Documenting Your Sources

1. Documenting Your Sources MLA STYLE

2. Using MLA • Modern Language Association has provided a set of standard rules for formal writing. • These guidelines help writers to document their sources correctly within the text of the paper (parenthetical citations) and at the end of the paper (the list of works cited). • The parenthetical citations direct readers to the full bibliographic citations listed in the Works Cited. • Every source (magazine, book with two authors, a newspaper article, etc.) has its own format for recording key features of a work. Be sure to copy the exact order of information as it appears in the given format (including periods and spaces).

3. Definition • Documentation is the information in the paper that tells what sources you used. • The method of documentation most widely used today is called parenthetical documentation. • To acknowledge a source using the parenthetical documentation method, enclose a brief note in parentheses. The note, which is called a parenthetical citation, usually consists of an author’s name and a page number. It contains enough information to help the reader locate the source in the list of Works Cited at the end of the paper. • The process of placing the citation into your text is called citing a source.

4. What Should Be Documented • Direct quotations • Surveys, scientific experiments, and research studies • Ideas or opinions that are not your own (even if written in your own words) • Facts that are not common knowledge – ones that a general audience might not know • Information which may be questioned

5. What Does Not Need to Be Documented • Factual information or opinions which are widely accepted. Example: American Civil War began at Ft. Sumter. (a commonly known fact) Example: A nuclear war would result in vast destruction. (a commonly held theory) • Familiar sayings or proverbs Example: “A stitch in time saves nine.”

6. Preparing Parenthetical Citations GUIDELINES

7. The instructions for parenthetical notations may seem hard to remember at first, but they are easier than you may think. They are simple common sense methods for letting the reader know where to find the sources you used, pointing directly to the sources on the Works Cited page.

8. A work by one author: Put the author’s last name and page number with NO comma. Example: One of the major problems in our cities today is the “cultural deficiency in the lower economic areas” (Heber 326).

9. A work by one author with author’s last name mentioned in your sentence: just put the page number. Example: Heber said that the main problem in our cities today is the “cultural deficiency in the lower economic areas” (326).

10. Two or more works by the same author: put the author’s last name and the first word or two of the title and the page number. Example: One of the most pressing world problems is over-population (Heber, Problems 49).

11. A work by two authors: put both authors’ last names and the page number. Example: Many of William Faulkner’s works deal with ordinary working people (Campbell and Foster 65).

12. A work by more than two authors: put the first author’s last name and the words “and others” (or et al). Example: In the use of computers in modern society, we must realize their potential and their weaknesses (Horn, and others 422). OR (Horn, et al 422)

13. An edited work: put the author’s last name, ed. and the page number. Example: In Main Currents in American Thought the author makes numerous references to Americans’ concern over making a lot of money (Parington, ed. 4)

14. A magazine, newspaper or encyclopedia article, or internet article: put the author’s last name (if given) and the page number. If it is an unsigned article, put a shortened form from the article title and the page number. Examples: American Indians’ problems are not considered important by very many people (Navakov 22). …from an article called “Mayan Indians” Mayan children matured quite fast (“Mayan”45).

15. Two or more sources within one reference: cite these as you would individually but separate them with a semi-colon. Example: Several authors, in writing about the poet Shelley, comment that he had “the impulsiveness of an adolescent and sometimes the immaturity” (Trent 239; Benet 893).

16. A multi-volume citation: put author’s last name, volume number, and page number. If edited, put ed. Examples: (Schlesinger 2:27) (Parrington, ed. 3: 506)

17. A long quotation of more than four lines: put a colon at the end of the text material and begin a new line. Indent ten spaces from the left margin for each line, double spaced. Do not use any quotation marks. Put citation at the end. Example: It would be wrong, though, to say that other family members are not affected, as Nick, Ryan Farrell’s little brother, says: Sometimes I feel mad at my family because Ryan gets so much of the attention. I know my family loves me, but I still get mad at Ryan’s Tourette because if he didn’t have it, he wouldn’t get the attention of our mom and dad. I also get mad at Ryan’sTourette because sometimes he isn’t very nice to me. He says he’s sorry when he’s mean to me, and most of the time I forgive him. I love my brother, even though it’s hard, so I put up with his Tourette. (Fowler 107) D O U B L E S P A C E

18. Works Cited Page GUIDELINES

19. Compiling the Works Cited Page • The Works Cited page contains information about each of the references you used. Sources that you consulted and rejected should not be included, nor should you list references that you did not cite in your paper. • The Works Cited page appears at the end of your research paper and gives complete information about where you found your material. • You have already compiled this information on your source cards. Simply organize your source cards in alphabetical order according to the author’s or editor’s last name (or title of article if there is no author). Then record all of the bibliographic material.

