Documenting the
Research Paper
39
In the final draft of your research paper, you must clearly identify all the
sources you have quoted from, summarized, or paraphrased. To do this you
will need a style of documentation.
Styles of documentation are established by professional societies and
journals to regularize the citing of sources in each field. Though each field
has its own special requirements, scientists and social scientists often cite
their sources by parenthetical reference rather than numbered notes, and
parenthetical citing has been adopted by many humanists also. This chapter explains just one kind of parenthetical citation; it offers a simplified
version of the MLA style, which has been recommended by the Modern
Language Association for research papers on literature, philosophy, art,
and other subjects in the humanities. For styles of documentation in the
social sciences and natural sciences, see chapter 42.
39.1
THE MLA PARENTHETICAL STYLE: BASIC PROCEDURES
Complete information on the MLA style appears in the fifth edition of the
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, by Joseph Gibaldi (New York:
MLA, 1999). Here we explain briefly how to use the MLA style with the
kinds of sources you are likely to cite in a research paper written for a college course.
Citing with parentheses calls for two steps: citing each source in
parentheses as you use it, and making a list of Works Cited at the end of
your paper—an alphabetical list of all the sources you have used. We treat
each step in turn.
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PARENTHETICAL CITING
1.
Cite the source in parentheses immediately after the material used:
As one famous psychologist has written, “One cannot afford
to be naive in dealing with dreams” (Jung, “Approaching”
Author’s last
name
First important
word of title
52).
Page number(s)
Period follows closing parenthesis.
2. If the author of your source has written no other work cited in your
paper, give just the author’s last name and the page number(s):
As one traffic analyst observes, no police force can arrest
everyone who violates a traffic law (Gardiner 5).
3. If you use the author’s name to introduce the source, do not repeat the
name in parentheses. Give just the page number(s):
As Carl Jung says, “One cannot afford to be naive in dealing with
dreams” (52).
But use a title word before the page number(s) if you are citing another
work by the same author elsewhere in the paper:
According to Margaret Mead, all of us need to define ourselves by
making some mark on the place we occupy or putting a special object there (Blackberry 12).
4. When quoting a passage that must be indented from your text because
it is more than four lines long, put the citation one space after the final
punctuation mark:
Virginia Woolf writes as follows about the role of women in literature and history:
A very queer, composite being thus emerges.
Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades po-
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etry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from
history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact she was the slave of any boy
whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. (60)
5. If all your quotations come from just one source, as in a paper written
about a work of fiction, cite the source by page number(s) alone—after
mentioning the author and title in your text:
Meridel Le Sueur’s “The Girl” is the story of what happens
when a prim, unmarried, unnamed schoolteacher sets out to drive
alone from Southern California to San Francisco.
. . . But the story makes it clear that in rejecting his
desires, she also stifles her own, dooming herself to a life of
repressive order in which she will “never never change” (212).
For guidance in treating plays and poems, which are often not cited by
page number(s), see 39.2, items 25–27.
6. If your use of source material ends in the middle of a sentence, you
may put the citation there:
During the ride itself, neither her fear of being touched nor her
annoyance at being flattered “just as if she were any common
slut” (209) can altogether keep her from showing off.
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LISTING THE WORKS CITED
Author’s last
name first,
starting at
margin
Start the list on a separate page at the end of your paper. All the works you
have cited should be listed alphabetically by the author’s last name, or by
the title if the source is unsigned:
Deacon, Terence W. The Symbolic Species: The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain. New York: Norton, 1997.
Title of article in
quotation
marks
Kermode, Frank. “Sensing Endings.” Nineteenth Century
Fiction 33 (1978): 144–58.
Place of
publication,
publisher, date
of publication
Le Sueur, Meridel. “The Girl.” Ripening: Selected Work,
Book title
and subtitle
(if any)
underlined
Journal title
underlined
Volume and
year of
journal
Edited by
1927–1980. Ed. Elaine Hedges. Old Westbury: The
Feminist Press, 1982. 204–12.
Mead, Margaret. Blackberry Winter. New York: Morrow, 1972.
Woolf, Virginia. The Death of the Moth and Other Essays. New
Three hyphens
plus a period
signify another
work by the
same author.
York: Harcourt, 1942.
---. A Room of One’s Own. New York: Fountain, 1929.
The simplest way to use parenthetical citation is to compile your
Works Cited while making parenthetical references in your paper. Some
software, such as Norton Textra Writer, offers a special Works Cited function. With other software, you can create a “Workcit” file for your Works
Cited. Then split the screen each time you make a parenthetical reference,
switch to the “Workcit” file, and write the full reference there, as explained
in the following section. If you keep the alphabetical order as you insert
each new entry in the “Workcit” file, your list of Works Cited will be ready
to print just as soon as you’ve finished writing the paper.
