Director, Environmental Studies
Professor of English

CITATIONS
A summary of the MLA style

There are several standard forms for citing quotations (notes) and for listing works cited (bibliography). The main ones are MLA, Chicago Manual of Style, and the APA. It is helpful to learn at least one style, and in my courses I ask you to use the MLA style. For a good summary of MLA style, see the following website:

http://www.english.uwosh.edu/wcenter/Resources.html

For a comprehensive summary of this style, see Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, fourth edition (New York: MLA, 1995).

Here is a summary of the most common citation forms. If your type of citation is not included in this list, see the website above. You are responsible for proper citation. I will return to you papers with improper citation for correction , so you might as well get it right the first time.

This page as a Word document

Works Cited (Bibliography)

Article in a periodical

Gross, Rita M. “Hindu Female Deities as a Resource for the Contemporary Rediscovery of the Goddess.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 46 (1978): 269-91.

Article in a book

Allende, Isabel. “Toad’s Mouth.” Trans. Margaret Sayers Peden. A Hammock beneath the Mangoes: Stories from Latin America . Ed. Thomas Colchie. New York : Plume, 1992. 83-88.

Book by a single author

Sanders, Scott Russell. Writing from the Center. Bloomington : Indiana UP, 1995.

Book by a single editor

Warren, Karen J., ed. Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature. Bloomington : Indiana UP, 1997.

Book by multiple authors or editors

Herndl, Carl G., and Stuart C. Brown, eds. Green Culture: Environmental Rhetoric in Contemporary America . Madison, U Wisconsin P, 1996.

>> Note : If the work cited is an article from an anthology of essays, you need to cite the individualarticle and its author (see “Article in a book” above), not simply the book and its editor .

Forthcoming essay

Barnhill, David Landis. “The Spiritual Dimension of North American Nature Writing.” Oxford Handbook on Religion and Ecology . Ed. Roger S. Gottlieb . New York : Oxford University Press, forthcoming.

Unpublished essay

James, Karen. “Where Are We Going?” Unpublished essay, 2001.

Repeated entries

If there are more than one book or article listed by an author, the author’s name is replaced by three dashes.

Williams, Terry Tempest. Leap. New York : Random House, 2000.

---. An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field. New York : Random House, 1994.

Sample electronic sources

Article in online journal

Elam, Diane. "Disciplining Woman: Feminism or Women's Studies." Surfaces 5.101 (1995): 34. 11 pp. 24 June 1998 <http://tornade.ere.umontreal.ca:80/~guedon/Surfaces/vo15/elam.html>.  

Article in online webpage

Harris, Jonathan G. "The Return of the Witch Hunts." Witchhunt Information Page. Jan. 1996. 28 May 1996 <http://liquid2 sun.mit.edu/fells.short.html>.  

Article in online newspaper, anonymous

"Endangered Species Act Upheld." AP Online 22 June 1998 . 22 June 1998 <http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/w/AP-Court-Endangered Species.html>.  

Article in online newspaper, with author

Stanley, Bruce. "OPEC Mulls Output Cut to Buoy Prices." Chicago Tribune 23 July 2001 . 23 July 2001 < http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-opec.story?coll=sns%2Dbusiness%2dheadlines.html >.

Parenthetical notes (in-text citations)

Parenthetical notes are used in the body of your paper to identify the source of the information (direct quotation, indirect substitute, fact, etc.). They are an alternative to footnotes and endnotes. Their advantage is the ease for both writer and reader, since the information required is minimized and placed right with the quotation or reference. Remember: failure to cite the source of your information is, technically, plagiarism. Here are the main points to keep in mind in doing parenthetical notes in the MLA style.

1. Standard form: In the body of your paper, give the quotation, put the quotation mark without a period, then put in parenthesis the author and the page number, then a period.

>> Example. “The more attentively I dwell in my place, the more I am convinced that behind the marvelous, bewildering variety of things there is one source” (Sanders x).

2. Page number only: If you mention the authors name before the quotation, however, you need to include only the page number. Thus the above quotation could be cited as follows:

>> Example. At the end of his Preface, Sanders states that “The more attentively I dwell in my place, the more I am convinced that behind the marvelous, bewildering variety of things there is one source” (x).

3. Author and title: If your Works Cited includes more than one book by the author, give an abbreviated version of the title after the author’s name.

>> Example. (Sanders, Writing, x).

4. Indirect source: If you are giving a quote by one person that you found in work by another person, you need to make clear both the author of the quote and the author of the work.

>> Example. Willa Cather, in O Pioneers!, speaks of the barrenness of landscape: “One could easily believe that in that dead landscape the germs of life and fruitfulness were extinct forever” (qtd. in Sanders, 42).

>> Note : If the quotation comes from an article in an anthology, you need to cite the author of the article , not the editor of the book.

5. Electronic source: Cite Internet sources as you would print documents.  Include enough information to direct readers to the appropriate citation in your Works Cited list. 

>> Example : Tonnie G. Maniero, of the National Park Service, reports an alarming increase in the death of national parks wildlife from heavy metal pollution ("Non-acidic Particulates")

6. Internet address: If you use an Internet address or an email address in the text of your writing, enclose them in angle brackets.  Do not italicize or underline them. If you must break an Internet or email address at the end of a line in-text or in the Works Cited page, do so only after a slashmark ( / ).  Do not add a hyphen and never break the protocol (http://).

>> Example: Further information about the increase in air pollution is available at the Environment Defense Fund site, <http://www.edf.org>.

Indented quotations

If you are quoting more than four typed lines, indent the quotation ten spaces, but run each line to the usual right margin. Omit the quotation marks. Do not single space the quotation. Give the necessary citation in parentheses after the final period.

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