Harding Charter Preparatory High School English Department MLA Works Cited Formatting and Parenthetical Documentation

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1 Harding Charter Preparatory High School English Department MLA Works Cited Formatting and Parenthetical Documentation But why??? In a nutshell, it s about respect and credibility. When you research and include those findings when you present your own ideas, you are joining an existing conversation. People have been discussing these ideas long before any of us were around, and many of those people are much better qualified to do so. When we join the conversation, if we want anyone to take us seriously, we must do two things: we must respect others ideas and contributions since we are borrowing from them, and in doing so, we want to have enough information that we ourselves are credible or believable. For example, if you are convinced that the lunar landing was a hoax, no one is going to give you the time of day unless you have good reasons to support your claim. As for those reasons, people are going to listen a lot more if you got your information from NASA rather than ihatescience.com. When you can support your ideas with solid information from trustworthy sources, you have just made yourself credible. However, there s a catch: you have to list the sources you used so people know where you got your information. Otherwise, who cares, and how will they even know? Additionally, when you cite your sources, you re also showing those NASA scientists respect by giving them credit for the hard work they ve done before you. This is very, very important, both in the academic world and in the real world. Almost everyone knows what it feels like when you say something and then someone else hears it and repeats it louder and then they get credit for the good idea, not you. This is called plagiarism. In the real world, there are huge penalties when people find out that you did this. For example, Joe Biden (President Obama s vice president) was running for President in 1988, but he was accused of plagiarizing a speech. He dropped out of the race a month later. Why? People who do not cite their sources appropriately are seen as lazy, dishonest, and incapable of doing their own work, and no one respects that whether you are a freshman in high school or a presidential candidate. One final note on respect: when you include documentation of sources, you are also showing respect for both your reader and yourself. By providing documentation, you are demonstrating to your reader that you respect him or her as an educated person: one who is educated enough to be skeptical of your ideas and may want to confirm or disprove them, or one who is enthusiastic enough to want to continue his or her own research, starting with your sources (and yes, people like that do exist). It is also showing you respect yourself enough to assert your ideas confidently and can back them up with other evidence. In both cases, you are sending a clear message about your credibility, and that, after all, is the goal. How should I format my paper? Paper margins: 1-inch margins all around Font: Times New Roman (unless otherwise specified by your teacher) Size: 12-point Spacing: Double-space everything. There should be nothing in your paper that is single-spaced. Additionally, remove the space between paragraphs that Microsoft Word automatically adds. Header: Double-click the very top of your paper to access the header area. Type your last name and insert (use the Microsoft menu option for this; do not type a number!) the page number option. Change the font and size of both to match the rest of your paper. Heading: In the top-left corner of your paper (not in the header/margin), type your name, your teacher s name, your class and hour, and the date (in military format). Each item should have its own line. Title: Centered, the very next line under the date you just typed. Do not add any extra space above or below the title, and do not add any special formatting (font, size, etc.). See example at the end of this packet. Adapted from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition, of 10