If you aren’t using a computer or can’t split the computer screen, make
a source card for each work you cite (as explained earlier in 37.1). When
you’ve finished the paper, alphabetize the cards and then write the list
according to the instructions given here.
Following are guidelines for parenthetically citing and then listing
various kinds of sources. Most of what you need to know is illustrated by
examples rather than explained by detailed commentary, so you should
study each example carefully.
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39.2
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39.2
CITING AND LISTING VARIOUS SOURCES
(For CMS see 42.5; for APA, see 42.7; for CBE styles, see 42.8.)
BOOK
1.
BOOK BY ONE AUTHOR
One argument in Rethinking the Rhetorical Tradition is that “in
the standard account in the histories of rhetoric
Gorgias either exemplifies bad philosophy or, at best, makes the
trivial point that the practice of rhetoric can be abused”
(Kastely 30).
Kastely, James L. Rethinking the Rhetorical Tradition. New Haven:
University Press
Yale UP, 1997.
2.
BOOK BY TWO OR THREE AUTHORS
One school of thought holds that “the most complicated aspect of
race relations in America today concerns attitude” (Kinder and
Sanders 6).
All lines after
the first in each
entry are
indented five
spaces.
Kinder, Donald R., and Lynn M. Sanders. Divided by Color: Racial
Politics and Democratic Ideals. Chicago: U of Chicago P,
1996.
3.
BOOK BY FOUR OR MORE AUTHORS
Some contend that the “cold war, like its ‘hot’ counterpart, is a
contest” (Medhurst et al. 19).
Double-space
between and
within entries.
Medhurst, Martin J., Robert L. Ivie, Philip Wander, and Robert L.
Scott. Cold War Rhetoric: Strategy, Metaphor, and Ideology.
New York: Greenwood, 1990.
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or
Medhurst, Martin L., et al. Cold War Rhetoric: Strategy,
Metaphor, and Ideology. New York: Greenwood, 1990.
4.
MORE THAN ONE BOOK BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Cornell West critiques religious fundamentalism as an elite form
of nationalism that is “fanned by elites within nation-states”
(Prophetic Reflections 134). West also maintains that the
“prophetic Christian tradition” offers a “moral vision and ethical norms (that) propel human intellectual activity to account
for and transform existing forms of dogmatism, oppression and despair” (Keeping the Faith 134).
West, Cornel. Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America. New
York: Routledge, 1993.
---. Prophetic Reflections: Notes on Race and Power in America.
Monroe: Common Courage, 1993.
5.
BOOK WITH EDITOR
Green explains that “full and free public discussion and debate
is an absolute prerequisite to any process of democratic decision
making” (164).
Green, Philip, ed. Democracy: Key Concepts in Critical
Theory. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities, 1993.
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6.
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39.2
MULTIVOLUME WORK
“Having witnessed the corruption of the English government at
first hand,” Smith writes, colonists who had visited England
“were determined to preserve America from exploitation and repression” (1: 151).
Volume number
Smith, Page. A New Age Now Begins. 2 vols. New York: McGraw,
1976.
7.
MATERIAL QUOTED BY YOUR SOURCE
Robert G. Templin, Jr., dean of instruction at Piedmont Community
College in Virginia, says that better-off students are “squeezing
out the poor, disadvantaged, and minority students who once
called the community college theirs” (qtd. in Watkins 1).
Watkins, Beverly T. “2-Year Colleges Told They’re Becoming Institutions for Middle Class Students.” Chronicle of Higher Education 11 Apr. 1984: 1.
8.
AN INTRODUCTION , FOREWORD , OR AFTERWORD
Rhetoric is both a discipline and a cultural practice,
“profoundly implicated in a large array of other disciplines and
practices, from politics to literature to religion” (Rebhorn ix).
Rebhorn, Wayne. Introduction. Rhetoric Reclaimed: Aristotle and
the Liberal Arts Tradition. By Janet M. Atwill. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1998.
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9.
EDITION AFTER THE FIRST
“The most important feature of the nucleus is the genetic material” (Lewin 41).
Lewin, Benjamin. Genes VI. 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997.
10.
REPRINT
“During the crisis,” Angelou writes, “Black people had often made
more money in a month than they had seen in their whole lives”
(2).
Date originally
published
Angelou, Maya. Gather Together in My Name. 1974. New York: Bantam, 1993.
11.
TRANSLATION
The main character, Chantal, has a dream that disturbs her: “Her
discomfort from the dream was so extreme that she went to some
effort to figure out the reason for it” (Kundera 4).
