It is important to realize from the moment you begin writing an essay that you must document all quotations and ideas that you include in your work that you have taken from a source other than your imagination. In other words, whether you use a direct quotation, refer to an event that occurs during a story, or use ideas you discovered in the Encyclopaedia Britannica under the topic of “Mesopotamia,” you must provide a reference in your text to say where the words, or ideas have come from.
The Brunswick English Department expects students to use the MLA Handbook’s guidelines from documentation. This, in brief outline, is a two step process: first, whenever you refer to words or ideas from any source you must parenthetically provide author—or, sometimes title—and page number. Second, you must, at the end of your essay, on a separate sheet of paper, provide a full list of Works Cited. The information below should give you more precise guidelines for proper citation methods.
• Author's Name
MLA format follows the author-page method of citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear in your works-cited list (see Your Works Cited Page, below). The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.
Examples:
Freud states that "a dream is the fulfillment of a wish" (154).
Some argue that "a dream is the fulfillment of a wish" (Freud 154).
Doctor Brain has argued this point extensively (127-36).
For non-print (films, TV series, etc.) or electronic sources, try to include the name that begins the entry in the Works Cited page.
Sometimes you may have to use an indirect quotation, that is, a quotation that you found in another source that was quoting from the original. For such indirect quotations, use qtd. in, underlined or in italics:
Milroy described himself as "a non-political politician" (qtd.in Newley, 18).
Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if more than one author has the same last name, provide both authors' initials (or even her or his full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. If you cite more than one work by a particular author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the other works by that same person.
Examples:
• Two authors with the same last name:
Although some medical ethicists claim that cloning will lead to designer children (Miller, R.), others note that the advantages for medical research outweigh this consideration (Miller, A.).
• Two works by the same author:
Lightenor has argued that computers are not useful tools for small children ("Too Soon"), though he has acknowledged that early exposure to computer games does lead to better small motor skill development in a child's second and third year ("Hand-Eye Development").
To indicate short quotations (fewer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks and incorporate it into your text. Provide the author and specific page citation (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the text, and include a complete reference in the works-cited list. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.
Examples:
According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree.
According to Foulkes's study, dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (184).
Is it possible that dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184)?
Cullen concludes, "Of all the things that happened there / That's all I remember" (11-12).
Place quotations longer than four typed lines in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented one inch from the left margin, and maintain double-spacing. Your parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark. When quoting verse, maintain original line breaks. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your essay.)
Examples:
Ralph and the other boys finally realize the horror of their actions:
The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. (Golding 186)
Elizabeth Bishop's "In the Waiting Room" is rich in evocative detail:
It was winter. It got dark
early. The waiting room
was full of grown-up people,
arctics and overcoats,
lamps and magazines. (6-10)
This list, alphabetized by authors' last names, should appear at the end of your essay. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and be able to read any sources you cite in the essay. Each source you cite in the essay must appear in your works-cited list; likewise, each entry in the works-cited list must be cited in your text.
Authors' names are inverted (last name first); if a work has more than one author, invert only the first author's name, follow it with a comma, then continue listing the rest of the authors. If you have cited more than one work by a particular author, order them alphabetically by title, and use three hyphens in place of the author's name for every entry after the first. When an author appears both as the sole author of a text and as the first author of a group, list solo-author entries first. If no author is given for a particular work, alphabetize by the title of the piece and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.
The first line of each entry in your list should be flush left. Subsequent lines should be indented one-half inch. This is known as a hanging indent.
All references should be double-spaced.
Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc. This rule does not apply to articles, short prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle. Underline or italicize titles of books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and films.
Author(s). Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of
Publication.
A part of a book
(such as an essay in a collection)
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's
Name(s). Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Pages.
An article in a
periodical (such as a newspaper or magazine)
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Source Day Month Year:
pages.
