What is Parenthetical Documentation?
The MLA style of documentation uses parenthetical citations (rather than footnotes or endnotes) to document particular ideas, facts, or quotes taken from sources and used in a paper. MLA parenthetical documentation emphasizes author’s last name and page numbers, rather than dates. It interacts with the works cited list, as each reference to a name of an author or anonymous text made within the paper must point to a works cited entry at the end of the paper. In this way, all specific bibliographic information is kept in the works cited list, and all information about specific location of quotes, ideas, facts, etc. in the original source is cited in parentheses where it is most relevant within the paper.
