MLA Style Guide PDF

Chapter 23 MLA Style Learning...

Chapter 23 MLA Style Learning Objectives By working through this chapter, you will be able to In writing research papers, it is commonly said, “You are commanded to borrow but forbidden to steal.” To implement MLA guidelines for documenting sources. borrow ideas while avoiding plagiarism, you must not only produce research writing that mention the sources you borrow from but also document adheres to MLA guidelines for them completely and accurately. You must follow the formatting. documentation principles for papers written in your area of evaluate MLA practices at work in a sample student study. research paper. If you are composing a research paper in the humanities, your instructor will most likely require you to follow the conventions established in the style manual of the Modern Language Association (MLA). This chapter provides you with overarching guidelines, detailed explanations, and helpful examples for citing sources in MLA format. Visually Speaking Library shelves organize a vast amount of knowledge (Figure 23.1). In what sense does a system such as MLA style make sense of and order knowledge in research writing? Amy Johansson / Shutterstock.com fig. 23.1 Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 454 Research and Writing MLA Documentation: Quick Guide The MLA system aims, above all, to make documentation clear and useful to readers. To do so, the system involves two parts: (1) an in-text citation within your paper when you use a source and (2) a matching bibliographic entry at the end of your paper. Note these features: It’s minimalist. In your paper, you provide the least amount of information needed for your reader to identify the source in the works-cited list. It uses signal phrases and parenthetical references to set off source material from your own thinking and discussion. A signal phrase names the author and places the material in context (e.g., “As Margaret Atwood argues in Survival”). It’s smooth, unobtrusive, flexible, and orderly. While in-text citations keep the paper readable, alphabetized entries in the works-cited list make locating source details easy. Moreover, instead of requiring writers to follow unique, “correct” formats for several different source types, MLA style offers a basic pattern that researchers can follow, allowing them to make judgements about what to include. You can see these features at work in the example below. “Anna Hutchens” and “(449)” tell the reader the following things: The borrowed material came from a source written by Anna Hutchens. The specific material can be found on page 449 of the source. Full source details are in the works-cited list under the author’s last name. 1. In-Text Citation in Body of Paper As Anna Hutchens puts it, there is an “absence of a policy framework and institutional mechanisms that promote women’s empowerment as a rights- based rather than a culture-based issue” (449). 2. Matching Works-Cited Entry at End of Paper Hutchens, Anna. “Empowering Women Through Fair Trade? Lessons from Asia.” Third World Quarterly, vol. 31, no. 3, 2010, pp. 449-67. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/01436597.2010.488477. In-Text Citation: The Basics In MLA, in-text citations typically follow these guidelines: 1. Refer to the author (plus the work’s title, if helpful) and a page number (if available) by using one of these methods: Last name and page number in parentheses: last name only in citation Fair trade is not necessary for consumers to “exercise a moral choice” with their money (Chandler 256). no “p.” for “page” no comma between name and page number Name cited in sentence, page number in parentheses: full name in first reference As Paul Chandler admits, fair trade is not necessary for consumers to “exercise a moral choice” with their money (256). page number only in citation Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  Chapter 23 | MLA Style 455 2. Present and punctuate citations according to these rules: Place the parenthetical reference after the source material. Within the parentheses, normally give the author’s last name only. Do not put a comma between the author’s last name and the page reference. Cite the page number as a numeral, not a word. Don’t use p., pp., or page(s) before the page number(s). Place any sentence punctuation after the closed parenthesis. For many of these rules, exceptions exist. For example, many electronic sources have no stated authors and/or no pagination. Works Cited: Nine Core Elements Essentially, all works-cited entries are built out of nine core elements typically shared across different sources. Here is a sample entry and an overview of the nine elements. Note: not all entries must contain all nine elements. (The example does not include a version or number.) 1 2 3 Beckerman, Bernard. “The Uses and Management of the Elizabethan Stage.” The Third Globe: Symposium for the Reconstruction of the Globe Playhouse, Wayne State 4 University, 1979, edited by C. Walter Hodges, S. Schoenbaum, and Leonard Leone, 7 8 9 Wayne State UP, 1981, pp. 151-63. 