2 What are the two types of documentation I need? 1. You need a Works Cited page at the very end of your paper, which lists all the sources you used in your paper. It should be the last page of your paper and it is always on a separate sheet of paper, but the page number at the top should be continued from the rest of your paper. The title for this page is: Works Cited. (Note the capitalization.) It should not be Work Cited, Works Cited Page, Bibliography, etc. This title is centered at the top of the page, but it is not bolded, italicized, underlined, or have any other special formatting. It is always double-spaced throughout and in 12-point type, using the same font as the rest of the paper. It uses a hanging indent, meaning that, unlike a normal paragraph in which the first line is indented, the first line is not indented and all subsequent lines are. Arrange entries in alphabetical order, starting with the authors last names, or the title word(s). Skip the, a, or an when alphabetizing. Don t omit these words, just skip to the next word to decide where it should fit alphabetically. For information on formatting these entries, see below. 2. You also need in-text citations (also known as parenthetical citations because they re in parentheses) within your paper. Include them every time you borrow a fact, idea, or phrase from a source. If you fail to do this, you are plagiarizing. It looks like this: I m writing, writing, writing, and oh, by the way, here s a fact to support what I m saying: fact fact fact fact fact (Smith 17). In general, these citations contain the author s last name and page number of the source where the information was found. There is a space but no comma, pg., page or any other notation between the name and the number. If there is no author (as often happens with online sources), use the first interesting word of the title (not the or a or two ), and put it in quotation marks inside the parentheses. If there is no page number listed (as often happens with online sources), include only the author s name / title word in the parentheses. However, be careful because online sources such as journal articles almost always have page numbers if you look carefully enough. If you quote something directly, put the entire quote in quotation marks, but close the marks before adding the citation. Sentence punctuation always goes outside the parentheses. Note the example above: the quote is isolated with quotation marks, and the period comes after (Smith 17). The Works Cited Page How do I format the entries on the Works Cited page? Follow the order in the chart below, and note the punctuation after each part. Often you will not use all the slots available, and sometimes you will need a second container chart (addressed below). Your job is to find and list as much information as accurately as you can in this organized manner. Another note: although the chart shows these components in a list format, you will string them together in a line, as shown in every example below. 1. Author. This refers to whatever person or group is primarily responsible for producing the text. Start with the author s last name, followed by a comma, followed by the first name. Finish the entry with a period. If there are two authors, list them in the order they appear in the book, starting with the first name in reverse order (see above), but the next name should be in normal order. For example: Dorris, Michael, and Louise Erdich. The Crown of Columbus. HarperCollins Publishers, If only editors or translators are listed, put them first, followed by a comma and the word editors (or translators). For example: Nunberg, Geoffrey, editor. The Future of the Book. U of California P, If there are three or more authors, list the first author and follow it with a comma and et al. (which means, and others ). For example: Burdick, Anne, et al. Digital_Humanities. MIT P, Adapted from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition, of 10

3 If you have multiple works from the same author, give the author's name in the first entry only. Thereafter, in place of the name, type three hyphens followed by a period. The hyphens stand for the name in the first entry. Bororff, Marie. Language and the Poet: Verbal Artistry in Frost, Stevens, and Moore. U of Chicago P, Sound and Symbolism as Drama in the Poetry of Robert Frost. PMLA, vol. 107, no. 1, Jan 1992, pp When working with film and television, decide whether you are focusing on an individual s performance or the source as a whole. If you re focusing on an individual, begin with his/her name, followed by a descriptive label. Gellar, Sarah Michelle, performer. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Mutant Enemy, If you re focusing on the work as a whole without discussing a specific individual s contribution, begin with the title. (You can always list key participants in the other contributors position; see #4.) Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mutant Enemy, For posts from social media, begin with the author s pseudonym, username, or handle. For We have report of large street battles in east and west of Tehran now - #Iranelection. Twitter, 23 June If there is no author, skip to # , 11:15 a.m., twitter.com/persiankiwi/status/ Title of source. Italicize any book, movie, play, album, television series, or other longer work. Use quotation marks for newspaper/magazine/journal articles, songs, stories, poems, television episodes, tweets, or other short items. Include subtitles. Do not alter the title in any way except to standardize capitalization. For example, a book entry might look like: Jacobs, Alan. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. Oxford UP, An article in a journal might look like: A Web site: Dewar, Jame A., and Peng Hwa Ang. The Cultural Consequences of Printing and the Internet. Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Einstein, edited by Sabrina Baron et al., U of Massachusetts P, 2007, pp Hollmichel, Stefanie. So Many Books , somanybooksblog.com. A posting or an article on a Web site: Hollmichel, Stefanie. The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print. So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-and-print/. If there is no clear title, create a generic description of it and don t use either italics or quotation marks. Mackintosh, Charles Rennie. Chair of stained oak , Victoria and Albert Museum, Comment on The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print. So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, 10:30 p.m., somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-and-print/ #comment Identify a short untitled message (like a tweet) by copying its full text word-for-word in place of a title. Enclose it in quotation We have report of large street battles in east and west of Tehran now - #Iranelection. Twitter, 23 June 2009, 11:15 a.m., twitter.com/persiankiwi/status/ Adapted from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition, of 10

