Parenthetical Documentation: Or, a Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism and Eventual

Federal Prison Sentencing

When you include information you found from a subscription database, newspaper article,
website, or any other published source, you must give credit to the source. For example, if youre
writing an essay persuading people not to smoke and include a statistic stating that 80% of all tobacco
smokers get lung cancer as a result of smoking, you must document where you found that information.
If you dont document where you found the information, you have PLAGIARIZED, which means
stole, and plagiarism is against the law. Dont be afraid, dear children. You may use information found
in articles, but you must give the author credit.

As you know, you will create a Works Cited list that lists the citation of all articles, encyclopedia
entries, websites, etc. that you used to support your thesis.

Works Cited

Davis, Mary. Smoking Kills. Newsweek. Dec. 2004, pp. 98-107.

Ebbert, Jon O. "The Missing Link in Tobacco Control." CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association

Journal, 15 July 2008, p. 123+. Science in Context. Accessed 28 Feb. 2017.

If you want to use facts or information from these articles in your research paper, the author's last
name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in
the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. Simply put the first
word of the citation and the page number (when available) in parentheses AFTER the sentence
including the information and BEFORE the period.

For Example:
. . . . . . According to a recent study, 80% of tobacco smokers get lung
cancer as a result of smoking (Ebbert 125). In fact, smoking
cigarettes is the number one cause of deaths for people under the age
of fifty in The United States (Davis 102). Many smokers . . .

The author's name may also be in the sentence itself.

For example:
. . . . . . According to Jon Ebbert, 80% of tobacco smokers get lung
cancer as a result of smoking (125). In fact, smoking cigarettes is the
number one cause of deaths for people under the age of fifty in The
United States (Davis 102). Many smokers . . .

So, go ahead and borrow information from outside resources, but make sure you give the
authors credit by using parenthetical documentation!

Created by the infamous John Sharbaugh (2003) Bonnie Branch Middle School
Updated by the scientific Sarah Koslowski (2009) Bonnie Branch Middle School
Revised by Lt. Col. Chake Bicken (2012) Bonnie Branch Middle School
Altered by the amazing Adam Yeargin (2017) Bonnie Branch Middle School