Kundera, Milan. Identity. Trans. Linda Asher. New York: HarperCollins, 1998.
12.
CORPORATE AUTHOR
Resources for Teaching Middle School Science describes how students can perform complicated experiments that “explore the melting points and conductivity of ionic and covalent compounds”
(14).
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National Science Resource Center. Resources for Teaching Middle
School Science. Washington: National Academy P, 1998.
13.
GOVERNMENT PUBLICATION
In any case, a census taken in 1982 showed that less than half
the working mothers of young children had them supervised by a
relative other than their father (USBC 9-10).
Beyond such formalities and regulations, some organizations require that managers set an example of fairness in their own behavior. As one training manual notes, their “doing” will be
closely scrutinized by employees sensitive to nonverbal messages
(USDI 38).
U.S. Bureau of Census [USBC]. Child-Care Arrangements of Working
Mothers: June 1982. Washington: GPO, 1983.
U.S. Department of the Interior [USDI]. Training in the
Prevention of Sexual Harassment. Rept. 637. Washington: GPO,
1987.
14.
BIBLE
Edith Wharton based House of Mirth on the biblical saying “The
heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of
fools is in the house of mirth” (Ecclesiastes
7.4).
Holy Bible. King James Version. Nashville: Regency, 1973.
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ARTICLE OR ESSAY
15.
ESSAY OR ANY OTHER SHORT WORK IN BOOK
“Jefferson,” writes Cox, “sees his life as a history of
himself” (133).
Hemingway’s description of Macomber’s death is coolly technical.
Firing a 6.5 Mannlicher, we are told, Mrs. Macomber “hit her husband about two inches up and a little to one side of the base of
his skull” (36).
Cox, James M. “Recovering Literature’s Lost Ground Through Autobiography.” Autobiography: Essays Theoretical and Critical.
Ed. James Olney. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1980. 123-45.
Hemingway, Ernest. “The Short Happy Life of Francis
Macomber.” The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. New York:
Scribner’s, 1938. 3-37.
16.
ARTICLE IN A MONTHLY MAGAZINE
Sharp believes that “with a double platinum album already under
his belt, Silkk the Shocker is on the verge of superstardom”
(136).
Sharp, Sean Lewis. “Love or Money.” The Source Mar. 1999: 130-38.
Abbreviate
month
names
longer than
four letters.
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17.
mla
ARTICLE IN A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL
Professor Noland thinks that primary education cannot take sole
responsibility for the decline in poetry in the classroom but
that “the very rhythm of academic life would seem to dictate a
shift away from poetry toward prose” (40).
Noland, Carrie. “Poetry at Stake: Blaise Cendrars, Cultural Studies, and the Future of Poetry in the Literature Classroom.”
PMLA 112 (1997): 40-55.
18.
ARTICLE IN A REFERENCE BOOK
Volume
number
The city of Chattanooga is situated “on a bend in the
Tennessee River, near a natural opening in the southern
Appalachians” (Ezzell 139).
Ezzell, Timothy P. “Chattanooga.” The Tennessee Encyclopedia of
History and Culture. 1998 ed.
19.
ARTICLE IN A DAILY NEWSPAPER , SIGNED
A reporter from the New York Times reports that “a bipartisan
group of Senators will propose a plan on Thursday to deal with
Social Security’s looming problems . . . an issue that had seemed
all but dead this year” (Stevenson).
Stevenson, Richard W. “Congress and White House Try to Break SoSpecify the
edition.
cial Security Deadlock.” New York Times 20 May 1999,
natl. ed.: A23.
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20.
ARTICLE IN A DAILY NEWSPAPER , UNSIGNED
Use the first few words of the title as your in-text parenthetical citation.
William H. Gates and his wife, Melinda, donated $5 million to the
United Way of Santa Clara County (“Microsoft Head”).
“Microsoft Head Donates to Silicon Valley Causes.” New York Times
Page
number of
section A
20 May 1999, natl. ed.: A23.
21.
Edition
EDITORIAL
Signed editorial:
Historian Warren Goldstein maintains that “historians haven’t
figured out how to articulate the values and methods of our discipline so that non-historians are even faintly interested in
them” (“ ‘Dutch’ ” A80).
Goldstein, Warren. “ ‘Dutch’: an Object Lesson for History and
Biography.” Editorial. Chronicle of Higher
Education 15 Oct. 1999: A80.
Unsigned editorial:
As an editorial in the New York Times observes, “hundreds of
thousands of displaced ethnic Albanians need to be safely resettled in Kosovo before freezing temperatures return to the
Balkans” (“Before Winter” A28).
