MLA In-text citation and Works Cited entries

MLA In-text citation and Works Cited entries

(With a little on incorporating textual evidence)

When you write analyses of literature, you are always safest to include detailed accounts of textual evidence that supports your argument or thesis. In most English classes, Modern Languages Association (MLA) documentation style is preferred. These documentation styles – as there are many – assist informed readers of any given academic field in locating your research in any given library or database.

Incorporating Evidence

If you are assigned to give an analysis of any given text or issue, you can utilize evidence to support your analysis. This evidence should be chosen because it backs up a point you make, illustrates a point you make, is evidence of an argument you make, etc. Never should a piece of textual information be simply dropped into a paper to fulfill a source requirement. It is best to follow these steps when you are quoting directly from a given source…

1. Introduce the evidence (creating a transition from previous ideas)

2. Quote the evidence (giving proper MLA documentation)

3. Connect the evidence to my analysis and thesis

Example: Although it is clear that censorship and pornography are growing issues in the United States, not everyone in the country is willing to put on social and artistic blinders. Some even see the fight for censorship as a fight against the very people pornography is said to hurt, women. Nadine Strossen, for instance, writes that feminists should know “that censorship is a dangerous weapon which, if permitted, would inevitably be turned against [women]” (539). Strossen asserts that the slippery slope of censorship will allow the patriarchy to put further restrictions on women’s freedoms. Therefore, censorship is a tool in which society subordinates and controls its participants.

However, this works in any analysis. For instance, if you were assigned a literary analysis, you can modify these steps slightly to serve your purpose. If I were proving the intent of an author by analyzing the narrative in a given text I would…

1. Connect the upcoming analysis of the narrative to my previous ideas in my paper

2. Quote the sections of the narrative that I find useful to prove my thesis

3. Spend a few sentences connecting that section of narrative to my overall thesis for the paper

Example:

One might think Wash Williams, in the story “Respectability,” Anderson’s embodiment of all things masculine. However, one trait sets Wash Williams’ masculinity apart from the rest; “His fingers were fat, but there was something sensitive and shapely in the hand that lay on the table by the instrument in the telegraph office” (Anderson 64). Although the argument can be made that like most men in Winesburg, Wash’s hands are the ways he makes his living, thus defining his masculinity, it is important to note the words “sensitive” and “shapely.” These words indicate something feminine in Wash’s personality. Something that deeper down that might represent the sensitive, passionate side of Wash.

Giving Credit Where It’s Due

When you do decide which evidence best supports your assertions in your paper, it is then important to properly give credit to both the work and the author who created the work. Imagine you have spend hour upon hour writing a paper for your English class and your teacher doesn’t record your grade in the book (even though it was an A+) nor even have record of you turning in a paper…wouldn’t you be upset. Authors are similar. It is not so much that we cite authors to feed their egos; rather we cite authors in our papers to assist the academic reader in locating the particular article, book, movie or page in which our evidence appears.

Quoting

When you are quoting sources in the body of your paper you will be best served by following these rules:

1. Quotations should be taken WORD FOR WORD from the text

2. If you should add information, you should place that information in brackets [ ]

a. Ex. “It was the best of times, [and] it was the worst of times.”

3. If you subtract a section from your quotation, use the brackets and an ellipsis (which indicates that there is more that is missing).

a. Ex. The original text is,

“Hey man,” Jim said, “can you pass the records over here?”

If you want to omit the “Jim said” part to keep the flow of your paper, you would do it like this

“Hey man […] can you pass the records over here?”

4. Quotations should grammatically fit into your sentences

In-Text Citation

You are required to properly cite all information taken from another author. If you paraphrase, you must cite. If you quote it directly, you must cite. If you idea is closely inspired by but kind of like the other author’s, you must cite. When it doubt, cite! This is the only sure fire way not to plagiarize!

Follow these rules for in-text citations

1. Any paraphrase, quote or inspired idea must be followed by a citation of the author’s last name and the page number from where the evidence came.

a. Ex. One might believe this to be true, but most experts disagree (Jones 451).

2. The parentheses of the citation fall inside of that sentence’s punctuation mark. This lets the reader know that the citation “(Jones 451)” means that the experts who don’t agree with the assertion can be found in Jones’ book on page 451.

3. If the evidence is from a webpage then you replace the page number with the webpage’s publication (usually the last date of update)

a. Ex. …but most experts agree (Jones 1999)

4. Finally, if there is no author, as some web pages and pamphlets may lack, replace the author’s name with the title of the publication.

a. Ex. One might believe this to be true, but most experts disagree (“Truth in Question” 451)

The name or title of the work must be the first thing that you the reader will find on your works cited page. This is so the reader can be reading your essay, come to an interesting piece of evidence and go to your works cited to find out where s/he can find that article in her/his public library.

Block Quoting - EXCEPTION TO THE RULE

When you are including in your paper a selection of text that is either four sentences (or more) OR is four physical lines on your typed page, you must BLOCK QUOTE the text.

Block quoting is simply setting the text off from the body of your paper so the reader knows that the huge chunk of text is not yours. In order to do this you should…

1. Introduce the block quote with a sentence and introduce it grammatically with a colon (:)

2. Hit the tab key twice on the keyboard (this sets the margin 1 inch from the left)

3. Do not put quotation marks (“ “) around the selected text…by setting the margin at 1 inch, you are letting the reader know it is a quoted selection

4. When you have finished the selection, place the parentheses with author’s last name and page number OUTSIDE of the punctuation and after the last sentence

5. Then you want to explain to the reader how this proves your thesis by writing a few sentences to connect the evidence and thesis

Works Cited

This is the page that should appear on the final page of your paper. To complete this, the rules are extremely simple.

1. Center Align the words “Works Cited” on your page, no bold, no underline, no italics – JUST PLAIN TEXT

2. In alphabetical order, list the works that you cited in your paper. If all the works on your list do not appear in the body of your paper, use the words “Works Consulted” in lieu of “Works Cited” because not all of them are cited.

3. Make sure to indent the SECOND line of each work cited.’

4. Keep double spacing throughout the works cited page, but DO NOT skip extra lines between works, the indentation acts as a marker of a new work

Examples

Book

Last Name, First Name. Title or Title. Place of Publication: Publishing Company, Year of Pub.

Anderson, Sherwood. Winesburg, Ohio. Eds. Charles E. Modlin & Ray Lewis White. New

York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1996.

*Note the periods after the author’s name, the tile and the year of publication

**Note also the colon after the place of publication and the comma after the publisher’s name

*** Also note that the editors’ names have been placed in between the title of the work and the place of publication with the heading “Eds.”

Essay in an Anthology or Collection of Essays

Last Name, First Name. “Title of Essay.” Title of Book. Ed. Editor’s Name. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page numbers.

Strossen, Nadine. “Perils of Pornophobia.” Conversations. Ed. Jack Selzer. New York: Pearson Education, 2003. 538-543

Webpage

Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Webpage. Date Updated. Company of Affiliation. Date Accessed. <URL Address>.

Jones, Bob. “Why I am the Best.” Bob’s Personal Webpage. 15 Jan. 2005. Geocities. 26 Jan 2005. <http://www.bobsthebest.net>.

*If you cannot find an author, you begin then with the title of the article.

**If there is no article and the page itself is what you are citing, then don’t worry about the title of the article