4 3. Title of container, Often, the text you re using is a small part of something much larger. For example, a tweet is part of the Twitter network, an article may be part of a magazine, journal, newspaper, or website, and a short story may be part of an anthology. Each type of container is different and requires different information to follow it. Italicize containers. A book that is a collection of essays, stories, poems, or other kinds of works is called an anthology. In the example below, Toward Metareading is an essay in a collection (anthology) called The Future of the Book. Bazin, Patrick. Toward Metareading. The Future of the Book, edited by Geoffrey Nunberg, U of California P, 1996, pp For a periodical (journal, magazine, newspaper): For a Web site: Williams, Joy. Rogue Territory. The New York Times Book Review, 9 Nov. 2014, pp. 1+. Sharkopedia. How a Shark s Jaws Work. Discovery.com, 2016, hunting-diet/#how-a-sharks-jaws-work. IMPORTANT: Sometimes you need TWO containers. For example, if you re watching a TV show on Netflix, the episode name is the title, the show s name is the first container, and Netflix is the second container. (See below.) Or, if you found a journal article on EBSCOHost, the first container is the journal title, and the second is EBSCOHost. Include any relevant publication information for the first container (date, volume, issue, etc.) before listing the second container s information. Under the Gun. Pretty Little Liars, season 4, episode 6, ABC Family, 16 July Hulu, Goldman, Anne. Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante. The Georgia Review, vol. 64, no. 1, 2010, pp EBSCOHost, 4. Other contributors, Sometimes people other than the author also contribute to a work. In such a case, add one of the tags below before the person s name: adapted by narrated by directed by performance by edited by translated by illustrated by general editor introduction by Chartier, Roger. The Order of Books: Readers, Authors, and Libraries in Europe between the Fourteenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Translated by Lydia G. Cochrane, Stanford UP, Dewar, James A., and Peng Hwa Ang. The Cultural Consequences of Printing and the Internet. Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Einstein, edited by Sabrina Alcorn Baron et al., U of Massachusetts P, pp Version, Sometimes sources are released in different versions or editions. For example, the Bible has been translated a number of different ways and each one is its own version. Another example might be textbooks, which are often reprinted with minor changes every few years in new editions. Abbreviate edition as ed. The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, Newcomb, Horace, editor. Television, The Critical View. 7th ed., Oxford UP, Number, If a source is too long to contain in one book or issue (like the newspaper), it is released in multiple volumes, and sometimes those volumes also contain a number in sequence for easier retrieval. Encyclopedias, for example, have many volumes, and newspapers or journals have volumes and also numbers. Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. 2nd ed., vol. 2, Oxford UP, Adapted from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition, of 10

