This document gives detailed information on
- finding and identifying sources;
- searching for information on the Internet;
- using borrowed information;
- citing borrowed materials;
- documenting sources in Works Cited.
If you study this document carefully, you can reduce the likelihood you will have to revise Assignment 4.
Contents
Sources and Searching
Identifying Titles
The Internet
Search Techniques
Documentation Review
Citations
Good and Bad Citations
Examples of Citations
Documentation/Works Cited
Works Cited Entries
Examples of Works Cited Entries
Documenting Internet Sources
Helpful Web Sites
Sources and Searching
Good research requires a knowledge of sources and the ability to search those sources effectively and efficiently. Then, those sources must be properly used and credited in the research essay.
NOTE: ACC offers about 100 quality information databases for your use either on campus or off campus. These databases usually contain better information for your report than you can find using Google or other popular search engines. You can also E-mail many of the full-text articles in these databases to yourself so that you can print them at home or study them at your leisure offline. Here's an introduction to a whole new world of information for you. Click on the link below.
Using ACC Library Databases
Sources
The research essay requires that you cite at least three nonfiction sources. The following could be considered print sources:
- encyclopedias (Only one encyclopedia source can count against the three required sources. Online or CD encyclopedias do not count as print sources.)
- other reference books (almanacs, dictionaries, etc. Visit the reference librarian.)
- general books
- magazines, periodicals, newspapers, scholarly journals
(Online databases do not count as print sources.)
Other kinds of nonprint sources include:
- online sources or databases (for example, online encyclopedias or periodical databases. Do not use Wikipedia or blogs as a source.)
- Web sites on the Internet
- films or videos (Not recommended as a source for your Assignment 4 report)
- audio sources (records, CDs, cassettes of an author reading, etc.)(Also not recommended as a source for your Assignment 4 report)
- interviews (Check with me before using one of these.)
- government documents, pamphlets, and brochures
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not use Wikipedia, New World Encyclopedia, blogs, or clearly biased Web sites for a referential research paper. For example, partisan political sites or religious sites will likely have a bias, so they should be avoided. You should also avoid web sites compiled by lower-level school students, such as middle or high school students.
Identifying Titles
Two formats are used to indicate the titles of sources. Study the lists and apply the formats properly.
Italicize the following titles:
book titles
encyclopedias
reference books
magazines
newspapers
scholarly journals
other periodicals
titles of novels and plays
titles of films, videotapes, and TV movies
titles of TV series or programs (Enclose the episode title in quotation marks.)
song album titles
pamphlet and brochure titles
Examples: Encyclopedia of Literature; Texas Monthly; Star Trek
Enclose in quotation marks the following titles:
article and essay titles
short story and poem titles
song titles
Example: "Four Kinds of Talking"; "Mending Wall"
The Internet
The Internet can be a wonderful source of both good and bad information. Remember, the Internet is a largely unedited forum. Anyone can post a Web site, and the quality of its information is not necessarily valid or verified. So beware, and judge the source appropriately. For example, for medical information, the American Medical Association site is probably a better source than a junior-high biology class site. A Christian site might contain very biased information against Halloween. Your purpose in Assignment 4 is to provide objective, factual information. You are responsible for your choice of cited material.
- Sometimes Web pages are hard to document. If no article title is given and you need a title for a page, try using the title (if any) that appears in the upper left corner of the Web browser.
- When providing a citation for a Web site, indicate the location of borrowed information by page numbers, if given. Otherwise, use a paragraph number rather than the page number of a printout of the page.
For more details on documenting Web sources, see the section below on Documenting Internet Sources.
Search Techniques
To search the Internet, you need to use a search engine. Some search engines only search the titles of pages, so the "hits" they return may be limited or less substantial. Some search engines do "deep searches," which means they do a scan of the whole Web site. These searches provide more quality hits. For academic searches, try these search engines:
http://www.google.com
http://www.ask.com
http://www.dogpile.com
(Dogpile polls a variety of other search engines.)
You can also do a variety of searches from the ACC Library gateway page.
Limiting the Search
Try to think of pertinent keywords to target your search.
- If you do a search for "literature," you may get a million hits.
- If you narrow the search by adding another keyword--"American literature"--you may get half a million hits.
