Introduction and Background--Why You Must Properly Cite the Materials You Use

What is "Common Knowledge"?

http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/citations/index.html

    James D. Lester's Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide is used by all academic departments at Chatham Hall as a source book for documentation and techniques of research writing.  Lester presents a full explanation of both the MLA (Modern Language Association) and the APA (American Psychological Association) systems of documentation.  He also presents a brief guide to other systems of documentation, e.g., the footnote system and the number system.  When writing papers for the English Department, all students should use the MLA system as explained by Lester.  The MLA system, the one most widely used in colleges and universities today, combines the use of parenthetical references in the text with a list of works cited at the end of the paper.  What follows is a guide to help students more easily access the information provided by Lester.
 

Documentation: A Two-Fold Process

    The documentation of your sources in your finished paper is a two-fold process.  One, you must include, at the end of your paper, a bibliography, entitled Works Cited, which is an alphabetized list of all the works that were used in the writing of your paper.  Two, you must specifically cite sources, using parenthetical references in your text, by author and/or title and page number when you either paraphrase from these sources or directly quote them in your text. (You will find when using some CD-ROM and database sources that page numbers cannot be included because they are not available.)

    The concept is a simple one: the parenthetical references in your text identify the source of information and ideas, both quoted and paraphrased; the list at the end of your paper gives the full bibliographical information for these sources. Since your bibliography is alphabetized by author's last name, if an author is known, and by title, if he or she is not, the author's last name or the title of the work is the part of your in-text citation that is used to hook your reader up to the correct work in the bibliography.
 

Common Knowledge Exceptions

    Any material that you present in your paper that would be considered common knowledge, i.e., factual information that is generally known, should not be cited in your text.  For example, the fact that Wordsworth and Coleridge collaborated in 1798 to publish Lyrical Ballads and that this collaboration was for years heralded as the beginning of the Romantic Movement in English literature is common knowledge and needs not be cited even though you may have learned this information from your research.  On the other hand, a judgment by a critic that there is really nothing new in Lyrical Ballads would be considered an opinion that needs to be cited.  Likewise, the theory that AIDS had its origins in central Africa and, in all probability, began as a virus in monkeys, is common knowledge, but more specific theories about how this transmission came about and statistics that estimate the numbers of people infected with HIV and/or AIDS in a given area should be cited because this information will vary from source to source.
 

Citing Sources in your Text

    Below are examples of different ways you can cite sources in your text.  At all times, your guiding rule should be to weave quotations and paraphrases into your discussion smoothly and unobtrusively.  Usually that means mentioning the name of the author and perhaps the title of the book or article in your text.

    Notice the examples show that the texts of the essays are double-spaced as are most of quotations that are set off from the text.  MLA specifies that quotations set off from the text should all be double-spaced.  With your instructor's permission, however, you may wish to follow the older rule of double spacing your text but single-spacing quotations that are set off.  It is now easy to combine double and single spacing in word processing, and it is obviously a desirable space saver.  Many argue that it also looks better and is more readable. Some of the examples follow this older practice.

1. The Usual Way

    Use the author's full or last name and, if it seems appropriate, the title of the book or article you are quoting in your sentence and cite only the page number in the parenthesis.  In most cases, you will want to cite the author's full name the first time you mention him or her and, thereafter, only the last name.

    Notice the punctuation of the parenthetical reference.  The end quotation marks precede the first parenthesis and the period follows the second parenthesis.  The same practice would be followed for a comma or semicolon.  If the end mark of punctuation for the quotation is either a question mark or exclamation mark, however, you would put the "?"or "!" before the last quotation marks.

Samuel Monk also appropriately notes the religious undertones of this work.  In viewing Swift as "both Christian and a humanist," Monk asserts that Swift "knew that men must be better than they are and that, though our institutions can never be perfect, they need not be corrupt" (315).

