When you use the words or original ideas of another person in your writing, you need to document these words and ideas. If exact words of the original are used, quotation marks are necessary. Paraphrasing or rewording an original source does not require quotation marks, but documentation of the source is still necessary.
PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION
There are several different formats for documentation. This format, used in most Humanities and Composition courses is the MLA format (named after the Modern Language Association, which developed it).
In the MLA format, "parenthetical documentation" is used to identify the sources of information you have borrowed in writing your paper. (This serves the same purpose as "footnotes".) Parenthetical documentation should be integrated smoothly into the text of your paper, rather than listed separately.
The general rule calls for you to cite the source at the point you refer to it by enclosing in parentheses the author's last name and the page referred to.
Child support payments can be withheld from wages in 45 states (Schorr 33).
If the author's name is mentioned in your discussion, you only need to put the page number cited in parentheses at the end of the sentence.
Jeannye Thorton notes that "natural fathers aren't the only ones raising children on their own. As more families split up, social workers note that stepfathers increasingly are being called on to bring up other people's kids" (62).
According to Bernard Farber in Encyclopedia Americana, there is a trend toward waiting to marry and toward postponing the birth of the first child (6).
For periodical articles or pamphlets with no author, you should include the first 2-3 key words from the title and the page number in parentheses.
Fathers today no longer know who they are and what their wives and children expect form them ("Fathers Confused" 5).
"A widespread complaint among sons is the lack of genuine communication with their fathers, which leads to unspoken resentments on both sides" (Uncommunicative Father 3).
Thanks to Austin Community College Learning Resource Services for this information.