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MLA Documentation

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17 views19 pages

MLA Documentation

Uploaded by

thatcherm135
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MLA DOCUMENTATION

MLA DOCUMENTATION
MLA documentation requires
acknowledgement at two levels: a)
Parenthetical citations
b)Listing works cited
For parenthetical citation that is modeled
within the rules of MLA style, include the
name of the author and the page number to
guide the reader to the text’s accompanying
bibliographical entry-which is the Works
Cited list.
A book by one author
For a book by one author, you can either
mention the last name of the author in your
introductory frame, or include the last name
and the page number in the parenthesis.
Example:
The role of the African writer has been defined
“as pointing to us where the rain started to
beat us” (Achebe 25).
Chinua Achebe defines the role of the African
writer “as pointing to us where the rain
started to beat us” (25).
A source by two authors
For a source by two authors, separate their
names with the word and spelt out in full.
Example:
Humphrey Mbeno and Stanley Smith argue that
the essence of hermeneutics is “revealing to
us the meaning of a word, idea, or text” (34).
It has been argued that the essence of
hermeneutics is “revealing to us the meaning
of a word, idea, or text” (Mbeno and Smith
34).
A source by three or more authors
For works with three or more authors, give
only the last name of the first author, followed
by et al. (and others)
The authors of the identify “rhythmic
rapture” and “affirmation of the ego” as the
driving forces behind poetic art (Harold et al.
31).

This statement is from a source by Henry


Harold, Simon Anthony Marcus, David Fish,
and Andrew Hatamu Bloom.
Two or more sources by the same author
When you have two or more works by the same
author, identify the works using a shortened
version of the title in the parenthesis.
Leo Tolstoy distinguishes between a happy and an
unhappy marriages by arguing that “all happy
families are alike, but every unhappy family is
unhappy after its own version” (Karenina 78).
The futility of the Napoleonic Wars is demystified
by Leo Tolstoy’s observation that “the uncanny
heart only immerses itself into the fire of
destruction” (War 88).
Authors with the same last name
For authors with the same last name, use the
abbreviation of the first name before the last
name of the authors.
As observed, “Myths and rituals are central to
human epistemological awareness” (B. White
23).
This is from a book by Blessed White
In pursuit of truth, “humans engage the
conscious and subconscious self” (A. White 67).
The statement is from a book by Allan White
Material quoted from secondary sources
For material quoted from another source
(other than the original), introduce the name
of the source with qtd in in the parenthesis.

As Jacques Derrida stipulates, “the universe


is not contested in the name of simple
consummation, but in the name of the hopes
and sufferings of those who inhabit it” (qtd in
Kimeu 35).
Sources identified by the title
If there is no author, use the title of the source
in place of the author’s name.
If the title is mentioned in the introductory
frame, write the title in full.
However, if the title is mentioned in the
parenthesis, use a shortened version of the title.
A recent contestation on postcolonial criticism
presented in Postcolonial Texts and Contexts
argues that “eurocentric presentation of African
history distorts and underplays African diversity
in culture and history” (32).
A recent contestation on postcolonial
criticism argues that “eurocentric
presentation of African history distorts and
underplays African diversity in culture and
history” (Texts and Contexts 32).
Listing Works Cited
A Works Cited list is an alphabetical listing of
all the sources that have been cited
parenthetically.
The Works Cited list uses a hanging indent to
format entries when details of the same entry
filter into a second line.
An entry into a list of Works Cited has three
main elements
1. The name(s) of the author(s)
2. The title of the work
3. Publication information. (The date is part of
facts of publication)
 Separate these details with periods.
Entering details for books
While preparing an entry for a book, invert the
names of the author and place a comma
between the last name and the first name.
Write the other names in full and place a
period after the names.
For books with additional authors, do not invert
the name of the additional author and use the
coordinating conjunction and between their
names.
While writing the title, use capital letters for
the first letters of all key words in the title.
Use italics for typed work and underline the
title for handwritten work.
Underline the title and any subtitle, but not
underline the period that follows the title.
For typed work, use italics for the title and do
not underline the title nor enclose it within
quotation marks.
After the title, provide facts of publication,
starting with the city, followed by a colon,
name of publisher, a comma, and the year of
publication.
A book by a single author
Suppose you have used a book with the title,
Political insurgency in Africa and Asia,
written in the year 2013 by James Harry
Kitabu and published in Nairobi by Bookwise
publishers.

Example
Kitabu, James Harry. Political Insurgency in
Africa and
Asia. Nairobi: Bookwise, 2013.
A source by two or more authors
Suppose the above source was authored by
James Harry Kitabu and Mary Maneno Smith.
Example
Kitabu, James Harry and Mary Maneno Smith.
Political
Insurgency in Africa and Asia. Nairobi:
Bookwise, 2013.
Works by three or more authors
Give the name of the first author followed by
the abbreviation et al.

Brown, Margaret Smith et al. Politics: The


Ultimate
Dehumanization. Nairobi:
Heinemann, 2005.
A book with subsequent editions
For books with subsequent editions, provide
details of the edition after the title.
Indicate the number of the edition with its
corresponding Arabic numeral, and its
qualifying superscript in Roman text, and do
not enclose this informtion in parenthesis.
Example:
White, Alex Bernard. The Elements of Style. 4th
ed. New
York: Macmillan, 2009.
Two or more sources by the same author
Order the sources according to the alphabetical order
of the first letter of the first key word in the title, and
do not repeat the name of the author for the second
source. Instead, use three evenly spaced hyphens
followed by a period.

Gates, Howland Lukas. Colored people: A Memoir.


New
York: Vintage, 1995.

- - - . Five Ways to Look at a Black Man. New York:


Random House, 1997.

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