Mansfield's story "Miss Brill" emphasizes the drab lives and alienation of such people when she observes, "They were odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they'd come from dark little rooms or even-even cupboards!" (80).

2. An Alternative

    If it is inappropriate or unwieldy to mention the name of the author in your text, cite the author's last name and the page number of the source in parentheses.

"Tribes-men in the mass-are not moral entities in the sense that their members are. Bar associations have no soul; though each lawyer possesses one" (Morris 358).

3. Two or More Works By the Same Author

    Cite the title of the work (a shortened form of the title is permitted) in the parentheses or mention it in your text if your list of works cited has more than one work by that author.

In A Blake Dictionary, S. Foster Damon states that the stars "symbolize Reason," that they are "assigned to Urizen," and that they are "the visible machinery of the astronomical universe,  . . . Fate" (386).

Through his correspondence with poet Alexander Pope, it is clear that Swift was not a complete misanthropist.  "I tell you after all I do not hate mankind," he says in one letter, but in another, ". . . principally I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas and so forth" (Correspondence 17, 25).

4. Citing Someone Who Is Being Quoted in a Book or Article

    When the person you are quoting is not the author of the book or article in which the quotation is found, you need a double reference.  The name or identity of the person you are quoting appears in the text and the name of the author of the article or book is placed in the parentheses preceded by "qtd. in".

Neil Harris, a young cameraman in Vietnam, once kept on filming when an American soldier was killed in combat in front of him during the war.  According to him, "A cameraman has to keep rolling, no matter what happens. It was something I agonized over, but all my training and my whole life had been 'keep filming anyway.'  But he was a man-I knew him well" (qtd. in Goldstein 25).

A student at the University of Florida once wrote, "If you're too ethical and nice, you're never going to get anywhere in journalism, in my opinion. . . .  As a journalist, you do whatever you have to for a story.  That's your job" (qtd. in Goldstein 9).

5. Long Quotations

    Cite prose quotations that are more than 4 lines long by setting them off from the text. Doing so helps prepare your reader for such a long chunk of quoted material.  To set a quotation off from the text you should double space before the quoted material, indent the quoted material 10 spaces (in Microsoft Word this equals two "increase indents"), omit quotation marks (setting the quotation off shows that it is quoted and the quotation marks would therefore be redundant), and place the parenthetical citation after the final mark of punctuation.
    (If you have your instructor's permission, you may also wish to single-space the quoted material.)

Clearly, Castiglione subscribes to the Chain of Being theory.  He writes:

Therefore even as in the firmament the sunne and the moone and the other starres shew to the worlds in a glasse, a certaine likenesse of God: So upon the earth a much more liker image of God are those good Princes that love and worship him, and shew unto the people the cleare light of his justice, accompanied with a shadow of the heavenly reason and understanding. (561)

6.   If Yon Don't Know the Author

    When you do not know the author of your source cite the title.
(Remember your purpose here is to hook your reader up with the alphabetized entry in your bibliography.)

Many believed that the hippies simply "wear jingle bells at their ankles, beads or flowers at their throats, and strum guitars or tootle flutes all day ("San Francisco" 27).

7. Paraphrased Material

    Cite paraphrased material by giving a specific page number as you would a quoted passage.

Perhaps 1200 survive in northern Minnesota-a forested area not suitable for agriculture. Fifty or less live in a similar habitat in Michigan and Wisconsin, and only another dozen or two (mostly strays and their offspring) in northwestern Montana (DiSilvestro 95).

Clifton goes on to explain that limitations also include barring all unscheduled or off-the-record interviews and forbidding visual and audio recording of personnel in agony or severe shock.  Imagery of patients suffering from disfigurement and plastic surgery from the war is also not authorized (19).

8.  Summary Statement of Entire Work

    When you are commenting on the entire work rather than a specific section or passage, mention the author's full or last name in your sentence and omit page references.

