PART I RESEARCH Handling In- Text Citations Sometimes students lose focus of what they re learning about their topic and the research process itself due to concerns over technical details in documenting and formatting their work. This chapter is intended to reduce some of this potential anxiety. Admittedly, it may not remove all concerns, but it should clarify several aspects of M.L.A. citation that may seem intimidating or confusing. The M.L.A. dictates documentation and format standards for disciplines in the humanities, including English. This chapter, along with Chapter 8, adopts and adapts basic M.L.A. guidelines from the latest edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. It s not intended to cover every aspect of M.L.A. style, but it does focus on the most common issues students encounter when citing sources. For concerns not addressed here, please refer to the MLA Handbook, available in the McKay Library or BYU I Bookstore. Documentation Utility Programs Several citation utility programs RefWorks, EndNote, Zotero, EasyBib, and Citation Machine, for example are publicly or commercially available, each promising to simplify the documentation process. While their claims may be true to a degree, there are some things you should consider before purchasing and/or utilizing such software. 1. These programs aren t necessarily foolproof. They re merely programs, incapable of artificial intelligence; as such, the accuracy of their output is dependent upon the quality of your input. If you don t understand M.L.A. documentation well enough to
know what to enter, the software won t fully compensate for your ignorance, and your paper and therefore your grade may suffer. 2. Regardless of the (in)accuracy or (in)fallibility of the software, you re still personally accountable for the results. No instructor will allow you to pass blame on to software. Even if you choose to utilize citation software, you ll need to double- check all documentation in your final copy anyway which means understanding the conventions of M.L.A. style. 3. Your instructor may expect you to comprehend the logic and mechanics of documentation: not only how to do it, but why something software can t teach you. As an English major who ll be using M.L.A. in the foreseeable future, you may even be tested on it, so before using documentation software, check with your instructor. Relationship between Parenthetical Citations & Works Cited Entries Parenthetical citations or references (also called internal citations/references or in- text citations/references) serve two functions: 1) they indicate exactly where you ve integrated quotes, paraphrases, or summaries within your paper, and 2) they direct your reader to corresponding bibliographic information on the Works Cited page at the end of your paper. Parenthetical citations and Works Cited (WC) entries operate in tandem: every citation corresponds to a single WC entry; conversely, each WC entry corresponds to at least one parenthetical citation within the paper. These two components have to match up; in fact, some instructors check each of them off as they review the paper. If your paper ends up having more bibliographic entries than internal citations, your instructor may think that you re artificially inflating your WC page. Conversely, if you ve more parenthetical references than WC entries, you ll come across as a careless researcher and writer. Formatting Parenthetical Citations M.L.A. style is streamlined; its guidelines are all about efficiency. Whatever is required by M.L.A. is the minimum amount of information needed to give credit, prove intention, and/or make a solid connection between your work and another s. Parenthetical citations generally contain two components. The first item is often the author s last name (unless this is already provided in a lead- in or tag). The second item is the page number, or numbers, from which the information originally derives. However, there are circumstantial exceptions, several of which are explained below. Note: While this section offers examples of specific variations for parenthetical citations, remember this principle: because parenthetical citations direct your reader to corresponding entries on the WC list, citations should contain the first item from that list. For this reason, some students find it helpful to create their WC page before inserting parenthetical citations. You ve already generated a rough WC list for your research
proposal, so you may only have to modify it slightly. This way, you ll be certain that your citations are accurate from the start. The next chapter covers the WC page in detail. Generally, parenthetical citations: go at the end of the sentence, after the closing quotation mark are set off by parentheses ( ) and the sentence s punctuation goes after the parentheses don t require a comma between the author and the page number For example, you intend to incorporate a passage from page 51 of an article entitled In the Crucible: Early British Saints written by Lavina Fielding Anderson. The parenthetical reference would be: (Anderson 51) This is a standard name/page format since the author s name is provided. Just so you know, its corresponding WC entry would look like this: Anderson, Lavina Fielding. In the Crucible: Early British Saints. Ensign Dec. 1979: 50-55. Print. When ending a quotation before inserting its citation, avoid the common errors in the box below. Original quote with citation: England in the mid- nineteenth century was a crucible, seething with rapid social change and dislocation that disrupted families, sent unemployment, crime, and illiteracy skyrocketing, encouraged migration to other parts of the world, and made hungry people anxious for change (Anderson 51). quotation after parenthetical citation... change (Anderson 51). period after quote and after parenthetical citation... change. (Anderson 51). period after quote and no punctuation after... change. (Anderson 51) parenthetical citation Lead- Ins & Citations While full lead- ins (discussed in the previous chapter) are often preferred, sometimes it s sufficient to introduce your outside source material by giving the author s last name only. This is a partial lead- in, and it creates an effective transition between your ideas and those offered by your source material. Partial lead- ins also help give your readers some orientation, and serve to maintain credibility. If you include the author s name in your introductory sentence, you don t need to provide it again in the parenthetical citation; include only the relevant page number(s) in the citation.