20. General Guidelines for the List of Works Cited • Begin on a new page. • Begin with the centered title – Works Cited (do not underline, do not use all caps, do not put quotes around it, do not use a larger font). • Include an entry for every in-text citation. • Include author, title, and publication date for each entry, if available. Use a period to set off each of these elements from the others. Leave one space after the periods. • Do not number the entries. • Put entries in alphabetical order by author’s or editor’s last name. (If the author is unknown, use the first word of the title, excluding the articles a, an, or the). • Underline titles of books and periodicals. • Capitalize the first and last and all important words in all titles and subtitles. Do not capitalize articles, prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, and the to in infinitives. • In the publication data, abbreviate publishers’ names and months (Dec. rather than December; Oxford UP instead of Oxford University Press), and include the name of the city in which the publisher is located but not the state: Danbury: Grolier. • Do not use p., pp., or page(s). Numbers alone will do. When using three digit numbers, use 243-47, rather than 243-247. • Use a hanging indent: Start the first line of each entry at the left margin, and indent all subsequent lines of the entry five spaces (or one-half inch on the computer). • Double-space within entries and between them.

21. Purpose of Works Cited • Besides in-text citations, MLA documentation style requires a works cited page, where readers can find full bibliographic information about the sources that you have cited in your paper. • Your parenthetical citations are keyed to the works cited page. Each source must be written and formulated in the exact style of your source cards.

22. Sample of Works Cited Page Works Cited Page Sample of works cited page Sample of works cited page with notes

23. Hoffman 11 Works Cited Armstrong, Louis. Backstage Instructions to Glaser. April 1957. Accessions 1997-26. Louis Armstrong Archives. Queens College CUNY. Flushing, NY. - - -. “Louis Armstrong and the Jewish Family in New Orleans.” Unpublished ms. 31 March 1969. Louis Armstrong Archives. Queens College CUNY, Flushing, NY. Bergreen, Laurence. Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life. New York: Broadway, 1997. Bogle, Donald. “Louis Armstrong: The Films.” Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy. Ed. Marc H. Miller. Seattle: U of Washington P and Queens Museum of Art, 1994. 1477 – 79. “Chicago: Early 1920s.” Wolverine Antique Music Society. Ed. R. D. Frederick. 1998. 26 Feb. 1998 <http://www.shellac.org/wams/wchicagol.html>. Collier, James Lincoln. Louis Armstrong, an American Genius. New York: Oxford UP, 1983. Jacobs, Phoebe. Personal interview. 12 Nov. 1997. Morgenstern, Dan. “Louis Armstrong and the Development and Diffusion of Jazz.” Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy. Ed. Marc H. Miller. Seattle: U of Washington P and Queens Museum of Art, 1994. 95 – 145. “Satchmo!” New Orleans Online. 1998. New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation. 26 Feb. 1998 http://neworleansonline.com/sno9.htm>.

24. Hoffman 11 Works Cited Armstrong, Louis. Backstage Instructions to Glaser. April 1957. Accessions 1997-26. Louis Armstrong Archives. Queens College CUNY. Flushing, NY. - - -. “Louis Armstrong and the Jewish Family in New Orleans.” Unpublished ms. 31 March 1969. Louis Armstrong Archives. Queens College CUNY, Flushing, NY. Bergreen, Laurence. Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life. New York: Broadway, 1997. Bogle, Donald. “Louis Armstrong: The Films.” Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy. Ed. Marc H. Miller. Seattle: U of Washington P and Queens Museum of Art, 1994. 1477 – 79. “Chicago: Early 1920s.” Wolverine Antique Music Society. Ed. R. D. Frederick. 1998. 26 Feb. 1998 <http://www.shellac.org/wams/wchicagol.html>. Collier, James Lincoln. Louis Armstrong, an American Genius. New York: Oxford UP, 1983. Jacobs, Phoebe. Personal interview. 12 Nov. 1997. Morgenstern, Dan. “Louis Armstrong and the Development and Diffusion of Jazz.” Louis Armstrong: A Cultural Legacy. Ed. Marc H. Miller. Seattle: U of Washington P and Queens Museum of Art, 1994. 95 – 145. “Satchmo!” New Orleans Online. 1998. New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation. 26 Feb. 1998 http://neworleansonline.com/sno9.htm>. Last name pg. # Alphabetic order Title Centered Hanging indent: 5 spaces or l/2” If same author, use 3 hyphens Source: book with 1 author Double space between all lines Source: Web site document Personal Interview Source: selection in an edited book A period to set off each element from the next and one space after the period