- Keep adding pertinent keywords to limit the search.
You can also search for a specific name or phrase.
- If you search for George Washington, you will get hits about any George and anything named Washington.
- If you enclose the name in quotation marks--"George Washington"--you will limit your search to the particular person.
- By putting words in quotation marks, you tell the search engine to find those words in that particular order, so make sure whatever you put in quotation marks is exactly what you are looking for.
Once you visit a site, you may encounter a very long page of information.
- You can find specific information on a Web page by using the Edit menu of your browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape).
- Click on the Edit menu, then click on Find on this page.
- Type in the keyword you are seeking.
Documentation Review
Whenever you use material from another source in your writing, you must give credit for that information. You do this by using documentation--citations and Works Cited entries. You must document everything that you borrow--not only summaries, direct quotations, and paraphrases but also assimilated information and ideas. As a result, you may find yourself with a citation for almost every sentence (and certainly for every paragraph) in the body of your research essay.
Be aware that every bit of information you use in your report that is obtained from a published source--book, newspaper, magazine, Internet database, Internet article, TV, audio, etc.--must be properly credited using a valid MLA citation and a corresponding MLA Works Cited entry.
If you summarize information from a source, you have borrowed that information. If you paraphrase information from a source, you have borrowed that information. If you quote information from a source, you have borrowed that information. In all these cases, you must properly cite the information and provide a valid MLA Works Cited entry.
Again, all borrowed material must be credited. In the MLA style, you cite a source using parentheses in your essay. You provide complete bibliographical documentation only once--in the list of Works Cited at the end of the paper.
You might want to review this tutorial on MLA documentation offered by the ACC Library: MLA Documentation Tutorial.
Citations
Remember, you are using secondary material to support your basic ideas. You must give credit for information you get from another source. You do this by using documentation--citations and Works Cited entries. Citations appear in the body of the report; they direct the reader to the complete publication documentation in the Works Cited section of the report. Basically, almost every paragraph of your essay will have at least one citation. You are expected to use proper formats for citations and documentation.
- A citation is just a pointer to the complete information in the Works Cited entry.
- The citation points to the first word in a corresponding Works Cited entry. The first word in the citation must be the same as the first word in the corresponding Works Cited entry.
- DO NOT use a citation that points to some information buried in a Works Cited entry. Point to the first word or words of the entry. So you don't generally need the name of the editor or the name of the book in a citation, only the name of the author or the title of the article.
- In almost all cases, the citation will point to an author's last name or a title, so the citation will almost always contain an author's last name or a title (if the author's name is not given).
- Each citation must have an indication of the author (or title, if no author is named) and page (or paragraph for a Web source)--even if the author or title is provided in the preceding citation. Do not rely on an earlier citation to give a following citation meaning.
- Do not have more than three citations in a row for a single source. That is, mix up the use of your sources in your essay. Do not rely too heavily on any one source.
- A citation generally identifies an author (or article name) and a page number or paragraph number.
- Cite after a block of paraphrased material, usually from one page in a source. Do not, for example, cite pages 19-24 for one line of paraphrased material. Especially do not use citations that include page spans of 10 or 20 or 30 pages.
- Cite immediately after a direct quote, and indicate the specific page or paragraph from which it comes. If the same source material continues as a paraphrase, it certainly does not hurt to cite the source again.
- It is better to have too many citations than too few citations.
- You can include the author's name in a tag in the text, or you can simply indicate the name in the parenthetical citation.
- If you have two authors with the last same name, or two articles with the same title, or two or more sources by the same author, you must give enough information in the citation to distinguish between the two. In the examples below, the same author, Jones, wrote two Internet articles and a book used as sources. The full article titles are "The Big Lie" and "Bankers Have More Dollars Than Sense." The book title in the citation is complete.
Examples: (Jones, "Big Lie" par. 16) - (Jones, "Bankers Have" par. 3) - (Jones, Fake Money 34)
A citation basically means that all the material from the preceding citation to the current one comes from the particular source indicated in the current citation. Place citations carefully.
- Periods and commas follow the citations.
- A citation is part of the sentence in which the information appears, but a citation is not part of a quotation. The citation goes outside the quotation marks but inside the period or comma.