The revolution in political thought legitimized by the collapse of the Ptolemaic model is best represented by Machiavelli's The Prince, an exploration of the ideal Prince according to the theory of political realism. Because the prince is no longer divinely appointed, his focus must be to maintain his power of right or merit.

9.  Poetry

    Identify the author and title of the poem you are quoting in your text and place line documentation (it is not necessary to indicate line numbers for very short poems) within parentheses immediately following.

(Note: in citing poetry in your text, you do not use page numbers. The page number/s of the poem will be indicated in the List of Works Cited at the end of your paper. See below for examples.)

    Incorporate one or two lines of poetry into your text and indicate separate lines by using a virgule (/) with a space before and after the slash mark. To cite lines 15 and 16 of section 56 of Tennyson's In Memoriam:
 

Tennyson sounds the death knell for the Romantic view of nature in his famous lines from In Memoriam: "Though Nature, red in tooth and claw / With ravine shrieked against his creed-" (56.15-16).

    If you are quoting three or more lines of poetry you must set the quote off from the text, being careful to preserve the lines of poetry as they appear in the printed poem. Below the writer quotes and cites a passage from Book 23 of The Odyssey.  Note the line of ellipsis points is used to indicate lines omitted.

The reunited husband and wife, Odysseus and Penelope, are described in imagery that both recalls their past suffering and celebrates their present joy.

Now from his breast into his eyes the ache of
longing mounted, and he swept at last,
his dear wife, clear and faithful, in his arms
longed for as the sunwarmed earth is longed for by a swimmer
spent in rough water where his ship went down
under Poseidon's blows, gale winds and tons of sea.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
and she too rejoiced, her gaze upon her husband,
her white arms round him pressed as though forever.
                                                             (23.232-242)

10. Plays
Shakespearean Plays

    In quoting from plays by Shakespeare, and many of his contemporaries, you must first determine whether the passage is written in poetry or prose. You would then follow the rules for running the passage into the text or setting it off that are established for poetry or prose.
    You cite the passage by indicating Act, scene, and line in the parentheses after the quotation.  Although MLA says that "in general" you should use arabic numerals (e.g., 1,2,3,4) rather than roman numerals (e.g., I, II, III, IV) in citing divisions (e.g., Act and scene), MLA also notes that some scholars prefer a large roman numeral for the Act, a small roman numeral for the scene, and arabic numbers for the lines in Shakespearean plays, e.g., (V. iii. 5-8).  The English Department at Chatham Hall prefers this latter alternative as well.  The title of the play is indicated in the parentheses only if you have not previously established that the quotation is from this play in your text
 

Quoting one line or just part of a line:

Once Hamlet learns that the death was murder he implies that his soul has sensed his uncle's evil: "Oh, my prophetic soul," (I.v.41).

Quoting two lines of poetry:

The paradoxical nature of Portia's prejudice is revealed when she says of the Duke of Morocco, "A gentle riddance, -draw the curtains, go- / Let all of his complexion choose me so" (II.vii.78-79).

Quoting more than two lines of poetry:
 

The king, however, sees through Hamlet's ranting and believes that something other than love is bothering Hamlet:

Love? His affections do not that way tend,
Nor what he spake, though it lack'd form a little,
Was not like madness. There's something in his soul
O'er which his melancholy sits on brood.
                                                (III.i.164-67)

Quoting a short passage of prose:

When Shylock, in response to Tubal's information that Jessica has traded his precious turquoise ring for a monkey, exclaims, "-thou torturest me Tubal, -it was my turquoise, I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor:  I would not have given it for a wilderness of monkeys" (III.i.110-3), he reveals that his concerns are not entirely avaricious: he grieves for the loss of his daughter, for the disrespect she shows towards her heritage, and for the loss of a dear symbol of love between his wife and himself.