“Before Winter Arrives in Kosovo.” Editorial. New York Times 20
May 1999, natl. ed.: A28.
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22.
WORK FROM AN ANTHOLOGY
“Every native of every place is a potential tourist,”
Kincaid explains, “and every tourist is a native of somewhere”
(Kincaid 321).
Kincaid, Jamaica. “The Ugly Tourist.” The Norton Reader. Linda H.
Peterson, John C. Brereton, and Joan E.
Hartman. New York: Norton, 1999. 320-22.
23.
WORK IN A COLLECTION WITH MORE THAN ONE EDITOR
In Birth of a Nation’hood, Morrison and Lacor observe that “the
story of O.J. Simpson on trial sold well” (3).
Morrison, Toni, and Claudia Broadsky Lacor, eds. Birth of a Nation’hood: Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O.J. Simpson
Case. New York: Pantheon, 1997.
24.
WORKS BY DIFFERENT AUTHORS CITED FROM ONE BOOK
As St. John and Byce observe, the Department of Education helps
college students in two ways: through Pell Grants
and Guaranteed Student Loans (24). According to one
investigator, students are reluctant to borrow because
of “deep-seated fears about excessive repayment burdens” (Hauptman 70).
List the book under the name of its editor and use that name for crossreference.
Hauptman, Arthur M. “Shaping Alternative Loan Programs.” Kramer
69-82.
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Kramer, Martin, ed. Meeting Student Aid Needs in a Period of Retrenchment. New Directions for Higher Education 40. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1982.
St. John, Edward P., and Charles Byce. “The Changing Federal Role
in Student Aid.” Kramer 21-40.
LITERARY WORK
25.
PLAY WITH ACT, SCENE , AND LINE NUMBERS
Don’t cite page numbers. Use arabic numerals with periods between them
to indicate act, scene, and line number(s).
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo sees Juliet as “the sun”
of his universe (2.2.3).
If you’re asked to cite plays with roman numerals, use uppercase for the
act, lowercase for the scene, and arabic numeral(s) for the line number(s).
Shakespeare’s Romeo sees Juliet as “the sun” of his universe
(II.ii.3).
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Ed. John E. Hankins. Baltimore: Penguin, 1970.
26.
POEM WITH NUMBERED LINES
Cite it by the lines, not by page number.
In Robert Frost’s “Death of the Hired Man,” one character speaks
of home as “the place where, when you have to go there / They
have to take you in” (lines 118-19).
Use the whole word “line” or “lines” in the first reference. Then just give
the numbers.
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But his wife calls home “something you somehow haven’t to deserve” (120).
Frost, Robert. “The Death of the Hired Man.” The Poetry of Robert
Frost. Ed. Edward Connery Lathem. New York: Holt, 1969. 3440.
27.
POEM WITH NUMBERED SECTIONS AND NUMBERED LINES
A poem without numbered lines may be cited by its title alone.
In “Cape Breton,” Bishop speaks of mist hanging in thin
layers “like rotting snow-ice sucked away / almost to spirit.”
Bishop, Elizabeth. “Cape Breton.” The Complete Poems. New York:
Farrar, 1969. 75-77.
ELECTRONIC SOURCE
Here is the general format for citing online sources:
1. Author of Web site should come first, if it is available.
2. Title of Web site. (If author’s name is not available, begin with title of
Web site.)
3. Publication dates.
£
If site is an online version of a published journal, give date of
original publication first, then online publication second.
£
If no date is provided, indicate with n.d.
4. Date site was accessed.
5. Web site address.
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28.
WORLD WIDE WEB
Personal Web site:
Mostern, together with other scholars in cultural, literary, and
ethnic studies, maintains that many of the concerns
of postmodernism are compatible with traditional Marxist thought.
Mostern, Kenneth. Home page. 25 August 1998. 8 Nov. 1999
<http://web.utk.edu/~kmostern/hybridmarx.html>.
Professional Web site with no author:
A great deal of recent scholarship in classical studies
focuses on gender roles in ancient Greece (“What’s New?”).
“What’s New?” Diotoma. 25 Oct. 1999. 8 Nov. 1999
<http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/nova.html>.
29.
ONLINE JOURNAL
Signed article:
The educational pilot project is “based on the conviction that
public education is an important way to increase understanding
and appreciation for the past” (Krass).
Krass, Dorothy Schlotthauer. “Archaeology Education Coordinator
Pilot Project Enters Second Year.” Society for American Archaeology Bulletin 14.5 (1996). 24 June 1999
<http://www.sscf.ucsb.edu/SAABulletin/14.5/SAA11.html>.