Notice the use of parenthetical citations in the following paragraph:
One common Christian symbol of the vampire hysteria was blood. As Bob Smith notes, blood is a fundamental part of the Christian sacrament (333). Indeed, the Christian
sacrament brings participating followers "dangerously close to the practice of ritualistic
cannibalism" (Bill Smith 666). Edward Jones further clarifies the link between the Christian
sacrament and vampirism. He suggests that in both cases, "blood is the medium through
which the afterlife is accessed" (par. 7).
In the preceding paragraph, the first citation contains mention of the author in the text (called a tag), so only a page reference is necessary in the citation. The second citation is for a second person named Smith, so Bill Smith must be used to distinguish him from Bob Smith. (Obviously, in this case the citation does not point to the first word in the Works Cited entry, but this should be the only time.) Since Bill Smith is not mentioned in the text, his name is included in the parenthetical citation, which also includes the page number. The third citation is a direct quote taken from an Internet source, with the author's name mentioned in the text.
Good and Bad Citations
A good citation accurately identifies the source and location of borrowed information. A bad citation is inaccurate and often credits information to sources in which it does not appear.
When you cite your borrowed information, you must provide citations that accurately indicate the location of the borrowed information in your sources. If your citations are not accurate, you will be revising Assignment 4.
As you write your Assignment 4 research report, you will likely need to combine information from a couple of sources. You can't just dump all the information together and give credit to only one source. Doing so is a kind of plagiarism. You aren't giving proper credit for borrowed information. Let's say you want to write a group of sentences using borrowed information from two sources. Here's the information from a couple of made-up sources.
Source 1: page 11 in a book by Joe Tailor
The famous actor John Wayne was born Marion Michael Morrison in Winterset, Iowa. When he was six years old, his family moved to California. In California, he gained his nickname, Duke, which was his dog's name.
Source 2: paragraph 2 in an Internet article titled "John Wayne" with no listed author
John Wayne, whose real name was Marion Michael Morrison, was born in Iowa on May 26, 1907. His parents were Mary and Clyde, who made a living as a pharmacist. As a youngster, Marion sold newspapers to earn money, and he had an Airedale dog named Duke. Marion later took the dog's name for his own nickname.
You write and cite:
John Wayne was born on May 26, 1907, in Winterset, Iowa (Tailor 11).
This citation is not accurate. The Tailor source does not include Wayne's birthdate.
You write and cite:
John Wayne was born on May 26, 1907, in Winterset, Iowa ("John Wayne" par. 2).
This citation is not accurate. The "John Wayne" source does not include the city in which Wayne was born.
You write and cite:
John Wayne's real name was Marion Michael Morrison. He was born on May 26, 1907, in Winterset, Iowa, the son of a pharmacist. His parents were Clyde and Mary Morrison. When he was a young boy, Wayne earned extra money by selling newspapers. After his family moved to California, Wayne adopted his nickname, Duke, from his dog (Tailor 11; "John Wayne" par. 2).
This summative citation is accurate because it credits both sources for the information. However, you should not overuse these summative citations.- I prefer that your citations are specific and preferably limited to a single source.
- If your information includes a direct quote, definitely do not use a summative citation. Place a specific citation immediately after the direct quote.
- Also, do not use citations that span large numbers of pages. For example, do not cite pages 10-55 for two sentences of information. Don't cite the page span of a whole article for information that appears on only one page in the article.
- Make your citations as specific as possible, and be sure your citations are accurate. The citation's purpose is to allow the reader easy access to the source and location of the borrowed information. If a reader has to read 20 pages of the source to find two sentences of information you have borrowed, your citations are not specific enough.
Again, if your citations are not accurate, you will be revising Assignment 4. I do check your sources.
Examples of Citations
To cite your use of borrowed material from another source, you will likely use one of the following formats.
- Citations appear in the body of your writing.
- Citations for printed sources include page number references.
- Citations for Internet sources include page numbers, if given, or paragraph number references if page numbers are not given.
- Citations for Ebooks use page number references, if given.
- Also note the punctuation in these citation examples. You usually will not have commas in your citations.
- Article titles in citations should be enclosed in quotation marks
- Do use the par. abbreviation for paragraph, but do not use the p. abbreviation or any other notation for page.