Quoting a longer passage of prose:

If presented in such away that they are not completely overshadowed by the derision of Salerio and Solanio, the words of Shylock's speech pleading for the recognition of the common humanity of all people, be they Christian or Jew, argue powerfully against the pain and injustice of discrimination:

Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, affections, passions?  fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?-If you prick us do we not bleed?  (III.i.52-58)

Modern Plays

    The usual practice is to indicate the Act and page number in parentheses after the quotation. In the following excerpt the writer has indicated earlier in her paper that she is discussing A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen.

Nora clearly sees her plight and does not shirk the necessary action that must follow this recognition:  "I have to be by myself if  am to find out about myself and about all the other things too.  So I can't stay here with you any 1onger" (3.920).

Classical Plays

Cite classical verse plays by divisions (e.g., episode, act, or scene) and line(s), with periods separating the various numbers.  To cite a line from scene or episode 1, line 425 of Oedipus Rex:

Tiresias tries to warn Oedipus.  "This day will give you a father, arid break your heart" (1.425), but Oedipus will not hear him.

In the Exodos Oedipus explains his self-mutilation, "How could I bear to see / When all my sight  was horror everywhere?"  (1289-90).

In the Exodus Oedipus explains his self-mutilation,  "How could I bear to see / When all my sight was horror everywhere?" (lines 1289-90).

In the Epilogue Oedipus explains his self-mutilation, "Oh yes, I pierced my eyes, my useless eyes, why not? I When all that's sweet had parted from my vision" (73).

    The material from most electronic sources, CD-ROM, databases, etc., will not have page numbers.  You should cite such material by simply putting the name of the author (if one is given) or the title of the article (or an abbreviation) if an author's name is not given.  In other words, you should cite in the parentheses the item that will hook the reader up to your alphabetized bibliography.
 

Informal Documentation

    When writing a short essay using sources from class textbooks or photocopied materials, e.g., a short story from Laurence Perrine's Sound and Sense, you may be instructed to use informal documentation.  In informal documentation, knowledge of the text  cited is assumed since it is an assigned text in the course, and, therefore, a bibliography is deemed unnecessary. You should identify the source of a quotation or paraphrase by author (unless the author's name is not given) and title, either in your introductory paragraph if the source is the topic of the whole paper or immediately before you present the quotation, and then use parenthetical references to indicate the page number of specific quotations.

Sample introductory paragraph for such a paper:

    Dee, the pretentious, domineering antagonist of Alice Walker's "Everyday Use," is a perfect example of a static character. Ironically, she is so swept up in her own idea of what a "new"  person she is, claiming to her mother that she should now be called Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo, that she is blind to her own inability to change. The constant in Dee's life that makes her an incorrigible static character is her self-centeredness, a self-centeredness that blinds her to herself, to others, and to her true heritage.

Sample use of quotation in third paragraph of the same essay:

Dee clearly  shows her ignorance of the true meaning of heritage when she exclaims, "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts!. . . She'd  probably by backward enough to put them to everyday use" (455).

    Immediately after the text of your paper you should present an alphabetized list of the sources you used to write your paper. You should entitle this list Works Cited, and should present your entries double-spaced and indented as shown in the following examples. The list should be alphabetized according to the first item in the entry, be it an author's name or a title. The indentation is designed to highlight the part of the entry that ties in with your in-text citation for easy identification.

    Below are examples of the correct bibliographic form, according to the MIA system of documentation, for the most common sources that Chatham Hall students use in their research.  For a much more complete explanation of how to document just about anything under the sun and moon, refer to Lester.  Using his book is not as intimidating as it at first appears.  Just remember to use the index.  You may also wish to consult The MLA Style Manual by Walter S. Achtert and Joseph Gibaldi.  I have found this style manual helpful in answering some questions on which Lester was not quite clear. It is in the reference section of Lee Library.
 

General Note:   All entries in your bibliography are alphabetized by the last name of the author (or by the title of the article if no author's name is given), the entries are not numbered, the author's last name (or the first word in the title of the article) is put flush with the left hand margin, the entries are double spaced, and succeeding lines are indented five spaces.

