The MCHS Guide to Citing Sources (MLA Style-Courtesy of the MCHS English Dept.) (Updated September, 2007) PART I CITING WORKS WITHIN AN ESSAY Rules for Citing Sources: 1. You must always let the reader know the source of your information. If you don t mention the source in your own writing, you must list the author s name in parentheses after the quote or the reference. 2. If you have more than one source by the same author, you must give the title of the work as well. 2. When citing sources, you must always include the page number in parentheses. 3. The ending period of the sentence always comes after the source and page number in parentheses. 4. If your quote ends with a question mark or an exclamation mark, put it inside the quotation marks, but you still need a period after the source and page number in parentheses. 5. The speaker is identified at the end of the passage only if it is not clear from the context of your essay. You never have to identify the narrator, as that is assumed if no other indications have been given. 6. An ellipsis (...) is used where words have been deleted. There is a space between each dot. When an ellipsis ends a sentence, there are 4 dots, the last one being the period ending the sentence. 7. Quotes within a quote are indicated by single quotations, indicating that the person you are quoting is, in turn, quoting someone else. 8. When quoting a play, you should be sure to credit the act and scene number and the line number, if appropriate, rather than the page number. There are three basic types of quotations you may use. 1. Quoting a few appropriate words (and summarizing everything else in your own words): Miss Haversham s feeling for Estella is a fierce affection intermixed with the hope of revenge on the vilest of humans-men (Dickens, Great Expectations, 175). [Note: the use of the author s name and title of the book implies that this paper refers to more than one book by this particular author. If you were only referring to a single work by that author, the author s name alone would be sufficient. Similarly, if that was the only work you were referring to in the entire paper or if you mention the name of the work in introducing the quote, a mere page number would suffice, as in the next example.]
2. Quote an entire sentence, where the author and title are mentioned in the sentence. Charles Dickens, writing as the protagonist Pip, includes subtle humor in Great Expectations: My sister, having much to do to prepare Christmas Dinner, said she was going to church vicariously; that is to say, she was sending Joe and me (72). 3. Occasionally it may be necessary to quote several sentences as supporting evidence. When you do, you indent the entire quote ten spaces (or 1 inch in word processing programs), omitting the quotation marks. Longer quotes are usually introduced as follows, using a colon for punctuation: Dickens makes it clear that Pip lived in respective fear of his sister, who had raised him, with the help of her husband, from the time he was orphaned: My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more than 20 years older than I, and had established a great reputation...because she had brought me up by hand....she was not a good-looking woman...black hair and eyes, tall and body...and was known to go on a rampage on account of my behavior (Pip 671). [Note: In this case, the use of a name before the page number WITHOUT a comma separating them implies that you are letting the reader know who the speaker is in this passage, as opposed to providing an author s name. This, of course, is only used when quoting an excerpt from a novel. If the novel is told in 3rd person, it is never necessary to label the narrator s voice.] 4. If you are quoting poetry, even if it is blank verse, you must either set it up as in example #3 above, making sure to copy it in lines as the author wrote it, OR you may quote the passage as in examples #1 & 2 above, BUT you must then be sure to add a / to indicate where each line of poetry ends, like this: In act I, scene 3 of his immortal play Hamlet, Shakespeare s Polonius, although a fool, gives his son Laertes the most important advice a father can give a son when he tells his son...to thine ownself be true / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man (line 75). 5. If you are paraphrasing information that you found in one of your sources, you don t use quotation marks, but you still need to acknowledge the source of the information. The acknowledgement comes at the end of the section that you are paraphrasing. Thus, if only a single sentence is a paraphrasing of what you read, you cite the source at the end of the sentence. If an entire paragraph or more is paraphrase, you cite the source only at the very end of that section.