Author's name not mentioned in your text:
When you introduce material without using the author's name in your writing, give only the author's last name and the page or paragraph number(s) within parentheses.
Example:
One of the most popular creatures in the sea is the dolphin. Most people do not know that there are two kinds of dolphins. One kind of dolphin is a mammal. The other kind of dolphin is a fish (Black 91).
Author's name given in your text:
If you use the author's name to introduce the material cited (This is called a tag.), give only the page or paragraph number(s) within parentheses.
Example:
One of the most popular creatures in the sea is the dolphin. As Bill Black points out, most people do not know that there are two kinds of dolphins. One kind of dolphin is a mammal. The other kind of dolphin is a fish (91).
Article with author's name not given:
When you cite a source, such as an Internet article, for which no author is given, include the first few words of the title, enclosed in quotation marks, along with the page or paragraph number(s), in your citation.
Example:
One of the most popular creatures in the sea is the dolphin. Most people do not know that there are two kinds of dolphins. One kind of dolphin is a mammal. The other kind of dolphin is a fish ("Dolphins" par. 9).
Summarized information from more than one source:
If you include a summary of information from two or more sources in one passage, simply indicate the various sources in one citation at the end of the summary. Use this kind of citation sparingly. It should not take the place of careful citation and documentation.
Example:
One of the most popular creatures in the sea is the dolphin. Most people do not know that there are two kinds of dolphins. One kind of dolphin is a mammal. This kind of dolphin is a member of the small-toothed whale family. The other kind of dolphin is a fish (Black 77; White 88).
Quoted material set off from the text:
When you set off a long quotation from the text of your paper, indent all lines of the quote 10 spaces from the left margin and place the citation after the final period. You do not enclose an offset quotation with quotation marks. Quotes of 4 or more lines are typically offset.
Example:
One of the most popular creatures in the sea is the dolphin. The dolphin is often a character in family movies. But most people do not know that there are two kinds of dolphins. One kind of dolphin, the popular one, is a mammal. This kind of dolphin is a member of the small-toothed whale family. The other kind of dolphin is a fish, also called a pompano, dorado, or mahi-mahi, among other names, and it seldom stars in movies. (Smith, "Dolphins" 98)
Note: In this example, more than one source by the same author is being used. As a result, the additional information of the title must be included in the citation to differentiate between the sources. Also, in offset quotes only, the citation goes outside the end period, as illustrated above.
An indirect source (quoted in citation):
If you are quoting someone's published account of another's spoken or written material, write "qtd. in" ("quoted in") before the indirect source you cite in your citation.
Example:
Samuel Johnson once reluctantly admitted that Edmund Burke was an "'extraordinary man'" (qtd. in Boswell 2: 450).
Here's when and how to use the "qtd. in" citation. Suppose you are reading a book by Ed Head. On page 234 in Head's book, he has included a quote spoken or written by somebody else, John Johnson, let's say. So, Head has quoted Johnson and included it in his book, properly enclosed in quotation marks, of course. Now, you really like what Johnson had to say, so you want to use it, too. You take Johnson's quote and put it in your essay. In this case, you would use a "qtd. in" citation. This is the only time you would use a "qtd. in" citation. Because it was already enclosed in quotation marks in Head's article, you would use the triple quotation mark convention in your essay.
Here's what it would look like in your essay:
As John Johnson points out, "'Prohibition was a policy doomed from the start'" (qtd. in Head 234).
The Works Cited entry for this type of "qtd. in" citation would be for the Head book, not for John Johnson.
Information from a Web page without pagination:
Most Web sites do not have page numbers. Many articles also do not list authors. If such is the case for you, use the name of the article in the citation, and use paragraph numbers instead of page numbers to indicate the location of the borrowed information. Do not use the page numbers of your printout.
Example:
One of the most popular creatures in the sea is the dolphin. Most people do not know that there are two kinds of dolphins. One kind of dolphin is a mammal. This kind of dolphin is a member of the small-toothed whale family. The other kind of dolphin is a fish ("Dolphins in the Internet" par. 6).
The Bible:
A reference to the Bible is normally placed in parentheses, immediately following the quotation. Passages in the Bible are normally cited by book, chapter, and verse. The titles of sacred texts are not typically italicized. Be aware that the Bible is not generally considered a factual or informational source.