    The amount of information that you cite for a book will vary from source to source.   For a complete use of the kind of information that you may need to cite and the order for citing it, see Lester (237 ff.).  In most cases you will only need to cite author, title, place of publication, publisher, and date, but you do want to be alert for additional information that may also need citation.  For example, the book maybe part of a series, such as Modern Critical Views or A Norton Critical Edition, it may be an edition other than the first or a special edition, or there may be an editor or translator.  The basic form for citing a book is given below, followed by some of the more usual variants.
 
 

1. Basic Form

Snitnow, Ann Barr.  Ford Madox Ford and the Voice of Uncertainty.  Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
     1984.
 

2. Authors, Two or Three

Shaw, John, Olivia Lewis, and Clive Russell.  The Problem of Death.  Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1984.
 

3. Authors, More Than Three

Porter, Peggy R., et al.  A Symposium on Genetic Research.  New York: Harper, 1990.

4. A Work in an Anthology, Collection, Sourcebook, or Casebook

    First, state the author and title of the work you are citing (essay, short story, poem, play, or in some cases, novel), usually putting the title in quotation marks but underlining or putting in italics if the work was originally published as a book, e.g., The Divine Comedy.  You then cite the appropriate information for the anthology.

Daniel, Samuel.  "To Delia."  Tudor Poetry and  Prose.  Ed. J. William Hebel, et al.  NewYork: Apple-Century Crofts,
     1953.  243-47.
 

Cross-References

    If you are citing several works from one anthology or collection you may, to avoid repetition, list the anthology itself, with complete bibliographical information, and cite individual works from the anthology by using cross-references to the main entry. The works will, of course, be listed in alphabetical order as they appear on your Works Cited page. This means that the individual works may appear before the anthology itself.
 

Campion. Thomas.  "There Is a Garden."  Hebel, 454.

Daniel, Samuel.  "To Delia." Hebel, 243-47.

Hebel, J. William, et al., eds. Tudor Poetry and Prose.  New York: Apple-Century Crofts, 1953.

Wyatt, Sir Thomas.  "The Lover's Life Compared to the Alps"  Hebel, 13.

Double Citation

    Most material published in anthologies, collections, etc. was published previously.  If original facts of publication are given, you should give as much information as you have about the original publication before you cite the anthology.

Hollander. John  "Twelfth Night and the Morality of Indulgence."  Sewanee Review 68.2 (1959).  Rpt in William
     Shakespeare: Comedies and Romances.  Ed Harold Bloom.  Modern Critical Views.  New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
     133-46.

(NOTE: The name of the series is added after the editor's name. This is one of the additional items to check for.)

(ALSO NOTE: The information on the original publication of the article was given in a footnote on the first page of the article in Bloom's collection.  The information was listed as follows:  "From The Sewanee Review 2, vol.68 (1959).  Copyright 1959 by the University of the South."  In turning this information into a correct citation for your bibliography, you need to check the correct citation for an article in a scholarly journal and follow it.)

If information on the original publication is not available or if your instructor tells you that it is not necessary to include it, you should simply cite:

Hollander, John  "Twelfth Night and the Morality of Indulgence."  William Shakespeare: Comedies and Romances.
     Ed. Harold Bloom.  New York: Chelsea House, 1986.
 

Here's how to handle the citing of several such articles from one anthology using cross-referencing.

Barber, C. L.  "The Alliance of Seriousness and Levity in As You Like It."  Shakespeare's Festive Comedies.  Princeton:
     Princeton UP, 1959.  Rpt. in Bloom, 147-61.

Bloom, Harold, ed.  William Shakespeare:  Comedies and Romances.  New York: Chelsea House, 1986.

Hollander, John "Twelfth Night and the Morality of Indulgence."  The Sewanee Review 68.2 (1959).  Rpt. in Bloom, 147-61.

Nevo, Ruth. "'Kate of Kate Hall':  The Taming of the Shrew."  Comic Transformations in Shakespeare.  New York:
     Metheun, 1980.  Rpt. in Bloom, 253-264.
 