Charles Dickens was the product of his environment. Having been raised in humble circumstances himself, with a father who went to debtor s prison for being unable to pay his bills, Dickens could empathize with the characters he created. Thus, there is a realism in characters such as Pip and David Copperfield because their experiences mirror Dickens own. (Johnson, 25). PART II General Guidelines for Works Cited List (Courtesy of the MCHS English Dept.) First of all, the MLA style now suggests that writers label what we formerly called the Bibliography, as Works Cited. It may also be called Works Consulted if it includes works read, but not actually cited in the paper. With that in mind, the following are some general guidelines, followed by specific rules for different sources, and a sample Works Cited page. 1. The list of works cited should appear at the end of the paper. 2. The list should be double spaced throughout. 3. Each entry should begin even with the left-hand margin and, if it takes more than one line, subsequent lines should be indented five spaces (or one-half inch in word processing programs). 4. Entries should be alphabetized by author s last name or, if the author s name is unknown, by the first word in the title, excluding A, An, or The. 5. Each entry for a book should contain 3 main parts: author, title, and publication information. Each part should be followed by a period and two spaces the end of that section. 6. If other sections are needed (see examples), then each additional section ends with a period and two spaces. 7. Reverse the author s name, with last name first and first and middle names following. Suffixes such as Jr. or III appear after the entire name, preceded by a comma. 8. If you only used a portion of a work, such as a particular chapter, article, or essay, the page numbers should be included in the listing. Never repeat numbers above 100 that stay the same. (ie. 274-79 as opposed to 274-279.) 9. Titles of books, magazines, and other publications should be italicized (or underlined, if handwritten).
10. Titles of articles, essays, short poems, or chapters should be put in quotation marks. 11. The place of publication should be the first city listed on the title page. States are added to the city of publication only when it it not well known. (ie. Chicago and New York and Los Angeles are sufficient!) 12. Always list the most recent publication or copyright date given. On the next page, there is a listing of the most common types of works to be cited. SAMPLES OF WORKS CITED (This Is Not Meant to Cover Every Situation, Only the Most Common) A Book by a Single Author Asimov, Isaac. Asimov s Guide to Shakespeare. New York: Wings Books, 1970. Two or More Books by the Same Author (List the author s name only once) Asimov, Isaac. Asimov s Guide to Shakespeare. New York: Wings Books, 1970.. Asimov s Guide to the Bible. New York: Wings Books, 1971. A Book by Two or More Authors ( Only the first name is reversed. Limit the listing to three names maximum, adding the words et al after the first if there are 4 or more authors. Names are listed as they appear on the title page, not alphabetically) Hill, Wayne F. and Cynthia Öttchen. Shakespeare s Insults: Educating Your Wit. Cambridge: Main Sail Press, 1991. A Short Story or Poem From a Book (Start with the author of the story/poem, then the title of the story/poem, then the editor and title of the book it came from. If there is no editor listed, merely omit that piece of information. End with the PAGE NUMBERS of the story/poem.) Olson, Wm. Sing a Song of Shakespeare. Tom Voltaggio, ed. Shakespeare Stories. Champaign, IL: Illini Press, 1988. 145-68. A Book Edited by One Person (Add the abbreviation ed. after the name) Rosenberg, Marvin, ed. The Mask of Macbeth. Newark: U. of Delaware Pr., 1978.
A Book Edited by More than One Person (Add the abbreviation eds. after the names) Galvin, Kathleen, Cassandra Book,and Bernard Brommel, eds. Person to Person. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Co., 1990. A Book by a Corporate Author or an Association Folger Library. A Reader s Guide to Shakespeare. Washington: Folger Pub., 1985. An Article in a General Reference Book (List author s name only if a specific author is mentioned as being responsible for that particular article) Parrot, Thomas. Shakespeare, William. New York Times Book of Information. 2nd ed. 2001. Shakespeare s Sonnets. Collier s Encyclopedia. 1999. An Anonymous Book Encyclopedia of Shakespeare. Morris, IL: MCHS Press, 1996. Articles in a Magazine General Rules Which Differ From Books 1. Omit volume and issue numbers, and just give the date of publication. 2. List the date of publication as day month year with no commas (ie. 1 June 1995) 3. Give the page number of the entire article, not just the pages cited, and separate them from the date by a colon. (ie. 1 June 1995: 16-18) 4. List the author first, if known, then the name of the article, and then the name of the magazine. Shakespeare s Globe Rebuilt. Time 28 July 1991: 82-83. Vesely, Alison C. Life in Elizabethan England. Theatre Monthly 12 May 2001: 116-23. Articles in a Newspaper (Same general rules as for magazines with one addition. Section letter or number must also be included. If the sections are numbered, they come after the date, separated by a comma. If they are lettered, they are included with the page numbers) Globe Unearthed. Chicago Tribune 14 April 1992, sec. 2: 8. Rzspcky, Joseph. What s So Special About Shakespeare? USA Today 2 Aug 1994: A3.