Example:
In Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, Jacob went to sleep and dreamed of a ladder reaching up to heaven with angels climbing up and down it and the voice of God above it, saying, "I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed" (Genesis 28.12-13).
NOTE: In the case of a Bible verse, the first word in the citation will not be the same as the first word in the Works Cited entry for the Bible source.
A personal interview:
If you use information from a personal interview in your essay, include the summary, paraphrase, or quote, and then place the citation.
Example:
The Depression was "one heartbreak after another" for many Americans (Taylor interview).
Works Cited
When you decide to use a source, make sure that you gather all the publication data that you will need to document the source.
- In fact, you should gather this data before you take any notes. Don't assume you can find the source later; often you can't. Then, if you use the source material without providing a citation and documentation, you are technically guilty of plagiarism.
- Be sure that you identify the source of all borrowed material in your notes.
- Be sure, also, if you copy the source material word for word, that you enclose the material in quotation marks.
- If you do not quote exactly, then paraphrase generally using your own words and style.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: When you use information from the Internet that that does not come from a subscription database or from an important online magazine or newspaper, you need to include the specific Web address that leads the reader directly to the borrowed information. Do not use an address that sends the reader to the home page of the Web site. If you do include the address of a Web site, you do not need to indicate the publication medium, i.e., Web.
In a recent plagiarism workshop, I did a phrase search on Google for information that originally appeared in such notable sources as the Texas State Library and the Handbook of Texas Online. This same information, verbatim, without appropriate credit, also appeared on numerous other sites. As a result, I can't really be sure where you get your information, so any Web source entry other than from an ACC database or from an important online magazine or newspaper should include the specific Web address that leads the reader directly to the information. This requirement applies to Assignment 4 only. Again, if you do include the address of a Web site, you do not need to indicate the publication medium, i.e., Web.
Make sure that you copy Internet addresses exactly.
- Use the specific address from which the information comes, not the gateway or home page of the site.
The publication data is used to document the source in the Works Cited section of the essay. This section provides specific formats that you are expected to use.
- The entries are arranged in alphabetical order based on the last name of the author.
- If an author is not given, the first important word in a title is used in place of the last name of the author.
- The second and succeeding lines of an entry are indented.
Remember the sample paragraph about vampires?
One common Christian symbol of the vampire hysteria was blood. As Bob Smith notes, blood is a fundamental part of the Christian sacrament (333). Indeed, the Christian
sacrament brings participating followers "dangerously close to the practice of ritualistic
cannibalism" (Bill Smith 666). Edward Jones further clarifies the link between the Christian
sacrament and vampirism. He suggests that in both cases, "blood is the medium through
which the afterlife is accessed" (par. 7).
Corresponding Works Cited entries might look like this (The sources are made up.):
Jones, Edward. "Those Wacky Vampires." 30 April 1996.
Vampire Research Institute. 4 October 2012
<http://www.vampsrus.org/jones/wacky.html>.
Smith, Bill. Blood as a Symbol. London: Bloody Good Books, 1933. Print.
Smith, Bob. "My Priest Was a Cannibal." Religion Quarterly Review
(September 1999): 666. Print.
Works Cited Entries
At the end of your paper, you must provide a list of Works Cited--an alphabetical reference list of all the sources you have cited in your paper.
- Arrange the entries alphabetically according to the authors' last names.
- When you include several works by one author, list these alphabetically by title. Instead of repeating the author's name, use three hyphens followed by a period.
- If no author's name is given, use the first important word in the title to place the entry alphabetically.
NOTE: Double space within each entry and between entries. In an entry, all lines after the first are indented five spaces. Each part of an entry in Works Cited is a bibliographical "sentence" that ends in a period. The entry itself also ends with a period.
The general rules for Works Cited entries follow.
You need to include the publication medium (Print, Web, DVD, etc.) in most entries.
If you use a source from the Internet that that does not come from a subscription database or from an important online magazine or newspaper, you need to include the specific Web address that leads the reader directly to the borrowed information. If you do include the address of a Web site, you do not need to indicate the publication medium, i.e., Web.
For Assignment 4, any Web source entry other than from an ACC database or from an important online magazine or newspaper must include the specific Web address that leads the reader directly to the borrowed information.
