As Gregory Bateson points out, "Mammals form images because their mental processes deal with many interfaces" (41)
Or:
As Gregory Bateson points out in Minds and Nature, "Mammals form images because their mental processes deal with many interfaces" (41).
Sometimes you may quote a source indirectly. For example, you may wish to use a quotation of Aristotle's which you found in a book by Albert Camus:
According to Aristotle: "The often ridiculed consequence of these opinions is that they destroy themselves. For by asserting that all is true we assert the truth of the contrary assertion and consequently the falsity of our own thesis..." (qtd. in Camus 13).
If the name of the person being quoted is not mentioned, simply say:
(Aristotle, qtd. in Camus 13).
Remember that even if you don't directly quote from an article or book but rather borrow an idea and paraphrase it into your own words, you still have to credit the source:
Mammals' brains are more complex than those of other animals (Bateson 41)
If you have personally interviewed a knowledgeable authority in a field, it is a good idea to mention the person in the text itself, thereby eliminating the need for a parenthesis:
David Smith, president of The Rifle Association of B.C., favors the legalization of owning handguns because he thinks that criminals will obtain them even if handguns are illegal to possess.
"Civil disobedience . . . involves a deliberate breach of the law."
"To resist is to say, NO! without a qualification . . ." (Thoreau 350).
Square brackets [ ] are used when the writer of an essay wants to add to the quotation a word or phrase not found in the original. Such an addition may provide a necessary explanation or may help the quotation to blend in with the writer's own prose:
"Most Democrats believed that [Jimmy] Carter was wishy-washy."
Kennedy said "this policy [of selling wheat to Russia] could bankrupt the farmers of America."
"Thus I return to Chestev. A commentator relates a remark of his that deserves interest: 'The only true solution,' he said, 'is precisely where human judgement sees no solution. Otherwise, what need would we have of God? We turn toward God only to obtain the impossible. As for the possible, men suffice'" (Camus 25).
"Sometimes you will have a paragraph in which all the data are yours except for the final two or three lines. In this case, use a hinge sentence ('Jones has shown that peer approval is a primary need during adolescence') to separate your own from borrowed information. Otherwise, a citation at the end of the paragraph might cause readers to conclude that the whole paragraph is borrowed" (Lannon 384).
"If the work is by a corporate author or if the work is unsigned (i.e., author unknown), use a shortened version of the title or corporate name in your citation, as in: ('Information Systems'18). But make sure that shortened titles correspond with the complete entries in "Works Cited" (e.g., "Information Systems for Tomorrow's Office, "Fortune" 19 (Oct. 1982): 18).
At the end of the essay, on a page of its own, comes a list of works cited. This title of this section depends on the style you are using:
MLA : Works Cited
APA - References
Chicago - Bibliography
The section lists all the books, articles, and references that have been used in the essay. The title Works Cited should appear about an inch from the top of a fresh page. It is the very last page of your manuscript. Every source mentioned in your text must have a corresponding entry in Works Cited. Underline titles of books, magazines, and newspapers, and put quotation marks around essays and articles (from newspapers, magazines, or books).
Entries in Works Cited are listed alphabetically according to the author's last name. If the article is anonymous, list the entry alphabetically according to its title (disregarding "A", "An", or "The"). Do not number the items on your list. Here is a sample list. Notice that the first line of each entry begins at the left margin; subsequent lines are indented five letter spaces. Double space every line. The only time you list page numbers is with magazine or newspaper articles.