MLA Documentation Style

1
MLA Documentation Style

• Kim Frail
• Bibliothèque Saint-Jean
• / La Centrale
• November 15th, 2007

2
Course Plan

• What is MLA documentation style (and why you
  should learn to use it)
• Academic Integrity
• Format of the research paper (Chapter 4)
• Documentation Preparing the List of Works Cited
  (Chapter 5)
• Documentation Citing Sources in the Text
  (Chapter 6)

3
MLA documentation style

• A set of agreed-on rules or conventions for
  formating written work in the humanities
• Developed by the Modern Language Association,
  appearing first in 1951
• One of many scholarly documentation styles
  (a.k.a. citation style)
• The documentation style you have (probably) been
  asked to use by your professor
• Preferences regarding documentation style will be
  determined by each course instructor be sure to
  check!

4
Academic Integrity

• Intentional and Unintentional plagiarism
• Common sense and ethics
• How to avoid plagarism
• Dont wait until the last minute!
• Take careful notes while you are reading
• When in doubt, cite

5
When is documentation required?

• Paraphrasing
• Direct quotations
• Use of phrases or words coined by someone else

• Familiar proverbs / sayings
• Well known quotations
• Common knowledge
• Content of a novel/play/story

When in doubt, cite!
6
Format of the research paper (Chapter 4)

• Basic Guidelines
• Standard, easily readable typeface and type size
  (e.g. Times Roman, 12 point)
• Leave a one-inch margin around the text
• Double space throughout the paperincluding the
  heading, title and works cited
• Do not underline, italicize, or bold the title of
  your paper
• The only exception is if you include the title of
  text in your papers title, e.g. The Story Wont
  Tell Narrative Structure in Turn of the Screw
• Print on one side of the paper only

7
Format of the research paper (Chapter 4)

• Basic Guidelines (contd)
• MLA Do not justify the lines of your paper at
  the right hand margin
• ANGL instructors This is okay to do
• MLA Do not include a title page
• ANGL instructors A title page is usually
  required

When in doubt, ask your instructor!
8
Format of the research paper

• Begin the Works Cited on a new, numbered page
• Double space throughout
• Indent the second and subsequent lines of each
  individual citation.

9
Documentation Preparing the List of Works Cited
(Chapter 5)

• Include all books, articles, websites, that you
  have cited in the body of your paper.
• Take the information from the title page (recto
  and verso) of the book
• Alphabetize by authors last name, letter by
  letter
• MacDonald, George
• McCullers, Carson
• Something comes before nothing
• Descartes, René
• De Sica, Vittorio

10
List of Works Cited Exercise

• Arrange entries according to MLA style
• Book with one author
• The Big Book of Cats. Susan Feuer. Kansas City.
  1998. Andrew McMeel Publishing.

Feuer, Susan. The Big Book of Cats. Andrew
McMeel Publishing Kansas City, 1998.
11
List of Works Cited Exercise

• Arrange entries 2 3 on your worksheet according
  to MLA style.

12
List of Works Cited - Exercise
2. Translator. Margaret Sayers Peden. Daughter of
Fortune. Isabel Allende. Harper. New York. 2000.
Allende, Isabel. Daughter of Fortune. Trans.
Margaret Sayers Peden. New York Harper, 2000.
13
List of Works Cited Example

• A translation
• Beowulf. Trans. E. Talbot Donaldson. Ed.
• Nicholas Howe. New York Norton, 2001.
• Hildegard of Bingen. Selected Writings. Trans.
• Mark Atherton. New York Penguin, 2001.

14
List of Works Cited Exercise
3. (a) Margaret Atwood. New York. 1996.
Doubleday. Alias Grace A Novel. (b) Margaret
Atwood. The Robber Bride. 1993. Doubleday. New
York.
Two books by the same author Atwood, Margaret.
Alias Grace A Novel. New York Doubleday,
1996. ---. The Robber Bride. New York Doubleday,
1993.
15
List of Works Cited Exercise

• Arrange entry 3 on your worksheet according to
  MLA style.

16
List of Works Cited - Exercise
3. Changing Concepts of Childhood and Childrens
Literature. Cambridge Scholars Press. 2006.
Edited by Vanessa Joosen and Katrien Voleberghs.
Newcastle, UK.

• A Book by two or three authors
• Joosen, Vanessa, and Katrien Voleberghs, eds.
  Changing Concepts of Childhood and Childrens
  Literature. Newcastle, UK Cambridge Scholars
  Press, 2006.

17
List of Works Cited - Example

• Book with four authors
• Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive
• Grammar of the English Language.
• London Longman, 1985.

18
List of Works Cited Example

• An edited work
• Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Ed. Claudia
• Johnson. New York Norton, 2001.
• Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Barbara A.
• Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York
• Washington Square-Pocket, 1992.

19
List of Works Cited Example

• An Anthology or a Compilation
• Weisser, Susan Ostrov, ed. Women and
• Romance A Reader. New York New
• York UP, 2001.

20
List of Works Cited Exercise

• Arrange entry 4 on your worksheet according to
  MLA style.