General Works Cited Entry Formats
Books
Last name, First name of author. Title of book. City where published:
Name of Publisher, year published. Print.
Printed Magazines or Other Periodicals
Last name, First name of author (if given). "Title of Article."
Name of Magazine Volume or Date of issue: page numbers. Print.
Online Magazine Article from Online Database
Last name, First name of author (if given). "Title of Article."
Name of Magazine Volume or Date of issue: page numbers.
Name of Database. Web. Date of Access.
Article on a Web Site
Last name, First name of author (if given). "Title of Article." Date of posting.
Institution or Sponsoring Company. Date of access <Web address>.
Examples of Works Cited Entries
Book by one author:
Parke, Ross. Fathers. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981. Print.
Sample citation: (Parke 98)
Book with two authors:
Smith, Bill, and Ed Jones. More About Dolphins. Chicago: Dolphin
Books, 1999. Print.
Sample citation: (Smith and Jones 118)
Note: Give the authors' names in the order in which they appear on the title page; notice that only the first author's name is inverted. Note that the second and following lines of an entry are indented.
Book with three or more authors:
Spiller, Robert, et al. Literary History of the United States. New York:
Macmillan, 1960. Print.
Sample citation: (Spiller et al. 26)
Note: When a book has more than two authors, use only the first author's name listed on the title page. Then, include the abbreviation et al. This is a Latin term meaning "and others."
Book with an editor:
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. Ed. Kenneth S. Lynn. New York:
Rinehart, 1959. Print.
Sample citation: (Dreiser 56)
Article in a book with other selections by the same author:
Thomas, Lewis. "The Long Habit." Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology
Watcher. New York: Viking, 1974. 47-52. Print.
Sample citation: (Thomas 48)
Article in a book with selections by various authors:
Dimock, George E., Jr. "The Name of Odysseus." Essays on the Odyssey:
Selected Modern Criticism. Ed. Charles H. Taylor. Bloomington:
Indiana UP, 1963. 54-72. Print.
Sample citation: (Dimock 71)
Note: When the publisher is a university press, you can abbreviate the words "university press" as "UP" (Indiana UP, for example).
Article from a printed magazine:
Larson, Eric. "Cross-Cultural Studies of Fatherhood." Journal of Marriage
and the Family 11.3 (1998): 212-18. Print.
Sample citation: (Larson 215)
Article from a printed newspaper:
"Fathers Confused by Changing Family Roles." USA Today Oct. 7, 1980: 5. Print.
Sample citation: ("Fathers Confused" 5)
Article from a printed encyclopedia:
Jones, Ed. "Fish." World Book Encyclopedia. 1996 ed. Print.
Sample citation: (Jones 134)
"Dolphins." Americana Encyclopedia. 2000 ed. Print.
Sample citation: ("Dolphins" 138)
Note: In the encyclopedia cited in the first example, the author of the article is identified by his initials at the end of the article, and his name is listed in a guide to the work. In citing any well-known reference work, you need not give any details about publication, except for the edition number, if any, and the year. If the author is not named and the entries are listed alphabetically, begin with the title of the article, as in the second example.
Article from an online database:
Box, Scott. "One Father's Unique Perspective." Newsweek 5 Mar. 1999: 38.
MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 12 Feb. 2002.
Sample citation: (Box 38)
Note: Because the specific Web address is not given, the publication medium indicator Web is used. Also, because the Web source gives a page number for the article, use a page number instead of a paragraph number in the citation.
Article from a Web site:
Jones, Gunnar. "The Battle of Bataan." 12 July 1998.
U.S. Marine Corps.
3 March 2002
<http://www.gomarines.gov/history/bataan.html>.
Sample citation: (Jones par. 7)
Note: Your Works Cited entry for a Web source should contain the noted information, in the order listed. If one of the parts is missing, everything else moves to the left in the entry or you can use abbreviations for the missing parts: n.d. (No date of publication) or n.p. (No place of publication or no publisher). Because the above entry includes the specific Web address, the publication medium indicator Web is not needed.
For more details on documenting Web sources, see the section below on Documenting Internet Sources.