Example 1: Anderson describes many of the social challenges and physical hardships facing nineteenth- century British Saints (50-55). Example 2: As Anderson observes, England in the mid- nineteenth century was a crucible, seething with rapid social change (51). Citing Multiple Authors Articles and books are often written by more than a single author. If a particular work has two or three authors, list their names in the same order in which they appear in the original source: (Cracroft and Lambert 22) (Allen, Leonard, and Alexander 87-8) For works by four or more authors, simply provide the last name of the first author listed and et al., (no italics), which is Latin for and others. (Judkins, et al. 90) Citing Unknown Authors For works that have an anonymous author, such as certain newspaper and electronic sources, use an abbreviated form of the work s title in place of the author s last name. Use the first main word of the work s title, eliminating A, An, or The if these begin the title. For example, a mid- 1850s article entitled Another Herd of Mormons was published in a Philadelphia newspaper; no author was listed. An abbreviation of the full title in a citation might be: ( Another Herd 2) The corresponding WC entry will begin with the same full title, since no author is listed. Citing an Author of More than One Source Sometimes you may use material from two distinct sources written by the same author. Notice that if you simply cite the sources using the standard name/page format, your reader will not be able to distinguish between the sources. In this case, your parenthetical citation would contain three components: author s last name/abbreviated title/page number(s): (Woods, Gathering to Nauvoo 47) (Woods, Seagoing Saints 59)
Citing Corporate Authors A corporate author is a group or body assuming collective responsibility for a particular publication. Such groups may be governmental, professional, academic, or non- profit. Common terms in publications indicating corporate authorship include council, commission, association, society, institute, organization, committee, and foundation, among others. For example, if a particular quote comes from page 29 of a work published by the National Research Council, its corresponding citation would be: (National Research Council 29) Citing Paragraph Numbers When your source doesn t have page numbers, use paragraph numbers only if they re present in the source. Include the abbreviation par. (for a single paragraph) or pars. (for multiple paragraphs) before the paragraph number(s) in your parenthetical citation. Example: According to maritime historian Conway Sonne, of the 333 identified voyages of Mormon emigrant companies through 1890, Liverpool was the port of embarkation for 289 (par. 2) about eighty- seven percent. Citing Works without Page/Paragraph Numbers When a work has neither page nor paragraph numbers, include only the author s name in either the sentence or the parenthetical citation. Example: Ann Pitchforth sailed in the ship Palmyra and left, she wrote, a kind father and friends. When the farewell hymn was sung on ship board, I felt what it was to leave all for the truth (Woods). Citing PDF Files Most databases for scholarly journals provide PDF (Portable Document Format) files from its print version. If so, use the page numbers from the print journal (if visible) for parenthetical citations. Material appropriated from the following displayed PDF page would appear as: (Woods and Evans 91)
Citing Indirect Sources Although it s best to quote information from an original source, sometimes only an indirect source is available. An indirect source is one cited, or referenced by, your source material. Name the original source in your sentence, and put the abbreviation qtd. in (without quotation marks) at the beginning of your parenthetical citation, followed by the author and page number. Example: Early Church member Priscilla Staines recalled the difficulty of leaving her homeland two days after Christmas. She wrote: I was alone. It was a dreary winter day on which I went to Liverpool. The company with which I was to sail were all strangers to me. When I... saw the ocean that would soon roll between me and all I loved, my heart almost failed me. But I had laid my idols all upon the altar. There was no turning back (qtd. in Woods, We Wanted 30). Citing Multivolume Works If your source is from a work comprising several volumes, you ll need to include three items in the citation: the author s (or editor s) last name, the number of the specific volume you used, and relevant page numbers. Separate the author s name and volume number with a comma and a space. Then separate the volume number and page number(s) with a colon and a space. Example: Gathering had several purposes and advantages. Physically and spiritually, it provided a place of mutual protection, a refuge from religious