1. Author: The person, people, or organization that created the source; or the person whose work on the source you choose to emphasize. 2. Title of Source: The full title of the specific source you are using—a whole book, an essay or other text within a book, an article in a periodical or reference work, a specific web page, a film, an episode of a television show, and so on. 3. Title of Container: The larger source that contains or holds the source you are using— possibly a book, a journal or magazine, a database, or a website. Note: stand-alone sources have no containers. 4. Other Contributors: People whose contribution may be noteworthy—editors, translators, performers, and so on. 5. Version: When there is more than one version of a source (e.g., revised or numbered editions), a description of the version used. 6. Number: An indication of how the source fits into a sequence—volume and issue numbers for journals, season and episode numbers for televisions shows. 7. Publisher: The organization that produces or sponsors the source, responsible for delivering it—a book publisher, a production company, a website host. 8. Publication Date: When the source was made available to the public. 9. Location: Where a source was and can be found—page numbers within print sources, DOI (digital object identifier) or URL (uniform resource locator) for online sources, the site for a lecture or performance. Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 456 Research and Writing Guidelines for In-Text Citations The MLA Handbook, Eighth Edition (2016), suggests giving credit for your sources of information in the body of your research paper. One way to do so is by indicating the author and/or title in the text of your essay, and then putting a page reference in parentheses after the summary, paraphrase, or quotation, as needed. The simplest way to do so is to insert the appropriate information (usually the author and page number) in parentheses after the words or ideas taken from the source. To avoid disrupting your writing, place citations where a pause would naturally occur (usually at the end of a sentence but sometimes within a sentence, before internal punctuation such as a comma or semicolon). These in-text citations (often called “parenthetical references”) refer to sources listed on the “Works Cited” page at the end of your paper. Essentially, each in-text citation must clearly point to a source in your works cited, and every source in the works-cited list must be referred to at least once within your paper. Citations for Regular Sources As you integrate citations into your paper, follow the guidelines below, referring to the sample citation as needed. Sample In-Text Citation As James Cuno, director of the Harvard University Art Museums, points out, the public, which subsidizes museums either directly through donations or indirectly via their status as tax-free nonprofit organizations, expects them to “carry out their duties professionally on its behalf” (164). Make sure each in-text citation clearly points to an entry in your list of works cited. The identifying information provided (usually the author’s last name) must be the word or words by which the entry is alphabetized in that list. Keep citations brief, and integrate them smoothly into your writing. When paraphrasing or summarizing rather than quoting, make it clear where your borrowing begins and ends. Use stylistic cues to distinguish the source’s thoughts (“Kalmbach points out... ,” “Some critics argue...”) from your own (“I believe... ,” “It seems obvious, however”). When using a shortened title of a work, begin with the word by which the work is alphabetized in your list of works cited (e.g., “Egyptian, Classical,” not “Middle Eastern Art,” for “Egyptian, Classical, and Middle Eastern Art”). For inclusive page numbers larger than ninety-nine, give only the last two digits of the second number (346–48, not 346–348). When including a parenthetical citation at the end of a sentence, place it before the end punctuation. (Citations for long, indented quotations are an exception.) Historian Kim Christensen cautions that historic house museums often fall into a trap of formulaic, apolitical, and object-centered interpretations of the past (155). Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  Chapter 23 | MLA Style 457 Citations for Sources Without Traditional Authorship and/or Pagination Today many sources, especially digital ones, have no stated authors and/or no pagination. For such sources, use these in-text citation strategies: Source Without a Stated Author In a signal phrase or in the parenthetical reference, identify the source as precisely as possible by indicating the sponsoring agency, the type of document, or the title (shortened in the parenthetical reference). While the Brooklyn Museum may be best known for the recent controversy over the Sensation exhibition, the museum does contain a strong collection of contemporary if less controversial art, “ranging from representational to abstract to conceptual” (“Contemporary Art”). Source with No Pagination If no pagination exists within the document, use paragraph numbers (with the abbreviation par.), if the document provides them. If the document includes neither page nor paragraph numbers, cite the entire work. Do not create your own numbering system. The Museum’s Art of the Americas collection includes extensive holdings of works by the aboriginal peoples of North, Central, and South America, many of these gathered by archaeologist Herbert Spinden during at least seven expeditions between 1929 and 1950 (Art of the Americas, par. 3). Because parenthetical notations are used to signal the end of an attribution, sources with no pagination or paragraph numbers offer a special challenge. When no parenthetical notation is possible, signal a shift back to your own discussion with a source-reflective statement indicating your thinking about the source.... indicated by his recording the audio tour of the exhibit, his supporting the show financially, and his promoting Sensation at his website. As Welland’s discussion of David Bowie’s participation suggests, the controversy over the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s Sensation exhibit... INSIGHT Stable pagination for many digital resources is available when you use the “.pdf” rather than the “.html” version of the source. For instruction on smoothly integrating source material into your paper, see chapter 22. Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 458 Research and Writing Sample In-Text Citations The following entries illustrate the most common in-text citations. One Author: A Complete Work You do not need a parenthetical citation if you identify the author in your text. (See the first entry below.) However, you must give the author’s last name in a parenthetical citation if it is not mentioned in the text. (See the second entry.) When a source is listed in your works-cited page with an editor, a translator, a speaker, or an artist instead of the author, use that person’s name in your citation. With Author in Text: (This is the preferred way of citing a complete work.) In No Need for Hunger, Robert Spitzer recommends that the U.S. government develop a new foreign policy to help Third World countries overcome poverty and hunger. Without Author in Text: No Need for Hunger recommends that the U.S. government develop a new foreign policy to help Third World countries overcome poverty and hunger (Spitzer). Note: Do not offer page numbers when citing complete works, articles in alphabetized encyclopedias, one-page articles, and unpaginated sources. One Author: Part of a Work List the necessary page numbers in parentheses if you borrow words or ideas from a particular source. Leave a space between the author’s last name and the page reference. No abbreviation or punctuation is needed. With Author in Text: Bullough writes that genetic engineering was dubbed “eugenics” by a cousin of Darwin’s, Sir Francis Galton, in 1885 (5). Without Author in Text: Genetic engineering was dubbed “eugenics” by a cousin of Darwin’s, Sir Francis Galton, in 1885 (Bullough 5). A Work by Two Authors Give the last names of both authors in the same order that they appear in the works-cited section. (The correct order of the authors’ names can be found on the title page of the book.) Students learned more than a full year’s Spanish in ten days using the complete supermemory method (Ostrander and Schroeder 51). Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  Chapter 23 | MLA Style 459 A Work by Three or More Authors Give the first author’s last name as it appears in the works-cited section followed by et al. (meaning “and others”). Communication on the job is more than talking; it is “inseparable from your total behavior” (Culligan et al. 111). Note: You may instead choose to list all of the authors’ last names. Two or More Works by the Same Author(s) In addition to the author’s last name(s) and page number(s), include a shortened version of the work’s title when you cite two or more works by the same author(s). With Author in Text: Wallerstein and Blakeslee claim that divorce creates an enduring identity for children of the marriage (Unexpected Legacy 62). Without Author in Text: They are intensely lonely despite active social lives (Wallerstein and Blakeslee, Second Chances 51). Note: When including both author(s) and title in a parenthetical reference, separate them with a comma, as shown above, but do not put a comma between the title and the page number. Works by Authors with the Same Last Name When citing different sources by authors with the same last name, it is best to use the authors’ full names in the text to avoid confusion. However, if circumstances call for parenthetical references, add each author’s first initial. If