A Web Site Author(s). Name of Page (in italics). Date of Posting/Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site. Date of Access <electronic address>. 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. Felluga, Dino. Undergraduate Guide to Literary Theory. 17 Dec. 1999. Purdue University. 15 Nov. 2000 <http://omni.cc.purdue.edu%7efelluga/theory2.html>. Purdue Online Writing Lab. 2003. Purdue University. 10 Feb. 2003 <http://owl.english.purdue.edu>. Article on a Web Site Author(s)."Article Title." Name of web site. Date of posting/revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with site. Date of access <electronic address>. 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. Poland, Dave. "The Hot Button." Roughcut. 26 Oct. 1998. Turner Network Television. 28 Oct. 1998 <http://www.roughcut.com>. "Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format." Purdue Online Writing Lab. 2003. Purdue University. 6 Feb. 2003 <http://owl.english.purdue.eduhandouts/research/r_mla.html>. Films (Use the title, director, distributor, and year it was released. You may include any other data you feel is relevent, such as the writer, performer, producer.) It s a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. With James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and Thomas Mitchell. RKO, 1946. Shakespeare: A Life in London. Dir. James Concannon. International Video, 1986. Interviews-Live (Give name of interviewee, kind of interview [personal, telephone, internet] and the date with the day, month, and then year.) Gaines, Barbara. Internet chatroom interview. 12 January, 2000. Vesely, Alison C. Telephone interview. 10 April, 1999. Maps and Charts (Give name, description, city, publisher, date.) Elizabethan London. Map. London: Thames and Hudson, 1976. Shakespeare s Income. Chart. London: RADA, 1997.
Works Cited (SAMPLE #1) Asimov, Isaac. Asimov s Guide to Shakespeare. New York: Wings Books, 1970. ---. Asimov s Guide to the Bible. New York: Wings Books, 1971. Galvin, Kathleen, Cassandra Book,and Bernard Brommel, eds. Person to Person. Lincolnwood, IL: National Textbook Co., 1990. Globe Unearthed. Chicago Tribune 14 April 1992, sec. 2: 8. Hill, Wayne F. and Cynthia Öttchen. Shakespeare s Insults: Educating Your Wit. Cambridge: Main Sail Press, 1991. Olson, Wm. Sing a Song of Shakespeare. Shakespeare Stories. Ed. Tom Voltaggio. Champaign, IL: Illini Press, 1988. 145-68. Shakespeare s Plays. Master Shakespeare and the Web. 2005. Royal Shakespeare Society. December 12, 2001 < http://www.shakespeareweb.com/canon/list.htm> Shakespeare s Sonnets. Collier s Encyclopedia. 1998 ed. Vesely, Alison C. Life in Elizabethan England. Theatre Monthly. 12 May 2001: 116-23.
Works Cited (SAMPLE #2 3 Stories by the same author) Asimov, Isaac. Hilda s On Mars. Nine By Asimov. New York: Wings Books, 1970. (83-101). ---. Hills Are Hard to Climb, The. Nine By Asimov. New York: Wings Books, 1970. (12-19). ---. Hologram for Holly, A. Nine By Asimov. New York: Wings Books, 1970. (52-76). Works Cited (SAMPLE #3 3 Stories by different authors but from the same collection) Asimov, Isaac. Zebulon the Zookeeper. Martin H. Greenberg, ed. Great Science Fiction Classics. Champaign, IL: U of I Press, 2004. (83-101). Bradbury, Ray. Alpha Marks the Spot. Martin H. Greenberg, ed. Great Science Fiction Classics. Champaign, IL: U of I Press, 2004. (1125-32). Clarke, Arthur C. 2023-A Space Oddity. Martin H. Greenberg, ed. Great Science Fiction Classics. Champaign, IL: U of I Press, 2004. (205-98).