*NOTE* When citing the date, list day before month; use a three-letter abbreviation of the month (Jan., Mar., Aug.). If there is more than one edition available for that date (as in an early and late edition of a newspaper), identify the edition following the date (17 May 1987, late ed.).
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Vol (Year): pages.
N.B. "Vol" indicates the volume number of the journal. If the journal uses continuous pagination throughout a particular volume, only volume and year are needed: for example, Modern Fiction Studies 39 (1993): 156-174. If each issue of the journal begins on page 1, however, you must also provide the issue number following the volume: for example, Mosaic 19.3 (1986): 33-49.
Author(s). Name of Page. Date of Posting/Revision. Date of
Access. <electronic address>.
*NOTE* It is necessary to list your date of access because web postings are often updated, and information available at one date may no longer be available later. Be sure to include the complete address for the site. Also, note the use of angled brackets around the electronic address; MLA requires them for clarity.
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Volume. Issue
(Year): Pages/Paragraphs. Date of Access <electronic
address>.
*NOTE* Some electronic journals and magazines provide paragraph or page numbers; include them if available. This format is also appropriate to online magazines; as with a print version, you should provide a complete publication date rather than volume and issue number.
Author. "Title of the message (if any)" E-mail to the author. Date of the message.
*NOTE* This same format may be used for personal interviews or personal letters. These do not have titles, and the description should be appropriate. Instead of "Email to John Smith," you would have "Personal interview."
Author. "Title of Posting." Online posting. Date when material was posted (for example: 14 Mar. 1998). Name of listserv. Date of access <electronic address for retrieval>.
An electronic database (such as NewsBank, Ethnic NewsWatch, or Broadcast News)
Author. "Title of Article." Relevant information for the database. Date of access
<electronic address for retrieval>.
Provide the bibliographic data for the original source as for any other of its genre, then add the name of the database along with relevant retrieval data (such as version number and/or transcript or abstract number).
The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms (above) to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, or consult your teacher.
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton:
Princeton UP, 1957.
(After the first listing of the author's name, use three hyphens and a period for the author's name. List books alphabetically.)
Basila, Martin. Commercial Uses of Communication: Today's Evolving Marketplace. New York: Dutton, 1997,
- - -. Media Advertising for the Masses. Philadelphia: Merton, 1995.
Gesell, Arnold,
and Frances L. Ing. Child Development: An
Introduction to the Study of Human Growth. New York:
Macmillan, 1960.
*NOTE* If there are more than three authors, you may list only the first author followed by the phrase et al. (the abbreviation for the Latin phrase "and others") in place of the other authors' names, or you may list all the authors in the order in which their names appear on the title page.
American Allergy Association. Allergies in Children. New York: Random, 1998.
Encyclopedia of Photography. New York: Crown, 1984.
"The Decade of the Spy." Newsweek 7 Mar. 1994: 26-27.
*NOTE* For parenthetical citations of sources with no author named, use a shortened version of the title instead of an author's name. Use quotation marks and underlining as appropriate. For example, parenthetical citations of the two sources above would appear as follows: (Encyclopedia 235) and ("Decade" 26).
Rueschemeyer,
Marilyn, ed. Women in the Politics of
Postcommunist
Eastern Europe. Armonk: Sharpe 1994.
Krutch, Joseph Wood. "What the Year 2000 Won't Be Like."
Finding a Voice. Ed. Jim W. Corder. Glenview: Scott
Foresman, 1973. 21-36.
"Mandarin." Encyclopedia Americana. 1980 ed.
Flanigan, Beverly Olson. "Peer Tutoring and Second Language
Acquisition in the Elementary School." Applied
Linguistics 12 (1991): 141-58.
Barthelme, Frederick. "Architecture." Kansas Quarterly 13.3-4
(1981): 77-80.
Nimmons, David. "Sex and the Brain." Discover Mar. 1994: 26-27.
Goodman, Laurence. "New Discoveries in AIDS Prevention." New York Times 27 Mar. 1998, late ed.: C3.