persecution, while fostering faith and reinforcing a sense of group identity (Jensen and Hartley, 2: 673). Citing Anthology Pieces An anthology is a collection of selected writings by various authors. When you re working with an anthology but only want to cite one work from it, put the author s name in the sentence or parenthetical citation not the name of the anthology s editor. Example: Between 1860 and 1880, twenty- two percent of Utah s population was British- born, and even as that number declined over the years with the decrease in British baptisms and emigrants, the number of their descendants increased (Buchanan 64). Corresponding Works Cited Entry: Buchanan, Frederick S. Imperial Zion: The British Occupation of Utah. The Peoples of Utah. Ed. Helen Z. Papanikolas. Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1976. Citing Literary Prose Literary classics generally have many editions. When citing a classic piece, give the author s name (not the editor s) and the page number, followed by a semicolon. Then give additional clarifying information such as chapter or section. This will help readers find this information in their own, or other, editions. If you use more than one clarifier, separate them by commas. Use abbreviations in the citation: chapter part book section ch. pt. bk. sec. Citing Plays Example: In the classic treatise Poetics, tragedy is defined, in part, as an imitation of an action that is serious... and of a certain magnitude (Aristotle 10; ch. 6). For plays, don t give page numbers; instead, provide information based on divisions within the work: acts, parts, scenes, or line numbers. Separate these with periods. For instance, 2.1.45 would refer to act 2, scene 1, line 45. Example: In Shakespeare s famous Scottish tragedy, Macbeth himself states one of the play s dominant themes: vaulting ambition (Mac. 1.7.27). Note: with very well- known literary works, abbreviations of the works themselves may be substituted for the name of the author, poet, or playwright. However, some teachers may still prefer the use of full titles (Macbeth), as well as roman numerals for acts and scenes (Macbeth I.vii.27) instead of the arabic numerals dictated by M.L.A. style.
Citing Poetry When citing poetry, use line numbers rather than page numbers in the parenthetical citation. Include the word line (or lines ) in the citation, but don t abbreviate as l. or ll. as these can be misread as roman numerals. Note: when quoting poetry within your paper, use double quotation marks around the selected text. If you re using more than one line of a poem, identify individual lines by placing a slash (/) at the end of each. For ease of reading, include a space before and after the slash, and capitalize the first word of each line. If the quote is comprised of more than four lines, treat it as you would a block quote by indenting 1" from the margin, maintaining original line breaks, yet avoiding quotation marks. Example (less than four lines): Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: / The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, / Hath had elsewhere its setting (Wordsworth lines 58-60). Example (more than four lines): Citing Scripture Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our home: Heaven lies about us in our infancy! (Wordsworth lines 58-66) When citing scripture, your first parenthetical citation should indicate which version you re using (such as the King James Version or the New International Version). These are underlined or italicized, and separated from the name of the book by a comma. Chapter and verse numbers are separated with a period. You may use standard abbreviations for books comprising scriptural works. In LDS editions of scripture, these are already provided in parentheses next to the titles of individual books. Finally, after the first citation, you don t need to indicate the version again. Example: The first commandment given to Moses was, Thou shalt have no other gods before me (King James Bible, Ex. 20.3).