5 Baron, Naomi S. Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media. PMLA, vol. 128, no.1, Jan. 2013, pp The seasons of a television series are typically numbered in sequence, as are the episodes in the season. Include both. Hush. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 3, episode 20, Mutant Enemy, Publisher, The publisher is whoever is responsible for producing or for making the source available to the public. Lessig, Lawrence. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. Penguin Press, Kuzui, Fran Rubel, director. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Twentieth Century Fox, Note: If a university is responsible for publishing, abbreviate University as U and Press as P. Jacobs, Alan. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. Oxford UP, Web sites are published by all kinds of organizations, including museums, libraries, and universities. You can often locate the publisher at the bottom of the page next to the copyright information. Harris, Charles Teenie. Woman in Paisley Shirt behind Counter in Record Store. Teenie Harris Archive, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, teeny.cmoa.org/interactive/index.html#date-08. Films and television series are often published by multiple companies. List the one that had a primary role. Kuzui, Fran Rubel, director. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Twentieth Century Fox, A blog network is a publisher of the blogs it hosts. Clancy, Kate. Defensive Scholarly Writing and Science Communication. Context and Variation, Scientific American Blogs, 24 Apr. 2013, blogs.scientificamerican.com/context-and-veriation/2013/04/24/defensive-scholarly-writing- and-science-communication/. Be careful though: websites like YouTube and EBSCO are containers but not publishers! 8. Publication date, The publication date for print sources is usually fairly easy to locate. However, some sources especially online sources may display more than one date. In that case, pick the one that is most relevant to your source, or in the case of book editions, the date of the edition you used. For example, if you re reading a news article on CNN.com, use the date of the article, not the date of the site s copyright or last update. If an article or comment online includes the time it was published, include it after the date. Dates that contain the day, month, and year should be written in military format. This means you simply write the day (adding a 0 if necessary), abbreviate the month, and then add the year. There is no punctuation except for the period after the abbreviation. There is no -st, -nd, -rd, or -th (as in 2nd, 8th) added to the day. Correct: 04 Feb Incorrect: February 4th, th Feb Feb For example, this online article includes all components of the date: Deresiewicz, William. The Death of the Artist and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur. The Atlantic, 28 Dec. 2014, /. This online comment includes the time posted as well as the date: Adapted from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition, of 10

6 @Jeane. Comment on The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print. So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, 10:30 p.m., somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-and-print/ #comment This journal article was a monthly publication and doesn t include a day: Baron, Naomi S. Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media. PMLA, vol. 128, no.1, Jan. 2013, pp This book shows only the year it was published: Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Vintage Books, Location. If you are using a print source (or something online that used to be a print source, such as a journal article), list the page number (preceded by p.) or range of page numbers (preceded by pp.). If you are accessing an online source, list the URL. Print source with a single page: Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. On Monday Last Week. The Thing around Your Neck, Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, p. 74. Print source with multiple pages: Deresiewicz, William. The Death of the Artist and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur. The Atlantic, Jan.-Feb. 2015, pp Online source with URL: Hollmichel, Stefanie. The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print. So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-and-print/. Other locations (museums, libraries, places of interviews or conferences, etc.) should include the city as well. Bearden, Romare. The Train Museum of Modern Art, New York. Adapted from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition, of 10

7 SAMPLE WORKS CITED PAGE Title: The title is always Works Cited unless you have only one work, in which case it is Work Cited. It is centered and has no additional formatting. Header: Student s last name and the page number, continued from the rest of the paper. Standard font and size, and no punctuation. Works Cited Last name # Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. On Monday Last Week. The Thing around Your Neck, Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, p. 74. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Vintage Books, Hollmichel, Stefanie. The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print. So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, Comment on The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print. So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, 10:30 p.m., somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-braindifferences-between-digital-and-print/#comment The United Nations. Consequences of Rapid Population Growth in Developing Countries. Taylor and Francis, Alphabetical Order: All entries are arranged in alphabetical order according to their first word (unless it s the word the, a, or an ). Hanging Indent: The first line aligns with the left margin; all additional lines are tabbed inward. Please note that the font size and margins are smaller than prescribed in order that the examples may fit in this packet. This page is meant to be a general guide only. Refer to the rules above for specific guidelines. Adapted from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition, of 10