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Unsigned article:
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
claimed the 9,300-year-old skeletal remains because they were uncovered in Umatilla aboriginal land (“9,300-Year-Old Skeleton”).
“9,300-Year-Old Skeleton Sparks Controversy in Northwest.” Society for American Archaeology Bulletin 14.5 (1996). 24 June
1999 <http://www.sscf.ucsb.edu/SAABulletin/
14.5/SAA5.html>.
30.
ONLINE NEWSPAPER
A reporter from Seattle Times observes that “anthropologists and
tribes across the nation have their eyes cast on this unfolding
drama on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) campus, where
the conflict between scientific research
and respect for Native traditions is being played out”
(Henderson).
Henderson, Diedtra. “Human Bones: What to Do With Them?” Seattletimes.com 11 Oct. 1998. 24 June 1999 <http://www.seattletimes.com/news/health-science/htm198/bone_101198.html>.
31.
ONLINE EDITORIAL
The Chattanooga News Free Press takes a hard stance on what it
describes as “the growing evils of expanded legalized gambling”
(“Gambling”).
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“Gambling and Politics.” Editorial. Chattanooga News Free Press
Online 24 June 1999 <http://207.69.235.40/
opinion/fpedit/1999/Jun/Jun241999fpedit2.html>.
32.
ONLINE BOOK
Austen describes Emma Woodhouse as “handsome, clever, and rich.”
Austen, Jane. Emma. Sunsite Manager. University of California,
Berkeley. 25 June 1999 <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Austen/Emma/
1emma1.html>.
33.
EMAIL
When citing an email, the title of the email should be the subject line.
Swoope explains that one way to unravel the affirmative
action debate is to view opportunity in light of sociological
theories of “life chances.”
Swoope, Lenika. “Re: Affirmative Action Topic.” Email to Janet
Atwill. 15 Nov. 1998.
34.
ONLINE POSTING
Kent Strock observes that Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of
culture are inadequate for a late-capitalist society.
Strock, Kent. “Re: Bourdieu and Phenomenology.” Online
posting. 6 Aug. 1999. Bourdieu Forum. 8 Nov. 1999
<gopher://lists.village.virginia.edu:70/. . . s/
spoons/bourdieu.archive/bourdieu.9908>.
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OTHER MEDIA OR SOURCE
35.
CD - ROM
According to the CIA, Macedonia is faced with the prospect of a
“move down to a bare subsistence level of life
unless economic ties are reforged or enlarged with its neighbors
Serbia and Montenegro, Albania, Greece, and Bulgaria.”
The CIA Works Factbook. CD-ROM. Minneapolis: Quanta, 1993.
36.
MOVIE
In Pirates of Silicon Valley, Noah Wyle plays Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall plays Bill Gates.
Pirates of Silicon Valley. Dir. Martyn Burke. Perf. Noah Wyle and
Anthony Michael Hall. TNT Original, June 26, 1999.
37.
INTERVIEW
Marion King said that during the Depression “her family was the
only one to own their own home.”
King, Marion. Personal interview. 15 January 1998.
38.
MACHINE - READABLE DOCUMENT
“To err is human, and to write is to experience the human inevitability of error” (Heffernan, Getting 4).
Heffernan, James A. W. Getting the Red Out: Grading without Degrading. ERIC, 1983. ED 229 788.
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39.
PERFORMANCE
A performance of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing once again
demonstrated how much his language can achieve theatrically without the aid of elaborate sets.
Much Ado About Nothing. By William Shakespeare. Dir. Terry Hands.
Perf. Derek Jacobi, Sinead Cusack, and the Royal Shakespeare
Company. Gershwin Theatre, New York. 19 Oct. 1984.
40.
TELEVISION PROGRAM
This season, Real World takes place in Hawaii.
Real World. MTV, Knoxville. 26 June 1999.
41.
LECTURE
According to Dr. Jameson, “social class” is a complex notion that
includes attitudes as well as material resources.
Jameson, William. “Class Structure.” Class lecture.
Sociology 320. University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 26 Jan.
1998.
42.
RECORDING
Frost’s own reading of “Birches” fully exploits the
resonance of its language.
Frost, Robert. “Birches.” Robert Frost Reads His Poetry. Caedmon,
1956.
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43.
39.2
ARTWORK
The vortex that became Turner’s trademark first appeared in his
Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps.
Turner, J. M. W. Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the
Alps. 1812. The Tate Gallery, London.
44.
SPEECH
Secretary-General Annan says, “Brazil has, in short, built up and
lived by a culture of peace.”
Secretary-General Annan, Kofi. “Culture of Peace.” Press
Release. Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Brasilia. 13 July
1998.
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