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Introduction: What this Guide Is -- and Isn't
As the title suggests, this is a guide to 1999 5th edition of the MLA Handbook. It is not, directly, a guide to MLA style. The guide assumes that you have a copy of the 5th edition of the MLA Handbook and are following along in it as you read this guide. I've tried to point out the things here that I would point out when introducing a literature class to the MLA Handbook. You will certainly find occasion to refer to sections of the Handbook that I pass over here without discussing.References are normally to section numbers, not page numbers. The section numbers should remain constant in new editions.
A sample first page and a sample first works cited page appear on pages 292-293.
A good rule of thumb in using the MLA Handbook is always to read the prose discussions as well as the examples.
Finally, remember that the MLA Handbook is a reference guide, like a dictionary or composition handbook. Once you know in general what it contains, you can more easily find the answers to your particular questions. Because the MLA Handbook contains almost all of the answers that you need, instructors may assume that you will use it when you have a question about MLA style and so will feel free to mark you down for what may seem to be even minor mistakes in using MLA style.
Here are some useful rules to remember:
Rule #1: Save your work often, make a backup copy, assume your printer will be down the night before the paper is due, and don't assume that what worked on your computer at home will work on the computers at school.Rule #2: Check for viruses, especially on school computers, but also on diskettes.
Boyer's Rule on Disappearing Sources: Always get all the information you need about a source the first time. If you need to find bibliographical information the night before the paper is due, the work will have disappeared from the universe.
This first chapter is much improved over previous editions of the MLA Handbook. This guide will not discuss the first chapter in detail, but you should read the chapter, noting especially the following sections:1.1 and 1.2 for a good discussion of what a research paper in literary studies is supposed to be1.6 on evaluating sources
1.8 on plagiarism.
2. The Mechanics of Writing [Except Quotations]
While the standards for the mechanics of writing are generally well established (and appear in all composition handbooks), each variety of manuscript style (of which MLA style is only one of hundreds) has its own way of handling certain details. Section 2 covers a wide range of mechanical issues. This guide notes only a few that are particularly relevant for papers on literary topics.2.2.2. Commas and 2.2.3. Semicolons. Too many English majors cannot use commas and semicolons correctly, so it would be worth your while to study these sections carefully.
2.2.4. Colons. Read the section on colons carefully, especially item b on using colons to introduce quotations. One important general rule for commas not mentioned in the section is that a colon can only follow an independent clause.
2.2.7. Apostrophes. Too many English majors cannot use apostrophes correctly, so it would be worth your while to study this section carefully.
2.3. Italics (Underlining). Notice that italics and underlining are two ways of doing the same thing, and that for manuscripts (such as the papers you submit), MLA style prefers underlining. Whenever the MLA Handbook refers to underlining, you may also use italics. However, you must be consistent and use only one or the other throughout the paper.
2.6. Titles of Works in the Research Paper. Read this section carefully and refer to it often. Notice in section 2.6.1 that no matter how titles appear on title pages (or in bibliographies, for that matter), MLA style regularizes the appearance of titles. Note especially in the second example on page 73 that MLA style separates a main title and a subtitle with a colon even though a colon rarely appears on a title page.
One place where practice is not as rigid as the MLA Handbook makes it appear is in the use of underlining and quotation marks with titles. The rules given in sections 2.6.2 and 2.6.3 refer primarily to modern works. For earlier works, you may want to use the format of the standard edition of the author you are citing, such as The Riverside Chaucer.
2.6.4. Titles and Quotations within Titles. Notice especially that when an underlined title includes the title of another work that would also be underlined, you now have two choices, either to put the second title in quotation marks or to use no underlining or any other punctuation. See pp. 77-78.
