Parenthetical References
1. When you incorporate another’s words, facts or ideas, whether in a direct quotation or by paraphrasing, you need to insert a brief parenthetical acknowledgement. Give the author’s last name and the page(s) of the source. If the author’s name appears in the sentence, you may omit it from the parenthetical citation.
Medieval Europe was a place of “raids, pillages, slavery, and extortion” (Townsend 10).
Townsend notes that medieval Europe was a place of “raids, pillages, slavery, and extortion” (10).
Townsend described medieval Europe as a violent and brutal place (10).
“Place the parenthetical reference where a pause would naturally occur (preferably at the end of a sentence), as near as possible to the materials documented” (MLA Handbook 217).
2. For web resources, unless the pages or paragraphs are numbered, use only the author’s last name. If no author is indicated, use the first word of the title.
3. “If you borrow more than once from the same source within a single paragraph and no borrowing from another source intervenes, you may give a single parenthetical reference after the last borrowing” (MLA Handbook 218).
4. In citing classic verse, plays and poems, omit page numbers and cite by division (act, scene, canto, book, part) and line, with periods separating the various numbers. Titles of famous works are often abbreviated (Ham. 1.5.35-37).
Source: http://library.ok.ubc.ca/files/2014/08/MLA-Guide-Fall-2013.pdf