The basic parenthetical citation consists of the author’s last name and a page number:
(Fielding 213)
If the author is referred to in the sentence, include only the page number in the parenthetical reference.
According to environmental activist Brian Fielding, the number of species affected is much higher (213).
Here are some other situations you may encounter:
When referring to a work by two authors, include both authors’ names.
(Stange and Hogarth 53)
When citing a work with no listed author, include a short version of the title.
(“Small Things” 21)
When citing a source that is quoted in another source, indicate this by including the abbreviation qtd. in.
According to Kevin Kelly, this narrow approach is typical of the “hive mind” (qtd. in Doctorow 168).
When citing two or more works by the same author, include a short title after the author’s name.
(Anderson, Long Tail 47)
If a source does not include page numbers, or if you are referring to the entire source rather than to a specific page, cite the author’s name in the text of your paper rather than in a parenthetical reference.
You must document all information that is not common knowledge, whether you are summarizing, paraphrasing, or quoting. (See p. 374 for an explanation of common knowledge.) With direct quotations, include the parenthetical reference and a period after the closing quotation marks.
According to Doctorow, this is “authorship without editorship. Or authorship fused with editorship” (166).
When quoting a passage of more than four lines, indent the entire passage half an inch from the left margin, and do not use quotation marks. Place the parenthetical reference after the final punctuation mark.
Doctorow points out that Wikipedia’s history pages can be extremely informative:
This is a neat solution to the problem of authority—if you want to know what the fully rounded view of opinions on any controversial subject looks like, you need only consult its entry’s history page for a blistering eyeful of thorough debate on the subject. (170)