This is obviously an important section for literature studies, and you should study the section carefully and refer to it frequently. Everything you need to know is here, and instructors expect you to be able to use quotations accurately and to format them correctly. Be sure to read the prose discussions, not merely the examples. In addition, notice how parenthetical citations and ellipses are used in the examples. (The use of square brackets with ellipses is new to this edition and is described in 2.7.5.)2.7.3. Poetry. This is an extremely important section for writers of literature papers; read it carefully and refer to it often. Because the ends of lines in verse are significant, they must be indicated in all quotations. In short quotations this is done with the slash mark, but in longer quotations, which are set out on your page as they are in the original, you do not use slash marks because the line endings are already indicated by the way the verse lines are set out.
2.7.5. Ellipsis. Again, read this section carefully and refer to it often. Notice that an ellipsis is always three periods with spaces between them. An additional period or other mark of punctuation is from the original source (and so is not within the square brackets).
One place where practice differs from MLA style is in the use of ellipsis at the beginnings and endings of quotations. If you pay attention to quotations in critical studies, you will seldom see ellipsis at these points.
3. The Format of the Research Paper
You should read this chapter carefully and refer to it often, in conjunction with the sample pages on pp. 292-293.3.1. Printing or Typing. You should always use standard fonts and standard type sizes. An academic paper is not the place for fancy fonts. This includes the title of your paper.
3.4. Spacing. EVERYTHING in MLA style is DOUBLE-SPACED. You can most easily do this by setting your line spacing to 2. Nowhere in the paper do two lines of print come together, and nowhere in the paper (except rarely between major sections) is there more than one blank line between lines of print. Look at the various samples, especially those on pages 191-193, to see how your paper should look.
3.5. Heading and Title. Note carefully the rules for your paper's title: the same font as for the paper, no underlining or quotation marks except for titles of other works within your title, no bold, no fancy fonts, etc. Also note that research papers do not need title pages. (However, that's one place where some creativity is possible, so most instructors won't object to a title page.) Normally instructors prefer (and some require) that there be NO plastic or paper cover. (See 3.9.)
3.7. Tables and Illustrations. You won't normally need these, but you might want to think about what kind of story goes with the illustration on p. 108!
4. Documentation: Preparing the List of Works Cited [Introduction]
This and the following are the two most important chapters in the MLA Handbook, and the two you will need to refer to most. The general model of the Handbook is to present general rules and then to provide a large number of examples representing the various types of entries you will need. Often, your entry will combine two or more of the situations presented by the Handbook; in that case you should combine elements from the various examples to create your own entry.If you are lucky, you will have access to a computer program that will do much of this work for you. Such programs ask you for the bits of information about your source and then give you an MLA works cited entry (or an entry in one of many other formats).
The format of a works cited entry is established in great detail, including rules for indenting and punctuation. Because the MLA Handbook clearly tells you what to do, instructors may feel free to mark off for what may seem to be petty infractions of the rules. Everything you need to get your works cited entries correct can be found in this chapter.
Notice in 4.3 that a works cited list is not the only form of source list permitted by MLA style. However, it is what your instructors normally expect. Use other forms such as a list of works consulted only with permission.
4.4. Placement of the List of Works Cited. Read this section carefully for the format of the works cited page. Note especially the double-spacing, with no additional spacing anywhere, continues to be the rule.
4.6. Citing Books and Other Nonperiodical Publications
4.6.1. The Basic Entry: A Book by a Single Author. Study this section carefully; it explains the basics of the works cited format for a book. Especially notice how to handle the book's title and publication information (page 121). If information is missing, see 4.6.25.The remainder of this section of the guide singles out only a few issues of special importance for literature papers. You will probably need to refer to much of 4.6 for even a fairly simple research paper in literary studies.
4.6.2. and 4.6.7. Anthologies. Literature papers often cite sources appearing in anthologies, both literary works and critical essays. These kinds of entries are treated in 4.6.2 and 4.6.7, which you should read carefully and refer to often.
Anthology entries usually combine an edited book and the specific work you are citing. Both need to appear in the works cited entry. Begin with the specific work, then add the anthology information. Be sure to begin with the actual author of the work you are citing. This has proved especially problematic for essays in collections. For example, selections from the many volumes edited by Harold Bloom should not be cited using his name, since the volumes are collections of essays by other people, and it is their names you should be citing first. Note that the page numbers in the works cited list are to the entire selection, not to the portions you cite in your paper.
