CITATION AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

MLA Style

TO CITE OR NOT TO CITE???That is the question!!!

Do you really need to cite all these sources? The short answer is yes. If you are incorporating an author’s ideas into your paper, or if the work of another has influenced your thinking on a topic, then the source must be cited. It doesn’t matter what the source is. It could be a book, journal article, web site, television program, speech or a government document. Just remember, if you are using another’s words or ideas, cite them.

HERE ARE THE THINGS YOU WOULD CITE:

The BasicsDirect QuotationDirect Quotation: More InformationFactsParaphraseSummary

DIRECT QUOTATION

Original The women in The Sopranos are, without a doubt, at least as deadly as the males – in some cases, literally, in other cases metaphorically. Livia, Carmela, Dr. Melfi, and Janice are more dangerous than Junior, Tony, Christopher, and Paulie because the women commandeer power while seeming to wield none. The evidence of their powers of destruction is more easily disguised. In other words, while the women might stoop to conquer, they do eventually and efficiently conquer their enemies.

Barreca, Regina. “Why I Like the Women in The Sopranos.” A Sitdown with theSopranos: Watching Italian American Culture on TV’s Most Talked-AboutSeries. Ed. Regina Barreca. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. 27-46.

Quotation According to Barreca, “the women in The Sopranos are, without a doubt, at least as deadly as the males – in some cases, literally, in other cases metaphorically. Livia, Carmela, Dr. Melfi, and Janice are more dangerous than Junior, Tony, Christopher, and Paulie because the women commandeer power while seeming to wield none” (37).

MORE ON DIRECT QUOTATIONS

To cite passages of more than four lines of text, remember:Passages must be indented.Quotation marks are not used.A parenthetical citation or footnote

number should follow the punctuation at the end of the quotation.

EXAMPLE OF LONG DIRECT QUOTE:

The women who populate the television program, The Sopranos, are for the most part wonderful examples of multidimensional characters so rarely seen in the media. According to Barreca,

Carmela and Dr. Melfi do not pretend to foolishness, helplessness, or innocence, those twinned weapons of the traditional passive-aggressive feminine script perfected by Livia Soprano, Tony’s mother. Unlike more ordinary heroines, most of the women in The Sopranos do not offer up a gooey reservoir of

sympathy, vulnerability, and virginity but instead offer in their place a sense of intelligent awareness, emotional skill, and a sense of shamelessness about their own competence. They do not, in other words, apologize for being good at what they do (32).

CHANGING QUOTESWhat if you want to add or delete text from a quotation? Use ellipses (three spaced periods) to

indicate omitted words. For example:“Brutality, extortion, and murder are everyday stuff for the Mob. Tony’s high standard of living … depends upon these ugly but hidden crimes” (Parini 77).

ADDING TO A QUOTE:To add words/phrases to a direct quotation, use square brackets. For example:“Within the home Carmela [Soprano] gains power and the opportunity to lead the family down a morally correct path” (Parini 106).

CITING FACTS: Everyone knows that Roosevelt was president

during World War II, that Hawaii was the 50th state, and that the earth orbits the sun. But does everyone know the percentage of women under 35 who vote? The number of sea turtle nests observed on North Carolina beaches in 1987? The voting record of Richard Nixon? When do facts you present in your paper need to be documented with a citation? Facts that are considered 'common knowledge' - those

that a reasonably well-educated person could be expected to know – do not need to be documented with a citation in your paper.

Facts or statistics that are more obscure or pertain directly to your argument will need to be documented with a citation.

PARAPHRASING…It's a great idea, but the essay was written in 1910, so it's expressed in language that's a little old-fashioned. Or it's a brilliant thought, but you just wouldn't say it that way – it's very technical and wouldn't fit into the flow of your paper. How do you include references to ideas expressed by others without using direct quotations? Paraphrase – and include a full citation. A paraphrase of a sentence in an article will usually be

about the same length as the original sentence – just in your own words.

As with quotations, paraphrases should be used sparingly – a paper should be a balance between thoughts of other scholars and your original ideas.