(NOTE:  If you are citing more than one work by the editor of the anthology or collection you are cross-referencing, you will, of course, need to cite the title (or a shortened version of it) as well as the author's name.)

5. Edition

    Whenever the edition you are using is not the first, you should indicate the number or name of the edition as it is given on the title page. You should also note the editor's name if one is given.  For further information on citing editors and translators in single and multi-volumed works, see Lester.

Meier and Elliott Rudwick. From Plantation to Ghetto.  Rev. ed.  American Century Series.  New York: Hill and Wang,
     1969.

Melville, Herman.  Moby Dick.  Ed. with intro. by Alfred Kazin.  Riverside ed.  Boston: Houghton, 1956.
 

6. Republished Book

    It is sometimes important to cite the original date of publication of a work as well as the date of the edition you are using.  For example, if you are using a paperback edition of George Orwell's 1984 published in 1961, it would be helpful to know that the book was originally published in 1949.  Including the original date of publication can also be helpful for scholarly or scientific studies that may contain dated material.  If, for example, you are citing a book on schizophrenia that was originally published in 1925, it would be misleading to cite only a republished date of 1990.

Hooker, Richard.  Of the Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie. 1594 Facsimile reprint.  Amsterdam: Teatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1971.

Lowes John Livingston.  The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination. 1930.  New York:
     Vintage-Knopf, 1959.

Orwell, George.  1984.  1949.  New York:  New Amencan Library, 1961.

7. Article in an Encyclopedia (or other familiar reference works)

    Look for an author's name at the end of the article.   If there is none cite only the title.  For reference works deemed "familiar," e.g., Encyclopedia Britannica, you do not need to give full publication information.

Watts, John.  "Down's Syndrome." Encyclopedia Britannica.  1992 ed.
 

"Schizophrenia."  Encyclopedia Americana.  1990 ed.

"Crapulous."  Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary.  1997 ed.
 

Periodicals

    Read carefully the explanation Lester gives (84-5) concerning the difference between citing scholarly journals, weekly magazines, and monthly magazines.  Examples of each:
 

1. An article from a scholarly journal

Stepto, Michele Leiss.  "Mothers and Fathers in Blake's Songs of Innocence."  Yale Review 67 (1978): 357-70.

NOTE:  This entry is for a scholarly journal that is numbered consecutively throughout each volume.  67 is the volume number, indicated in the publication as LXVII (you will need to convert all roman numerals to arabic), and 357-70 are the inclusive page numbers for the article.  If you happen to run across an article in a journal that is numbered anew with each issue, you will need to include an issue number as well, e.g., 67.2.

2. An article from a magazine that is published monthly

Regina, Etheldreda.  "Weimaraners:  They Think They're Human! (and They're Almost Right)."  Weimaraner Ways.  January
    1999:  3-8.

"Looking into Alzheimer's." Discover.  July 1990: 11.
 

3. An article from a magazine that is published weekly

 Kantrowitz, Barbara.  "The Brain Killer."  Newsweek 18 December 1989:  57-63.

Newspapers

    Refer to Lester for the bibliographic form for an article taken straight from a newspaper (255-258).
 

Microfilm or Microfiche

    If you obtain either a newspaper article or a magazine article from microfilm or microfiche, you should follow the examples Lester gives (268).  If you are citing from Lee Library's collection of The New York Times, in either microfilm or microfiche, you will need to use the index to locate information about section and page number.  In the examples below, the first citation is for microfilm (articles before 1980) and the second is for microfiche (articles from 1980 to present).  If no section is indicated (you will find this true for many articles before 1980) include only the page.  For microfiche, in addition to citing the date, section, and page of the newspaper (as noted in the index), you will need to cite the volume of The Current Events Edition, the card number and the frame or grid number.  Remember: it is important for the reader of your paper to be able to locate the sources you used; thus, you must give him all necessary information to do so.  You should also be sure to cite the title as it actually appears on the microfilm or fiche, that is, as it actually appeared in the newspaper, rather than the subject description as it appears in the index.

