What is MLA documentation?
MLA (Modern Language Association) documentation is a style of citing your sources. Documentation is important and necessary in order to avoid plagiarism–the stealing of someone else’s ideas. What is parenthetical documentation, and what is its purpose? Parenthetical documentation is a series of citations found within your paper. The purpose of parenthetical references is to lead your reader to the source of your quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. The references direct the reader to the full citation list called the , which is located at the end of your paper. There, the reader can locate all of the information needed to find the sources. When do you use a parenthetical citation? You should document anything that you used from an outside source; however, if the information is considered common knowledge (for example, if at least four of your sources give the same information), you do not need to use a citation. How do you decide what to include in a parenthetical citation? First,