Television program:
"Whales." Prod. Jim Jones Productions. Dir. Bill Smith. The Learning
Channel. 12 January 2006.
Sample citation: ("Whales")
Note: In the above entry, include the producer, the director, the channel or network on which the program was broadcast, and the date of broadcast. Also, if you use a TV program as a significant source, you must provide a transcript for the part(s) of the program from which you borrow information.
The Bible:
When you quote from the Bible, you need to list the version in your Works Cited. Follow the formatting for a book with no given author, and identify the version or translation from which you are quoting.
Holy Bible. Authorized King James Version. Ed. C.I. Scofield. New
Scofield Reference Edition. New York: Oxford UP, 1967. Print.
New American Standard Bible. Reference ed. Chicago: Moody Press, 1975. Print.
Sample citation: (John 3:16)
Note: The names of sacred texts are not typically italicized or underlined. Also notice that in the case of a Bible citation, for example, the words in the citation will not point to the first word in the corresponding Works Cited entry. You can always mention the sacred book in your text if you are unsure if your reader will make the connection between the citation and the Works Cited entry for the sacred text. Be aware that sacred texts are not considered nonfiction sources and cannot count as one of your three minimum sources.
A personally conducted interview:
Pei, I.M. Personal interview. 27 July 1983.
Jones, Alvin F. Telephone interview. 10 Dec. 1999.
Sample citation: (Jones interview)
MLA UPDATE NOTICE: Here's a recommended Web site that gives examples of Works Cited entries that use the updated MLA guidelines.
Purdue MLA Formatting and Style Guide
*If you don't find what you're looking for in the Research Paper Guide or on the site above, here's a Web site you may find very useful for your Assignment 4 report. It gives samples of corresponding citations and Works Cited entries for a wide range of sources. A very handy reference, though it is not based on the updated MLA guidelines. As noted elsewhere, on Assignment 4 I will accept Works Cited entries using either the old style or the new style of MLA formats.
MLA Sample Citations
Documenting Internet Sources
Many people have problems with MLA documentation. Usually, the major problem is that they do not take the time to find the proper format for their citation or Works Cited entry. So, they just make something up, or dash out something that is very creative but not close to what is conventional. MLA documentation for Web sites does vary a bit, but the general information required is the same.
Here (I hope) is a simplified discussion of Web site documentation.
Web Citations
Any kind of citation is a pointer to the first word or words in a Works Cited entry. Citations for Web sources are not much different from print source citations. Print source citations should have page references, but Web source citations may have page references or paragraph references. Read the following information carefully.
- If your source is an online magazine or periodical that has page numbers given, use page numbers in your citations for that source.
- If your source is an online E-book that has page numbers given, use page numbers in your citations for that source.
- If you have an author that you mention in text, you need only a page reference in the citation (5), though you may include the author's name in the citation.
- If you have an author that you do not mention in text, use the author's last name and a page or paragraph reference in the citation (Jones 5).
- However, if your source is a regular Web site or some other source that does not have page numbers, specify the paragraph in the article from which the information comes. Number the paragraphs in the article consecutively, beginning with the first paragraph in the article.
- If you have an author that you mention in text, you need only a paragraph reference in the citation (par. 5), though you may include the author's name in the citation.
- If you have an author that you do not mention in text, use the author's last name and a paragraph reference in the citation (Smith par. 5).
- If you do not have an author, include the name of the article (or enough to distinguish it from others) and a paragraph reference ("Battle of Bataan" par. 12).
Notice in these examples that no punctuation follows the name of the author or article, but that par. is followed by a period since it is an abbreviation.
DO NOT use a citation that points to some information buried in a Works Cited entry, such as the sponsoring organization or the Web address. The first word in your citation should be the same as the first word in the corresponding Works Cited entry; this word will usually be the author's last name or the first important word in a title.
Sample Works Cited Entries for Online Sources
Online Magazine or Periodical or E-book
Under the new MLA guidelines, Works Cited entries for well-known online magazines or other periodicals and articles obtained from ACC subscription databases are treated a little differently than Works Cited entries for regular Web sites (which are covered below). Some of these samples are borrowed from the Purdue OWL site noted above and below.
Lubell, Sam. "Of the Sea and Air and Sky." New York Times. New York Times, 26 Nov. 2008.
