Instructions on Citing Sources in Essays

 

When you write your essays, it is essential that you cite your sources. You must cite the source on every occasion that you use the words or ideas of another author. This is true both for primary sources (the texts that you are analyzing) as well as secondary sources (critical works, like books or journal articles, about the texts or authors you are studying.) You are not required in this essay to use any secondary sources, but you absolutely must cite any soure that you use.

There are many styles of citation, and you may use any standard form, so long as you are consistent. But for undergraduate literature essays, the most recommend format is MLA style. (MLA stands for Modern Language Association.) The rules for this style are laid out in the MLA Guide for Writers of Research Papers, which is available in the reference section of the library and in the Writing Center. But the basics of the style are also given in Diana Hacker's Pocket Style Manual.

Note that after each quotation, you should provide the author's name and the page number of the quotation's source. This information should go in parentheses, after the quotation marks but before the final punctuation. See the section in Hacker's Pocket Style Manual headed "MLA In-Text Citations."

In MLA style, it is absolutely essential that you include a list of works cited. Stories or essays from an anthology like Maria Tatar's The Classic Fairy Tales should be listed as "works in an anthology." See example #10 in Hacker's section on "MLA Works Cited."

Hacker also includes sample essays with lists of works cited. Your list of works cited might look like this (though the items on your list should be formatted in hanging-indentation):

 

Works Cited

Carter, Angela. "The Company of Wolves." The Bloody Chamber. London: Penguin, 1979. 110-118.

The Company of Wolves. Dir. Neil Jordan. Screenplay by Angela Carter. Palace, 1984.

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. "Little Red Cap." The Classic Fairy Tales. Ed. Maria Tatar. New York: Norton, 1999. 13-16.

Straparola, Giovanni Francesco. "The Pig King." The Classic Fairy Tales. Ed. Maria Tatar. New York: Norton, 1999. 42-47.

Tatar, Maria, ed. The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: Norton, 1999.