"Evangel of Nonviolence."  Microfilm. The New York Times 15 Oct. 1964: 38.
 

Schmeck, Harold M.  "Strong New Evidence Found of Inherited Alzheimer Risk." The New York Times 22 May 1987: A 14.
     Current Events Edition 9: fiche 42, frame 41 A.
 

Electronic Sources (CD-ROM, the Internet, E-Mail, Databases)

    You must cite all information that you get from electronic sources in your bibliography.  Lester has a detailed explanation of how to cite the various sources.  In general, he explains, you should give:

"1. Author/editor name, followed by a period
 2. Title of the article or short article. . . within quotation marks.
 3. Name of the book, journal, or complete work, italicized
 4. Publication information, followed by a period
    Place, publisher and date for books
    Volume and year of a journal
    Exact date of a magazine
    Date and description for government documents
 5. Date of your access, not followed by a period
 6. URL, within angle brackets, followed by a period"  (Lester, 258-9)

Determining exactly what to cite for each source is somewhat complicated. You should allow ample time to figure it all out, using Lester's explanations and examples.
 

The following explanations and examples should prove useful for citing materials you find on the on-line databases to which you have access on campus.  (Explanations and some of the examples are taken from the on-line help services provided with each database, to which you should always have recourse.)

How to Cite an Article from InfoTrac

The following are examples of the way citations from InfoTrac should appear in a bibliography (using MLA style). Keep in mind that double spacing and underlining rather than italics might both be preferred. Always check with your teacher for his or her preferences.

Elements: (forModern Language Association [MLA] Style entry)

Author (if you have one given)
Title
Name of publication in which the article originally appeared
Publication information
Pages or indication of length
Source (InfoTrac)
Download date
<URL of service's homepage>.

        Examples:

"Food Preservation." The Columbia Encyclopedia. Edition 5, 1993. InfoTrac. Lee Library, Chatham Hall, Chatham, VA.
    14 February 2000 <http://www.galegroup.com/>.

Nilsen, Campbell. "Congra, in Nine Easy Lessons" The Christian Science Monitor May 10, 1999: 9+. InfoTrac. Lee
    Library, Chatham Hall, Chatham, VA. 15 January 2000 <http://www.galegroup.com/>.
 

How to Cite an Article from SIRS Knowledge Source

SIRS gives a similar version of guidelines for MLA-style citation.

        Elements:

Author. "Article title." Original Source of Article  Date of Original Source: page numbers. Name of the Database Used.
     Name of the Service.  Library where database was accessed, Location of library.  Date of Access
     <URL of service's homepage>.

Example:

Thanatosis, Necrophilia.  "The Dirt-Nap: Or, Six Feet Under and Smiling." Undertaker's Quarterly  October 31, 2000:
    13+.  SIRS Researcher.  SIRS Knowledge Source.  Lee Library, Chatham Hall, Chatham, VA.  10 Feb. 2000
     <http://www.sirs.com>.

How to Cite an Article from the Discovering Collection

To cite an article from the Discovering Collection, simply copy the information from the Source Citation link and paste it directly into your bibliography; then reformat the paragraphing and spacing, if necessary.

How to Cite a World Wide Web Site

Please see Lester (259 ff.) for an overview of some of the numerous possibilities you might encounter, but in general your citation of a web site should include everything mentioned at the head of this section.

If you know the author(s) or editor(s):

Crooky, Batty N. and Fay Ray.  "Our Favorite Outfits and Our Favorite Snacks."  Weimaraners Online.  14 Feb. 1999.
    20 Dec. 2000 <http:www.mamawereallcrazeenow.com>.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Project Site.  Ed. Christa Bell and Law D. Numb.  Albatross State Univ.  April 1997.  Oct. 21,
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