21
List of Works Cited Exercise
4. Anita Desai. Scholar and Gypsy. Edited by
Patricia Craig. 251-73. The Oxford Book of Travel
Stories. Oxford UP. 1996. Oxford and New York.

• A Work in an Anthology
• Desai, Anita. Scholar and Gypsy. The Oxford
  Book of Travel Stories. Ed. Patricia Craig.
  Oxford and New York Oxford UP, 1996. 251-73.

22
List of Works Cited More Examples

• Article (print or electronic equivalent)
• Trumpener, Katie. Memories Carved in Granite
  Great War Memorials and Everyday Life. PMLA 115
  (2000) 1096- 103.

23
Documentation Preparing the List of Works Cited
(Chapter 5)

• Electronic sources (a.k.a. a can of worms)
• URLs can (and usually do) change. Other
  information is essential to cite electronic
  sources

24
Documentation Preparing the List of Works Cited
(Chapter 5)

• Look for the following elements on the electronic
  source
• Authors name
• Title of Document
• Information about Print Publication (if
  applicable)
• Information about electronic publication (title
  of site, date of electronic publication (or
  latest update), and name of institution or
  organization that sponsors the site.
• Access information (date of access, URL)

25
Documentation Preparing the List of Works Cited
(Chapter 5)

• Electronic Article
• Easterbrook, Neil The sublime simulacra
  Repetition, reversal, and re-covery in Lem's
  Solaris Critique studies in contemporary
  fiction 36.3 (1995) 177-194. Literature Online.
  University of Alberta Libraries. 31 Oct. 2007.
  lthttp//www.library.ualberta.ca/databases/database
  info/index.cfm?ID241gt

26
Works Cited Electronic Article
27
Works Cited Electronic Article
If a permenant URL is not provided for the
article, you can use the UAL libraries URL for
the database.
28
Documentation Preparing the List of Works Cited
(Chapter 5)

• Entire internet site
• Title of site
• Name of the editor of the site (if given)
• Electronic publication information
• Date of access and URL
• HistoryChannel.com. 2002. History Channel. 14
• May 2002 lthttp//historychannel.com/gt
• Postmodern Culture. Ed. Lisa Brawley and James F.
  English. 2002. 1 Oct 2002
• lthttp//www.iath.virgina.edu/pmc/gt

29
Documentation Citing Sources in the Text
(Chapter 6)
30
In-Text Citations - Exercise

• Let us try to identify each source. What can we
  say about each one based on the information given
  in parenthesis?
• Rymmes described himself as a person of
  revolutionary and contradictory temperament
  (qtd. in Smythe and Wire 114).

Indirect source.
31
In-Text Citations - Exercise

• Lewis suggests that the textbook teaches
  precisely nothing about what it purports to
  teach (Abolition of Man 5).

Multiple works by the same author. Indicate which
volume you are referring to by listing the number.
32
In-Text Citations - Exercise

• In Thomas Hardys novels there is a strong sense
  of the inevitability of character and environment
  in the working out of human destiny (Grimsditch
  28 Abercrombie 40).

Two different works.
33
In-Text Citations - Exercise

• Historically, literary criticism has been a much
  more retrograde activity than the imaginative
  writing it studies (Stephens et al. 224).

Multiple authors of one or collective work.
34
In-Text Citations - Exercise

• The Oxford Companion to English Literature notes
  that W. H. Mallock is best known as the author of
  The New Republic (489).

Work listed by title.
35
In-Text Citations - Exercise

• The Canadian Womens Indexing Group provides a
  retrospective index to 15 selected English and
  French-Canadian feminist periodicals (130).

Corporate author. When the author is a
corporation or an organization, name the
corporate author.
36
Documentation Citing Sources in the Text
(Chapter 6)

• In text citation (a.k.a. parenthetical
  references)
• Omit the publication dates in the parenthetical
  references.
• Do not use commas or p.

37
5. Documentation Citing Sources in the Text
38
5. Documentation Citing Sources in the Text
39
5. Documentation Citing Sources in the Text
40
5. Documentation Citing Sources in the Text
41
5. Documentation Citing Sources in the Text
42
5. Documentation Citing Sources in the Text

• More than four lines of text or more than 40
  words in the quotation
• Elizabeth Bishops In the Waiting Room is
• rich in evocative detail
• It was winter. It got dark
• early. The waiting room
• was full of grown-up people,
• arctics and overcoats,
• lamps and magazines. (6-10)

43
5. Documentation Citing Sources in the Text

• More than four lines of text in the quotation
• Elizabeth Bishops In the Waiting Room is
• rich in evocative detail
• It was winter. It got dark
• early. The waiting room
• was full of grown-up people,
• arctics and overcoats,
• lamps and magazines. (6-10)

No quotation marks around the text
44
Remember!

• Form is part of the content
• The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
  is available at the Library. LB 2369 G52 2003
  (Ref.) and also at La Centrale!
• This presentation is not a substitute for reading
  the MLA Handbook
• This presentation will be available on the
  library website under  Cours de bibliothèque 
• Help is availableask for it

45

• Thank you for your attention and participation!
• Good Luck!