first initials are the same, use each author’s full name. Some critics think Titus Andronicus too abysmally melodramatic to be a work of Shakespeare (A. Parker 73). Others suggest that Shakespeare meant it as black comedy (D. Parker 486). A Work Authored by an Agency, a Committee, or an Organization If a book or other work was created by an organization such as an agency, a committee, a studio, or a task force, it is said to have a corporate author. If the corporate name is long, include it in the text (rather than in parentheses) to avoid disrupting the flow of your writing. After the full name has been used at least once, use a shortened form of the name (including common abbreviations such as Dept.) in subsequent references. For example, Task Force may be used for Task Force on Education for Economic Growth. The thesis of the Task Force’s report is that economic success depends on our ability to improve large-scale education and training as quickly as possible (113–14). Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 460 Research and Writing An Anonymous Work When there is no author listed, give the title or a shortened version of the title as it appears in the works-cited section. Statistics indicate that drinking water can make up 20 percent of a person’s total exposure to lead (Information 572). Two or More Works Included in One Citation To cite multiple works within a single parenthetical reference, separate the references with a semicolon. In Medieval Europe, Latin translations of the works of Rhazes, a Persian scholar, were a primary source of medical knowledge (Albala 22; Lewis 266). A Series of Citations from a Single Work If no confusion is possible, it is not necessary to name a source repeatedly when making multiple parenthetical references to that source in a single paragraph. If all references are to the same page, identify that page in a parenthetical note after the last reference. If the references are to different pages within the same work, you need identify the work only once, and then use a parenthetical note with page number alone for the subsequent references. Domesticating science meant not only spreading scientific knowledge, but also promoting it as a topic of public conversation (Heilbron 2). One way to enhance its charm was by depicting cherubic putti as “angelic research assistants” in book illustrations (5). A Work Referred to in Another Work If you must cite an indirect source—that is, information in a source that is quoted from another source—use the abbreviation qtd. in (quoted in) before the indirect source in your reference. Paton improved the conditions in Diepkloof (a prison) by “removing all the more obvious aids to detention. The dormitories [were] open at night: the great barred gate [was] gone” (qtd. in Callan xviii). A Work Without Page Numbers or Other Markers If a work has no page numbers, paragraph numbers, or other markers included, treat it as you would a complete work. This is commonly the case with some digital resources, for example. Do not count pages or paragraphs to create reference numbers of your own. Antibiotics become ineffective against such organisms through two natural processes: first, genetic mutation; and second, the subsequent transfer of this mutated genetic material to other organisms (Davies). Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  Chapter 23 | MLA Style 461 A Work in an Anthology or a Collection When citing the entirety of a work that is part of an anthology or a collection, if it is identified by author in your list of works cited, treat the citation as you would for any other complete work. In “The Canadian Postmodern,” Linda Hutcheon offers a clear analysis of the self- reflexive nature of contemporary Canadian fiction. Similarly, if you are citing particular pages of such a work, follow the directions for citing part of a work. According to Hutcheon, “postmodernism seems to designate cultural practices that are fundamentally self-reflexive, in other words, art that is self-consciously artifice” (18). An Item from a Reference Work An entry from a reference work such as an encyclopedia or a dictionary should be cited similarly to a work from an anthology or a collection (see above). For a dictionary definition, include the abbreviation def. followed by the particular entry designation. This message becomes a juggernaut in the truest sense, a belief that “elicits blind devotion or sacrifice” (“Juggernaut,” def. 1). Note: While many such entries are identified only by title (as above), some reference works include an author’s name for each entry (as below). Others may identify the entry author by initials, with a list of full names elsewhere in the work. The decisions of the International Court of Justice are “based on principles of international law and cannot be appealed” (Pranger). A Part of a Multivolume Work When citing only one volume of a multivolume work, if you identify the volume number in the works-cited list, there is no need to include it in your in-text citation. However, if you cite more than one volume of a work, each in-text reference must identify the appropriate volume. Give the volume number followed by page number, separated by a colon and a space. “A human being asleep,” says Spengler, “... is leading only a plantlike existence” (2: 4). When citing a whole volume, however, either identify the volume number in parentheses with the abbreviation vol. (using a comma to separate it from the author’s name) or use the full word volume in your text. The land of Wisconsin has shaped its many inhabitants more significantly than they ever shaped that land (Stephens, vol. 1). Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 462 Research and Writing A One-Page Work Cite a one-page work just as you would a complete work. As Samantha Adams argues in her editorial, it is time for NASA “to fully reevaluate the possibility of a manned mission to Mars.” A Sacred Text or Famous Literary Work Sacred texts and famous literary works are published in many different editions. For that reason, it is helpful to identify sections, parts, chapters, and such instead of or in addition to page numbers. If using page numbers, list them first, followed by a semicolon and then an abbreviation for the type of division and the division number. The more important a person’s role in society—the more apparent power an individual has—the more that person is a slave to the forces of history (Tolstoy 690; bk. 9, ch. 1). Books of the Bible and other well-known literary works may be abbreviated, if no confusion is possible. The first reference should indicate the edition being used; subsequent references need supply only the abbreviated citation. “A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever” (The New Oxford Annotated Bible, Eccles. 1.4). As Shakespeare’s famous Danish prince observes, “One may smile, and smile, and be a villain” (Ham. 1.5.104). Quoting Prose To cite prose from fiction (novels, short stories), list more than the page number if the work is available in several editions. Give the page reference first, and then add a chapter, section, or book number in abbreviated form after a semicolon. In The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende describes Marcos, “dressed in mechanic’s overalls, with huge racer’s goggles” (13; ch. 1). When you are quoting any sort of prose that takes more than four typed lines, indent each line of the quotation a half inch (five spaces) and double-space it; do not add quotation marks. In this case, you put the parenthetical citation (the pages and chapter numbers) outside the end punctuation mark of the quotation itself. Allende describes the flying machine that Marcos has assembled: The contraption lay with its stomach on terra firma, heavy and sluggish and looking more like a wounded duck than like one of those newfangled airplanes they were starting to produce in the United States. There was nothing in its appearance to suggest that it could move, much less take flight across the snowy peaks. (12; ch. 1) Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.  Chapter 23 | MLA Style 463 Quoting Verse Do not use page numbers when referencing classic verse plays and poems. Instead, cite them by division (act, scene, canto, book, part) and line, using Arabic numerals for the various divisions unless your instructor prefers Roman numerals. Use periods to separate the various numbers. In the first act, Hamlet comments, “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, / Seem to me all the uses of this world” (1.2.133–34). Note: A slash, with a space on each side, shows where each line of verse ends and a new one begins. If a short poem’s lines are numbered in the edition you are using, you may cite the poem using lines only, not page number. Use the word line or lines in your first reference and numbers only in additional references. If a short poem’s lines are not numbered in the Alina Poronik / Shutterstock.com edition, simply cite the whole work; do not count lines yourself. At the beginning of the sestet in Robert Frost’s “Design,” the speaker asks this pointed question: “What had that flower to do with being white, / The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?” (lines 9–10). Verse quotations of more than three lines should be indented one inch and double- spaced. Do not add quotation marks. Each line of the poem or play begins a new line of the quotation; do not run the lines together. If a line or lines of poetry are dropped from the quotation, ellipses that extend the width of the stanza should be used to indicate the omission. Bin Ramke’s poem “A Little Ovid Late in the Day” tells of reading by the last light of a summer day: [T]ales of incest, corruption, any big, mythic vice against the color of the sun, the sweetness of the time of day— I know the story, it is the light I care about. (3–8) Copyright 2022 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.