: Sources with no author get a shortened version of the title in italics for longer works or in quotation marks for shorter works. For example, (“Heavy Rains Lash City” 7) or (Beowulf 12).
- Multiple works by same author: If you cite two or more works by the same author, add a shortened title to distinguish them, like (Kingston, Woman Warrior 42).
APA parenthetical citations
- Basic format: APA uses the author’s surname and year of publication, not the page number, as the default, e.g., (Vaviletta, 2022). The name should match the first element of the reference list entry. Use a comma before the year.
- Multiple authors: Two authors are always both named, joined by an ampersand inside parentheses (Smith & Ortega, 2020) and by “and” in narrative text, e.g, “Smith and Ortega (2020) revealed that …”. Use “et al.” for 3 or more authors from the very first citation. Don’t italicize “et al.”
- Multiple sources in one set of parentheses are arranged in alphabetical order and separated by semicolons (Chen, 2021; Ortega, 2019).
- Page numbers for quotes: Use “p.” or “pp.” for page numbers for all direct quotations, e.g., (Ortega, 2019, p. 47) or (Ortega, 2019, pp. 47–48).
- Missing elements: If there is no publication date, use “n.d.”, like (Ortega, n.d.). I, If there is no author, use a shortened title in quotation marks (“Climate Report,” 2022) for shorter works and italics for longer works (World Encyclopedia, 2023).
Common errors in parenthetical citations
Let’s look at some mistakes researchers make most often when using parenthetical citations:
| Error | Incorrect | Correct |
| Adding “p.” or “pg.” in MLA | (Kingston p. 42) | (Kingston 42) MLA uses the bare page number |
| Omitting “p.” in APA quotes | (Ortega, 2019, 47) | (Ortega, 2019, p. 47) APA requires “p.” or “pp.” |
| Punctuation after the period | Fear drove the villagers. (Kingston 52) | Fear drove the villagers (Kingston 52). Citations are always placed before the period unless your university or guidelines require otherwise |
| Repeating a named author | Kingston argues the villagers acted from fear (Kingston 52). | Kingston argues the villagers acted from fear (52). |
| Citing a full title instead of a shortened one | (“The Annual Global Climate Assessment Report” 7) | (“Annual Global Climate” 7) Shorten to the first few words of the Works Cited entry |
| Placing the citation within the quotation marks | Kingston calls it “a sitting duck (48).” | Kingston calls it “a sitting duck” (48). |
Alternatives to parenthetical citations
The two main alternatives to parenthetical citations are
The Chicago notes-bibliography style
Chicago’s notes-bibliography style, which is popular in history, literature, and the humanities, cites sources with superscript numbers in the text that correspond to footnotes at the bottom of the page or endnotes at the end. The first note for a source gives full publication details. Subsequent notes are shortened to author’s last name, a brief title, and page number. A bibliography, alphabetized by author, usually follows at the end and repeats the full details.
Numbered citation style
Numbered styles like Vancouver and AMA, used mainly in medicine, physical sciences, and life sciences, mark each source in the text with a number. That number can be superscript, in square brackets [/] or parentheses (/). It’s assigned in the order the source first appears. If you’re reciting the same source later on in the paper, you have to reuse its original number. The reference list is arranged in that same numerical order rather than alphabetically.