8 In-Text Citations (Parenthetical Citations) An in-text citation is a brief reference within your paper that indicates which source you consulted. It should direct the reader unambiguously to the entry on your works-cited list while creating the least possible interruption in your writing. It is sometimes called a parenthetical citation because it is usually enclosed in parentheses. Typical in-text citations contain the element that appears first on the Works Cited page (usually the author s last name), followed by the page number, both of which are enclosed in a set of parentheses. These are placed, when possible, where there is a natural pause in the text. If multiple sources begin with the same title (and no author is listed), include the title, a comma, AND the container. For example: ( Australia, WorldBook 9) and ( Australia FastFacts). However, there are multiple ways to include this information. The most standard looks like: Reading is just half of literacy. The other half is writing (Baron 194). One might even suggest that reading is never complete without writing. Or, you can introduce the author and her quote first then only put the page number in parentheses (there s no need to repeat information). According to Naomi Baron, reading is just half of literacy. The other half is writing (194). One might even suggest that reading is never complete without writing. And of course, these citations draw from the entry on your Works Cited page: Baron, Naomi S. Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media. PMLA, vol. 128, no.1, Jan. 2013, pp Block Quotes Beware! Not all teachers allow block quotes, or they limit the number you can use. Be sure to check with your teacher before incorporating these. If you have selected a quotation to incorporate into your paper and it is longer than four lines (as formatted in your paper), it may be appropriate to use a block quote. However, you should make every effort to paraphrase its contents first. There are occasions, though, when only the author s original words will convey adequately the feeling or information you want. Rules: A colon introduces the block quote. Indent the entire text half an inch from the left margin. Do not indent an extra amount not even the first line. Do not add quotation marks unless they appear in the original text. A parenthetical citation appears after the quotation s period. Resume your writing without extra spacing along the left margin. For poetry or verse, use a block quote for more than three lines. In Moll Flanders, Defoe follows the picaresque tradition by using a pseudo autobiographical narration: My true name is so well known in the records, or registers, at Newgate and in the Old Bailey, and there are some things of such consequence still depending there relating to my particular conduct, that it is not to be expected I should use my name or the account of my family to this work. (1) The narrator goes on to explain that her worst comrades know her as Moll Flanders (2). Other Issues: If you have two authors with the same last name, include the author s first initial in the in-text citation. For example: Reading is just half literacy. The other half is writing (N. Baron 194). One might even suggest that reading is never complete without writing. Adapted from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition, of 10

9 If you are using two or more sources from the same author, include one word from the article s title as well. For example: Reading is just half of literacy. The other half is writing (Baron, Redefining 194). One might even suggest that reading is never complete without writing. If your source doesn t have an author because it is anonymous or its author is an organization, your in-text citation contains the title. Either introduce the information using the title, or shorten the title to one word in the parenthetical citation. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America notes that despite an apparent decline in reading during the same period, the number of people doing creative writing of any genre, not exclusively literary works increased substantially between 1982 and 2002 (3). Despite an apparent decline in reading during the same period, the number of people doing creative writing of any genre, not exclusively literary works increased substantially between 1982 and 2002 (Reading 3) or Heading: Student s name, teacher s name, class, and date in military format Header: Student s last name and the page number. Standard font and size, and no punctuation. Last name 1 Michael McIntosh Mrs. Malloy Pre-AP English I - 2nd 13 April 2001 Title: Centered with no additional spacing above or below, and no special formatting. Only important words are capitalized. Formatting: Times New Roman, 12-pt size, doublespaced. No extra space after any line or paragraph. Dead Children in Literature Nowhere is the Victorian novelists' desire to strengthen resolve more keenly felt than when they deal with early death. This is the point at which the Romantic ideal of the innocent child, and the Evangelical ideal of the saved child as a spiritual guide, reinforce each other. However, the novelists rarely adopt either the visionary modes of Romantic poetry or the saccharine iconography of the tract: the novel form which they inherited offers its own unique opportunities for stressing the value of childhood, and exploring [in a positive way] the last phase of a child character's earthly consciousness. The claim that early death was on the wane, and that the Victorians' preoccupation with it was therefore excessive and obsessive (Grylls 41-42), has not gone uncontested (Poltz ). It seems to me quite untenable. Demographical data must be treated with caution: after Margins: 1-inch margins on all sides of the paper Adapted from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition, of 10

10 Adapted from the MLA Handbook, 8th edition, of 10