I won't deny that RTFM'ing can be hard, especially with a documentation base as huge as CGI.pm's. The relevent section in the docs is right here, by the way. I found it by searching for the token 'param()' and yes, the parens are very necessary. :)

Good luck to you, and why not just sign in and attach a user name to your presence? We can only bark, we can't bite. ;)

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)