A paper composed mostly or entirely of paraphrases from other authors is very likely to be described as 'patchwork’. Even if you have cited every paraphrase correctly, you've forgotten to include your own analysis!

PARAPHRASING:Original In The Sopranos, the mob is besieged as much by inner infidelity as it

is by the federal government. Early in the series, the greatest threat to Tony's Family is his own biological family. One of his closest associates turns witness for the FBI, his mother colludes with his uncle to contract a hit on Tony, and his kids click through Web sites that track the federal crackdown in Tony's gangland.

Fields, Ingrid Walker. “Family Values and Feudal Codes: The Social Politics ofAmerica’s Twenty-First Century Gangster.” Journal of Popular Culture 37.4(2004). Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale Group. Duke U Lib.,Durham. 8 Dec. 2004.

Paraphrase

In the first season of The Sopranos, Tony Soprano’s mobster activities are more threatened by members of his biological family than by agents of the federal government. This familial betrayal is multi-pronged. Tony’s closest friend and associate is an FBI informant, his mother and uncle are conspiring to have him killed, and his children are surfing the Web for information about his activities (Fields).

SUMMARY:What happened on the latest episode of The Sopranos? What was covered in class yesterday? Can you tell me in a nutshell what Pride and Prejudice is about? Summarizing is something that we do on a daily basis, but what differentiates it from paraphrasing?

Use your own language. With summaries, you want to restate the author’s idea in your own words.

Think brevity! Unlike paraphrasing, you are striving to restate the author’s idea or ideas in fewer words.

Avoid interjecting your own analysis or opinions. If you choose to summarize, stick to restating the author’s idea. A summary can then be followed with your opinion or analysis of the author’s idea.

SUMMARY EXAMPLES:Original One reason The Sopranos is so popular is that, on a superficial

level, it gives its audiences an acceptable bad guy whose job it is to uphold an alternative system that lives off capitalism without contributing its “fair share” of dues to the power brokers; he comes from a tribe that decided that it wouldn’t work hard to make someone else rich.

Gardaphé, Fred. “Fresh Garbage: The Gangster as Suburban Trickster.” A Sitdown with the Sopranos: Watching Italian American Culture on TV’s Most Talked-About Series. Ed. Regina Barreca. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. 90-111.

Paraphrase

Though his activities can be classified as criminal, Tony Soprano’s success outside of the legal power structure resonates with viewers (Gardaphé 101).

HOW TO WRITE YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY:Basics Your list of works cited should begin at

the end of the paper on a new page with the centered title, Works Cited. Alphabetize the entries in your list by the author's last name, using the letter-by-letter system (ignore spaces and other punctuation.) If the author's name is unknown, alphabetize by the title, ignoring any A, An, or The.

WORKS CITED: For dates, spell out the names of

months in the text of your paper, but abbreviate them in the list of works cited, except for May, June, and July. Use either the day-month-year style (22 July 1999) or the month-day-year style (July 22, 1999) and be consistent. With the month-day-year style, be sure to add a comma after the year unless another punctuation mark goes there.

MORE BIB INFO: Underlining or Italics?When reports were written on typewriters, the names of publications were underlined because most typewriters had no way to print italics. If you write a bibliography by hand, you should still underline the names of publications. But, if you use a computer, then publication names should be in italics. Hanging IndentationAll MLA citations should use hanging indents, that is, the first line of an entry should be flush left, and the second and subsequent lines should be indented 1/2".

EXAMPLE OF WORKS CITED PAGE:

Devitt, Terry. "Lightning injures four at music festival." The Why? Files. 2 Aug. 2001. 23 Jan.2002<http:

//whyfiles.org/137lightning/index.html>.

Dove, Rita. "Lady Freedom among Us." The Electronic Text Center. Ed. David Seaman. 1998. Alderman Lib., U of Virginia. 19 June 1998<http://etext.lib. virginia.edu/subjects/afam.html>.

Lancashire, Ian. Homepage. 28 Mar. 2002. 15 May 2002<http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~ian/>.