However, you may need to cite the editors of the volume if, for example, you refer to the introduction to the volume or to a specific work. In that case, see 4.6.9.
4.6.10. Cross-References. If you cite several different selections from the same volume, you can cross-reference your entries so that you only have to enter the anthology information once. This can be very helpful if, for example, you are using a literary work in a volume that includes several critical essays by various writers in addition to an introduction and perhaps other pieces by the editor of the volume.
4.7. Citing Articles and Other Publications in Periodicals
4.7.1. The Basic Entry: An Article in a Scholarly Journal with Continuous Pagination. Study this section carefully; it explains the basics of the works cited format for a scholarly article. Especially notice how to handle the article's publication information (pages 150-151).Note that these instructions apply only for articles that you actually take from journals and magazines. Articles that you find online, even if they are originally from journals or magazines, are treated differently, as described in section 4.9.
The remainder of this section of the guide singles out only a few issues of special importance for literature papers. You will probably need to refer to much of 4.7 for even a fairly simple research paper in literary studies.
Notice especially that page numbers for articles come after a colon, while page numbers for a work in an anthology (4.6.7) come after a period. (Don't ask why–that way madness lies.)
Other types of entries. Notice the citation forms for other major types of periodical publications, especially an article in a scholarly journal that pages each issue separately (4.7.2), an article in a newspaper (4.7.5), and an article in a (popular) magazine (4.7.6).
4.8. Citing Miscellaneous Print and Nonprint Sources
This section gives instructions for citing such things as a TV program (4.8.1), a videotape (4.8.3), a live performance (4.8.4), a photograph or other image (4.8.6), an interview (4.8.7), a lecture (4.8.11), and a legal source, including the US Constitution (4.8.14). If you need to cite something of this sort, check this section.4.9. Citing Electronic Publications
This is the newest and also the most controversial section of the MLA Handbook, in part because the instructions given here can cause problems if you try to post a paper in which you use them on the internet. For that reason, many instructors permit you to substitute Columbia Online Style (COS) when you are citing electronic sources. A link to basic COS instructions is available on my home page (http://english.sxu.edu/boyer). If you are viewing this page online, you can also access these instructions by clicking here or on the link in the table of contents at the top of this page.COS has a humanities (MLA) version and a social science (APA) version. To use COS, pick the right version and follow the instructions.
General Comments on Citing Electronic Publications. In general, you begin with the same elements you would cite if the work were from a book, article, or miscellaneous source. Then you provide the electronic information that you have. The most important elements are the URL (see 4.9.1) and the date of access (that is, the date on which you viewed the page). If you printed the page, that information should be on your printout.
As an example, look at the first entry in section 4.9.4.a. on page 187. The MLA entry begins with the same information you would include if you had actually found this article in a copy of volume 9 of Exemplaria in the library (note, however, that the page numbers are omitted):
Calabrese, Michael. "Between Despair and Ecstasy: Marco Polo's Life of the Buddha." Exemplaria
9.1 (1997).
This much of the entry would be the same if you were using COS. Both versions continue with the electronic information. What is different is the order in which the information is presented, and the use of the pointed brackets. MLA has as the full entry:
Calabrese, Michael. "Between Despair and Ecstasy: Marco Polo's Life of the Buddha." Exemplaria
9.1 (1997). 22 June 1998 <http://web.english.ufl.edu/english/exemplaria/calax.htm>.
(Note that there is no hyphen at the end of the line where the URL breaks. You can create the break by entering a space at the point where the break should occur, preferably after a period or a slash.)
One problem is that if your word processor is anything like mine, it just included the second pointed bracket and the period as part of the URL (note the underlining). And the pointed brackets are html codes that may mess up the entry.
To avoid these problems, COS uses the following format for this information (again this is the entire entry; note that the journal information is the same as for MLA, as shown above):
Calabrese, Michael. "Between Despair and Ecstasy: Marco Polo's Life of the Buddha." Exemplaria
9.1 (1997). http://web.english.ufl.edu/english/exemplaria/calax.htm (22 June 1998).
