MLA Formatting

Parenthetical Citations MLA Style: Two Parts Works Cited Page Parenthetical Citations Rationale: This slide establishes the two areas of MLA documentation, the Works Cited page and parenthetical citations. Purdue University Writing Lab

Works Cited Page A complete list of every source that you make reference to in your essay Provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any sources cited in your essay. Key Concepts: This slide explains the purpose of a works cited page. Students may also understand this to be called the “bibliography” page. The facilitator may stress that each source referenced within the paper should also appear on the works cited page. The works cited page appears at the end of the paper. Purdue University Writing Lab

A Sample Works Cited Page Key Concepts: This slide offers students a sample of what a Works Cited page looks like.* For this particular paper, four sources were used. The first and second sources are reprints of earlier published novels, hence the use of the two dates. The second source has three dashed lines in place of the author, Charles Dickens. This is to indicate that the same author wrote both concurrently listed works. The third source is a book published in 1958. Note the abbreviations for “University” and “Press.” The fourth source is an article from a continually paginated journal. The facilitator may choose to explain the form of this page. Note that “Works Cited” is centered at the top. All sources are double spaced and alphabetized according to author. All lines after the first line of an entry should be indented five spaces. The facilitator may also choose to reference students to the final pages on the Writing Lab MLA handout, which also offers a sample Works Cited. * From “’I am Born:’ The Birth of Identity in David Copperfield and Bleak House” by Jennifer L. Kunka, Purdue University (unpublished manuscript). Purdue University Writing Lab

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Works Cited Most citations should contain the following basic information: Author’s name Title of work Publication information Rationale: This slide shows the basic information needed for entries on the works cited page. Purdue University Writing Lab

Works Cited: Some Examples Book Byatt, A. S. Babel Tower. New York: Random House, 1996. Article in a Magazine Klein, Joe. “Dizzy Days.” The New Yorker 5 Oct. 1998: 40-45. Web page Poland, Dave. “The Hot Button.” Roughcut. 26 Oct. 1998. Turner Network Television. 28 Oct. 1998 <www.roughcut.com>. Examples: This slide provides examples of a few commonly used citation formats. The web page example will prove to be the most confusing for students (particularly because MLA just released information on citing web pages). The web page example lists the author’s name (if available), the title of the article in quotation marks, the title of the web site underlined or italicized, the date of publication, the publisher, the date information was accessed by the user, and the web address in brackets. Students may not find all of this information when they look at a web page, particularly the author’s name, the date, and the publisher. The facilitator should remind students that they should list in order the information that they do have. Click to reveal each example. Purdue University Writing Lab

Works Cited List A newspaper article Tommasini, Anthony. “Master Teachers Whose Artistry Glows in Private.” New York Times 27 Oct. 1998: B2. A source with no known author “Cigarette Sales Fall 30% as California Tax Rises.” New York Times 14 Sept. 1999: A17. (Note: Articles are in quotation marks and books are underlined) Examples: This slide offers examples of citations for a newspaper article and for a source (in this case, a newspaper article) with no author. The facilitator might ask students how to alphabetize a source with no author within a Works Cited page. They should alphabetize according to their next best piece of information--here, the first word of the article, “Cigarette.” Click to reveal each example. Purdue University Writing Lab

Works Cited List A TV interview McGwire, Mark. Interview with Matt Lauer. The Today Show. NBC. WTHR, Indianapolis. 22 Oct. 1998. A personal interview Mellencamp, John. Personal interview. 27 Oct. 1998. Examples: Interviews can be tricky to cite on a Works Cited page. The facilitator may wish to remind students to list the name of the person being interviewed first. For the TV interview example, Mark McGuire was interviewed by news anchor Matt Lauer on The Today Show. In the second example, John Mellencamp was interviewed in person by the writer of the paper. Click to reveal each example. Purdue University Writing Lab

Works Cited What other types of sources might you need to list on your Works Cited page? Study the basics of MLA citation format. When something odd comes up, look it up. Activity: This slide allows participants a moment to ask questions of the facilitator. If students are working on a research assignment, they may have specific questions that pertain to their own papers. The facilitator may answer questions using the MLA Handbook or the MLA handout from the Writing Lab. Purdue University Writing Lab

