When using resources for research papers and assignments, you must give credit to the sources and where you obtained them. When citing your sources be sure to follow the correct citation format required by your instructor. Listed below are examples of how to cite commonly used sources using MLA documentation style. Not all types of sources are listed below. The full MLA format is available in a book, The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed., located in the library. Additional information can be found in The Little, Brown Compact Handbook, also found in the library and used by TTC's English Department, or by visiting The Owl at Purdue, Purdue University’s Writing Center, found at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/
GENERAL INFORMATION
- A bibliography or works cited is a list of those particular books and articles used in writing your paper.
- Each entry is arranged alphabetically by the author's last name. If no author is given, alphabetize by the first word of the title, disregarding "a" and "the."
- Indent the second and all subsequent lines ½ inch. This is a hanging indent.
- All punctuation marks are important. Note how they are used in the samples below. Your bibliographic entry will be incorrect if you misuse punctuation.
SAMPLE ENTRIES (taken from The Little, Brown Compact Handbook: Custom Third Edition for Trident Technical College, by Jane E. Aaron).
BOOKS
A book with one author
Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development.
Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1982.
A book with two or three authors
Lifton, Robert Jay, and Greg Mitchell. Who Owns Death: Capital Punishment, the American
Conscience, and the End of Executions. New York: Morrow, 2000.
A book with an editor
Holland, Merlin, and Rupert Hart-Davis, eds. The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde. New
York: Holt, 2000.
A selection from an anthology
Mason, Bobbie Ann. "Shiloh." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th
ed. New York: Longman, 2005.
An article in a reference work (such as Literature and Its Times, Critical Survey of Drama, or subject encyclopedia)
"Hungarians in America." The Ethnic Almanac. Ed. Stephanie Bernardo. New York:
Doubleday, 2001. 109-11.
(For multi-volume works that have all entries arranged alphabetically, there is no need to list number of volumes or page numbers. Work arranged otherwise have the number of volumes (8 vols.) inserted before the publisher's name if you use two or more volumes. Your text citation will indicate which volume you are citing. If you use only one voume, give that volume number before the publication information and add the total number of volumes to the end of the entry.)
Lincoln, Abraham. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Ed. Roy P. Basler.
Vol 5. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1953. 8 vols.
PERIODICALS: JOURNALS, MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS
An article in a journal with continuous pagination throughout the annual volume
Lever, Janet. "Sex Differences in the Games Children Play." Social Problems 23
(1996): 478-87.
An article in a journal that pages issues separatley or that numbers only issues, not volumes
Selwyn, Neil. "The Social Processes of Learning to Use Computers." Social Science
Computer Review 23.1 (2005): 122-35.
An article in a daily newspaper
Zeller, Tom, Jr. "To Go Global, Do You Ignore Censorship?" New York Times 24
Oct. 2005, natl. ed.: C3+
(If the name of city is not in the title of a local newspaper, add the city name in brackets after the title, without underling: Gazette {Chicago].) The plus sign in the example above indicates that the article does not run on consecutive pages.
Gorski, Paul C. "Priviledge and Repression in the Digital Era: Rethinking the Sociopolitics of the Digital Divide."
Race, Gender and Class 10.4 (2003): 145-76. Ethnic NewsWatch. ProQuest. U of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Wilson Lib. 24 July
Accessed 1 July 2005.
The State v. Long. 363 S.C. 360; 610 S.E.2d 809. No. 25955, SC Sup. Ct. 2005. Online.
Accessed 1 July 2005.
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NetlLibrary. Trident Technical College, North Charleston, SC, LRC. 4 Dec. 2006