Web. 11 Sep. 2009.
Sample citation: (Lucell 36)
Online Subscription Databases
If the source is an online magazine article from a subscription database, the general form for the new style is:
Last name, First name of author (if given). "Title of Article."
Name of Magazine Date of issue: page numbers.
Name of Database. Web. Date of Access.
Here's an example:
Box, Scott. "One Father's Unique Perspective." Newsweek. 5 Mar. 1999: 38.
MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 12 Feb. 2002.
Sample citation: (Box 38)
Note: Because the specific Web address is not given, the publication medium indicator Web is used. Also, because the Web source gives page numbers, use a page number instead of a paragraph number in the citation.
If the source is an article from a book in an online database, use the following format:
Last name, First name of author (if given). "Title of Article." Title of Book.
City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page numbers of article.
Online Database Name. Web. Date of Access.
If the source is a book from an online database, use the following format:
Last name, First name of author. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year.
Online Database Name. Web. Date of Access.
E-books are complete books that are available online. E-books usually use page numbers in citations.
If you use an Ebook from another source other than an online database, use the following format:
Last name, First name of author. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year.
Site where you found book, such as netLibrary. Web. Date of access.
Here's an example of this format:
Jenkins, Michael S. Abstract Data Types in Java. New York: McGraw, 1998. netLibrary. Web.
7 July 2013.
If the source is an online excerpt from a book, use this format:
Harnack, Andrew, and Eugene Kleppinger. Preface. Online! A
Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 5 Jan. 2000 <Web address>.
The portion of the book excerpted comes right after the author's name. Here, it is the Preface. Then comes the title of the book, italicized. Then come the city of publication, the publisher, and the year of publication. This is followed by the date of visit and the Web address. The Web address should be the specific location of the borrowed information. The second and following lines of the entry should be indented.
Works Cited Entry for a Regular Web Site Source
Be aware that each part of a Works Cited entry is a "bibliographical sentence" that ends with a period, so if your entry is strung together with a series of commas, you are already off on the wrong foot. I will expect a reasonable amount of adherence to MLA standards in your citations and documentation.
Your Works Cited entry for a Web site source should contain the following information, in the order listed. If one of the parts is missing, everything else moves to the left in the entry or you can use abbreviations for the missing parts: n.d. (No date of publication) or n.p. (No place of publication or no publisher).
1. Name of author, last name first.
2. Article title in quotation marks, with the period inside the quotation marks.
3. Date of the posting or update (Look at the bottom of the page or around the article. You may not find one.).
4. Sponsoring institute, organization, or company.
5. Date of your visit (NOTE: In the entry, there is no period after this part.).
6. The specific Web address in pointed brackets < > followed by a period. (For this address, DO NOT use the home page or entry page to the site. I want to be able to plug in the address you list and go directly to the information. I do not want to have to search for it from the entry page.)
Here's the general form:
Last name, First name of author. "Title of Article." Date of posting. Sponsor.
Date of visit <Web address>.
**Note all the periods and their placement.
Here's a fictional example:
Jones, Gunnar. "The Battle of Bataan." 12 July 1998.
U.S. Marine Corps.
3 March 2002
<http://www.gomarines.gov/history/bataan.html>.
Here's an example with no author or posting date:
"Battle of Bataan, The." U.S. Marine Corps. 3 March 2002
<http://www.gomarines.gov/history/bataan.html>.
or
"Battle of Bataan, The." n.d. U.S. Marine Corps. 3 March 2002
<http://www.gomarines.gov/history/bataan.html>.
Helpful Web Sites
The ACC Library MLA Documentation document provides a more varied selection of Works Cited entry formats than provided here. If the samples here do not fit your needs, then you should visit this alternate source.
As noted above, MLA recently updated documentation guidelines for some sources, primarily Internet sources. Several of these changes were covered in Assignment 2 (Info Game). You can find examples of these changes at this Web address:
Purdue MLA Formatting and Style Guide
If you don't find what you're looking for in the Research Paper Guide or on the site above, here's a Web site you may find very useful for your Assignment 4 report. It gives samples of corresponding citations and Works Cited entries for a wide range of sources. A very handy reference, though it is not based on the updated MLA guidelines.
MLA Sample Citations