By moving the date of access to the end of the entry, COS separates the URL (now without the pointed brackets) and the period that ends the entry.
COS is keyed primarily to internet sources. For other electronic sources, such as material from a periodically published database on CD-ROM (8.9.5.b), continue to use the MLA Handbook.
5. Documentation: Citing Sources in the Text
This and the previous chapter are the two most important chapters in the MLA Handbook, and the two you will need to refer to most. The general model of the Handbook is to present general rules and then to provide a large number of examples representing the various types of entries you will need. Often, your entry will combine two or more of the situations presented by the Handbook; in that case you should combine elements from the various examples to create your own entry.Be sure to read the introductory general sections carefully (5.1, 5.2, and 5.3). Especially keep in mind the two general rules in section 5.2:
References in the text must clearly point to specific sources in the list of works cited. The connection is normally by way of the author's name, but it may need to include a short title if you cite more than one work by the author.Identify the location of the borrowed information as specifically as possible. Normally this is by page number, but for literary works there may be other rules, such as citing verse by line number and citing Shakespeare plays by act, scene, and line numbers.
And also pay attention to section 5.3 on readability. If it is clear from your text what work you are citing, you don't need to include the author's name in your parenthetical citation. Section 5.3 gives clear examples of alternative ways of providing a complete citation.
The remainder of this section of the guide singles out only a few issues of special importance for literature papers. You will probably need to refer to much of chapter 5 for even a fairly simple research paper in literary studies.
Notice that each set of example citations (beginning in 5.4.1) is followed by the appropriate works cited entries.
5.4.7. Citing Indirect Sources. Often when working with secondary sources, you find a quotation or idea that the person you are reading has taken from somewhere else. Ideally you should find the original yourself if you want to cite it, but often that is impossible in practical terms. Section 5.4.7 shows you how to give credit both to the original source and to the source from which you got the material.
5.4.8. Citing Literary and Religious Works. This is the section literary students need to pay the most attention to. So read this section carefully and refer to it often. You may note a locally familiar name in one of the works cited entries at the end of 5.4.8.
Books of the Bible and many literary works have standard abbreviations. You can find these in section 6.7. As you read secondary sources, note how those authors cite the works they are using.
5.4.9. Citing More Than One Work in a Single Parenthetical Reference. You don't need a separate parenthetical citation for each work if you cite several in close proximity. Section 5.4.9 shows you how to combine entries within a single parenthetical reference.
5.5. Using Notes with Parenthetical Documentation
Often you have information that you need to include in your paper but that doesn't really belong in the body of the paper. Notes appended to the end of the paper and referred to by superscript numerals in the text can handle this sort of information. Section 5.5 shows you how to use notes.One good use for notes occurs if you want to call attention to an aspect of the topic that you are not covering in your paper and to provide some sources for readers who want more information on that aspect of the topic. Sources that you refer to in this way also then appear on your works cited page, since you have cited them in the note.
An additional use for notes in literary papers is not discussed in Section 5.5. If you are writing a paper on one or two literary works, you can use a note to indicate what edition you are using and, if necessary, to describe changes you have made in that text. "A Note on Texts" in Stephen Greenblatt's Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England (Berkeley, U of California P, 1988, p. xi) shows how such notes can be used:
Throughout this book, except where noted, I have used The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Blakemore Evans (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974). I have not, however, included the brackets with which the Riverside editors signal their adoption of variant readings.
In the body of my book, I have modernized spelling in quotations from Renaissance texts, since it seemed odd to cite Shakespeare in a modernized edition while leaving his contemporaries to look quaint and timeworn. In the footnotes, I have left titles and quotations the way I found them.This section contains several lists of abbreviations. Take a look at the section to see what kinds of abbreviations are here, so that when you need one, you will have an idea where to look. Note especially the list of common scholarly abbreviations in section 6.4 and the approved abbreviations of publishers' names (for use in your works cited entries) in section 6.5.