When Should You Use Parenthetical Citations? When quoting any words that are not your own Quoting means to repeat another source word for word, using quotation marks Key Concepts: The next two slides explain the occasions in which MLA citations will be necessary, as well as explains the differences between quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing. Students will be most familiar with the need to site for quotations, but the facilitator should stress that if the idea comes from someone else, the source material should be cited. Purdue University Writing Lab

When Should You Use Parenthetical Citations? When summarizing facts and ideas from a source Summarizing means to take ideas from a large passage of another source and condense them, using your own words When paraphrasing a source Paraphrasing means to use the ideas from another source but change the phrasing into your own words Key Concepts: This slide explains explains the differences between summarizing and paraphrasing. The facilitator may stress that if the idea comes from someone else, the source material should be cited. Click to reveal each item. Purdue University Writing Lab

Handling Quotes in Your Text Author’s last name and page number(s) of quote must appear in the text Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263). Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263). Examples: The two examples in this slide illustrate methods for including parenthetical citations in the text. If the author’s name is listed in the preceding sentence, only the page number of the quotation should appear in the parenthetical citation following the sentence. If the author’s name does not appear within the sentence, the parenthetical citation should include the author’s last name and the page number. In either case, a reader should be able to cross-reference back to the Works Cited page and locate all of the publication information needed to find Wordsworth’s work, in this case an excerpt in an anthology: Wordsworth, William. Preface to Lyrical Ballads. 1802. Romanticism: An Anthology. Ed. Duncan Wu. Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1995. 250-69. The facilitator may also note that the parenthetical reference is located before the period. Purdue University Writing Lab

Handling Parenthetical Citations If the source has no known author, then use an abbreviated version of the title: Full Title: “California Cigarette Tax Deters Smokers” Citation: (“California” A14) (Note the use of quotation marks within the parenthesis) If the source is only one page in length or is a web page with no apparent pagination: Source: Dave Poland’s “Hot Button” web column Citation: (Poland) Examples: This slide provides information about additional variations on the parenthetical reference. The first example demonstrates how to handle sources with no author. In this case, the newspaper article title is listed in quotation marks. If this was the title of a book, however, California would be italicized within the parenthetical reference. The second example illustrates a citation for a one-page article or a web page. Because the size and number of printed web pages varies greatly from computer to computer, a page number is not a stable reference. Therefore, page numbers are omitted from the reference. The facilitator may also wish to note that the URL/web address should NOT be listed within the body of the paper--only on the Works Cited page. Click to reveal each item. Purdue University Writing Lab

Handling Long Quotations David becomes identified and defined by James Steerforth, a young man with whom David is acquainted from his days at Salem House. Before meeting Steerforth, David accepts Steerforth’s name as an authoritative power: There was an old door in this playground, on which the boys had a custom of carving their names. . . . In my dread of the end of the vacation and their coming back, I could not read a boy’s name, without inquiring in what tone and with what emphasis he would read, “Take care of him. He bites.” There was one boy—a certain J. Steerforth—who cut his name very deep and very often, who I conceived, would read it in a rather strong voice, and afterwards pull my hair. (Dickens 68) For Steerforth, naming becomes an act of possession, as well as exploitation. Steerforth names David for his fresh look and innocence, but also uses the name Daisy to exploit David's romantic tendencies (Dyson 122). Example: This slide illustrates the handling of a long quotation in a paper about Dickens’ David Copperfield, A long quotation is defined by MLA as being longer than four typed lines in the paper. A long quotation requires a special format; it should be indented ten spaces on the left, and the parenthetical citation should go after the period. There are no quotation marks around a long quote because the indention already indicates it as such. Note, however, the quotation marks around “Take care of him. He bites.” These appear just as they do in the book. If this section was reduced to a short quote and placed within the regular body of the paper, those quotation marks should be changed to single quotes. The facilitator should note that everything should be double spaced consistently. The final sentence of the passage is an idea paraphrased from Dyson and is cited with name and page number. * From “’I am Born:’ The Birth of Identity in David Copperfield and Bleak House” by Jennifer L. Kunka, Purdue University (unpublished manuscript). Purdue University Writing Lab

Handling Quotes in Your Text There are many different combinations and variations within MLA citation format. If you run into something unusual, look it up! http://owl.english.purdue.edu Rationale: This slide reminds participants that MLA reference guides should be consulted to answer questions about parenthetical references or Works Cited page entries. At this point, the facilitator may choose to field questions regarding MLA documentation. Purdue University Writing Lab