Parenthetical Notation

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Parenthetical Notation

• ENG 102 Cooper
• Part II, Chapter B

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Introduction

• Research writing has two principal devices for
  giving detailed information about sources lists
  of works cited and notes.
• The former is a general, alphabetized list of all
  the sources you used in your writing.
• A note, in contrast, acknowledges the specific
  location within a source of a specific quotation
  or bit of information in your paper.

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Agenda

• Discuss three principal kinds of notes
• Learn how to use parenthetical notes
• Learn about some special cases
• Discuss when notes are needed
• How many notes are enough?
• How much material can one note cover?

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Types of Notes

• Parenthetical notes
• Footnotes
• Endnotes

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Parenthetical Notes

• Rationale is that a note should give the least
  amount of information needed to identify a
  source- and give it within the paper itself
  (unobtrusive)
• We will use MLA Style
• A typical note consists of two bits of
  information (author pages)
• Period is placed after the parentheses

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Example of parenthetical note for a Quotation
One textbook defines false arrest as an
intentional, unlawful, and unprivileged restraint
of a persons liberty, either in prison or
elsewhere, whereby harm is caused to the person
so confined (Wells 237).
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Quotation ends with a question mark or
exclamation point
If a quotation ends with a question mark or
exclamation point, add a period after the note,
as follows
Schwitzer taped a quotation from Thoreau to the
wall above his desk I have never yet met a man
who was quite awake. How could I have looked him
in the face? (Johnson 65).
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Parenthetical note for a Paraphrase
Many students mistakenly assume that notes are
used only with quotations, but they are used for
paraphrased ideas and information as well. For
example
John Hustons first movie, The Maltese Falcon, is
a faithful adaptation of Dashiell Hammetts novel
(Fell 242).
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Use notes whenever you make use of a sources
ideas and information, whether you quote the
sources words directly or paraphrase them.
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Some Special Cases

• Works with No Author
• Works with Two or More Authors
• Two or More Works by the Same Author
• Two Authors with the Same Last Name
• A Multivolume Work
• Reference to an Entire Work
• Reference to More Than One Work
• Reference to Discontinuous Pages
• A Source With

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Works with No Author
Substitute the title (the item that comes first
in the entry for that work in the list of works
cited remember that the point of notes is to
refer your readers to the list of works cited if
further information is needed).
An Infants Cries May Signal Physiological
Defects. Psychology Today June 1974
21-24. Parenthetical note (An Infants 22)
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Works with Two or More Authors

• Notes for works with multiple authors list their
  names just as they appear in your list of works
  cited
• (Reid, Forrestal, and Cook 52-54)
• (Courtois et al. 112)

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Two or More Works by the Same Author

• When two or more works by the same author appear
  in your list of works cited, add the first word
  or two from the title to your note to distinguish
  one work from another
• (Asimov, Adding 240-43)
• (Asimov, Happy 68)

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Two Authors with the Same Last Name

• When two authors with the same last name are
  cited in a paper, include their first names in
  notes so as to distinguish between them.
• (George Eliot 459)
• (T.S. Eliot 44)

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A Multivolume Work

• If you are citing a book published in more than
  one volume, you do not need to list the volume
  number in the note if it is shown in the list of
  works cited.
• Agus, Jacob Bernard. The Meaning of Jewish
  History. 2 vols. London Abelard, 1963. Vol. 2.
• (Agus 59)

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Reference to an Entire Work

• When you refer to a work as a whole, rather than
  to a specific passage, no page numbers are
  needed.
• Example At least three full-length biographies
  of Philbin have been written since his death
  (Brickle Baskin Tillinghast).
• Example Fermins book on wine-making is sold
  only by mail order.

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Reference to More Than One Work

• Sometimes a note needs to refer to more than one
  work. You can list multiple sources in a note,
  separated by semicolons
• Broadwells controversial theory about the
  intelligence of lizards has been disputed by
  eminent herpetologists (Matsumoto 33
  Vanderhotten 7 Crambury 450).

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Reference to Discontinuous Pages

• When you have taken source material from
  discontinuous pages of a work, list the pages,
  separated by commas
• (Witanowski 47, 103)

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A Source without Pages

• Many sources, such as recordings, television
  programs, and interviews, have no pages.
• Just use the name (Philcox)

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References with Other Forms of Page Numbering

• Page references in parenthetical notes should use
  the same numbering system as in the text being
  referred to.
• For example a reference to pages with Roman
  numbering would look like this (Bullock iv-viii)
• Reference to a newspaper article (Carlton
  B17-B18)

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An Electronic Source

• Some electronic texts look much like their
  printed versions, and the text appears on
  numbered pages.
• Because page numbers are visible on screen, you
  would cite a reference to the book as you would
  to any other (Irving 166)
• Some works, however, display no page numbers on
  screen. Just use the name (Robinson)
• The same is true for periodical articles that you
  have not consulted in their original print forms
  but only as reproductions, without page numbers,
  in an electronic database (Yue)

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Summary