United States
Dept. of Labor. Bureau of Statistics. Dictionary
of
Occupational Titles. 4th ed. Washington: GPO, 1977.
Your Health. New York: Modern Woman, 1996.
Lesh, Philip. Personal Interview. 12 Nov. 1996.
"The Blessing Way." The X-Files. Fox. WXIA, Atlanta. 19
Jul. 1998.
It's a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James
Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and Thomas Mitchell. RKO, 1946.
Acura. Advertisement. Rolling Stone 16 May 1996: 8-9.
McDonald's. Advertisement. CNN. 4 May 1998.
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ELECTRONIC
PUBLICATIONS:
Daly, Bill. Writing Argumentative Essays. 1997. 26 Jun. 1998
<http://www.eslplanet.com/teachertools/argueweb/frntpage.htm>.
Tilton, Martin. "Re: Meeting Agenda for Friday." E-mail to Norit
Berman. 18 June 1999.
Lin, Michael. "Compressing Online Graphics." Online posting. 27 Apr. 1999. MacWeb. 29 Apr. 1999. <http://www.graphica.com/digitizing/intro.html>.
Inada, Kenneth. "A Buddhist Response to the Nature of Human
Rights." Journal of Buddhist Ethics 2 (1995): 9 pars.
26 Jun. 1998 <http://jbe.la.psu.edu/>.
The CIA World Factbook. CD-ROM. Minneapolis: Quanta, 1992.
"Fresco." Britannica Online. Vers. 97.1.1. Mar. 1997. Encyclopedia
Britannica. 29 Mar. 1997 <http://www.eb.com/180>.
Derks, Sarah A. "Binge Drinking and College: New Pressures for
an Old Mixer." Commercial Appeal 8 Dec. 1997: A1.
NewsBank NewsFile Collection, Vers. 2.40.
Reed, William. "Whites and the Entertainment Industry."
Tennessee Tribune 25 Dec. 1996: 28. Ethnic
NewsWatch, Vers.2.1.1.
"Condom Distribution Does Not Increase Sexual Activity."
Newsnight. CNN. 1 Oct. 1997. Broadcast News,
trans. 950172877.
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Because long explanatory notes can be distracting to readers, most academic style guidelines (including MLA and APA) recommend limited use of footnotes/endnotes. An exception is Chicago-style documentation, which relies on notes for all citations as well as explanatory notes. But even in that case, extensive discursive notes are discouraged.
Proper use of notes would include:
1. evaluative bibliographic comments, for example:
1 See Blackmur, especially chapters three and four, for an insightful
analysis of this trend.
2 On the problems related to repressed memory recovery, see Wollens pp.120-35; for a contrasting view, see Pyle.
2. occasional explanatory notes or other brief additional information that would seem digressive if included in the main text but might be interesting to readers, for example:
3 In a 1998 interview, she reiterated this point even more strongly: "I am an artist, not a politician!" (Weller 124).
Footnotes in MLA format are indicated by consecutive superscript arabic numbers in the text. The notes themselves are listed by consecutive superscript arabic numbers and appear double-spaced in regular paragraph format (a new paragraph for each note) on a separate page under the word Notes (centered, in plain text without quotation marks).
Your essay should be typed, double-spaced on standard-sized paper (8.5 X 11 inches) with margins of 1 inch on all sides. Unless requested, a title page is unnecessary. Instead, you should provide a double-spaced header in the top left corner of the first page that lists your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Number all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. You may want to omit the number on your first page. Then center your title on the line below the header with your name, and begin your essay immediately below the title.
Your works cited list should begin on a separate page from the text of the essay under the label Works Cited (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), centered at the top of the page. Double space all entries, with no skipped spaces between entries. Notes, if any, should be formatted similarly and should appear on a page before the works cited page.
Keep in mind that underlining and italics are equivalent; you should select one or the other to use throughout your essay.