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This activity is both a mini-lesson on working with citations and a graded assignment worth 15 points.
A note on MLA Format: this course is primarily concerned that students know that there are different academic paper formats for different academic disciplines, and it is not usual for a professor to assign a paper, indicate which style is required, and not say anything else about the format because they expect you to look it up. This class requires MLA format because it is the one preferred by literary scholars, but the skill you are developing is how to look up the requirements of a style and use them correctly, not to memorize MLA style. That's why I recommend you use a guide like A Pocket Style Manual or an online reference like the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) to look up the format rather than using an automated citation builder: you need to understand what you are putting where in case the computer messes up. Bear in mind that both the handbook and the OWL have multiple formats available, so make sure you are looking at MLA.
1. Works cited entries.
When you write a paper, you need to include citations at the end of the paper that show where you got your sources. Normally, these citations at the end of the paper coincide with some kind of marking system in the paper itself, be it a footnote, endnote, or a parenthetical citation as we use in the MLA format. The internal citations link the quote, fact, or concept from the source to the citation at the end of the paper.
The end-of-paper citations go by many different names depending on which academic paper format you are using (Bibliography, References, etc.), but in MLA--the required format for this course--it is called "Works Cited." The Works Cited page is its own separate page in a paper, starts at the top of the page, continues the page number of the paper (but is not part of the total page count), and is double spaced without extra spaces between the citations beyond the double space. Each entry has a hanging indent, which means the first line touches the left margin with the rest of the lines in a citation being indented half an inch from the left. The citations are arranged alphabetically by whatever identifying information you included in the internal citation: if you put the author's last name in the parenthetical citation in the paper, that's what needs to be the first item in your alphabetized list of works cited. All entries on the Works Cited page need to have a citation in the paper itself.
Every type of document has unique requirements for a Works Cited entry, so you need to be able identify what you are looking at and then follow the guidelines for that type of text: a DVD has a different set of expectations from a book, an article, or an online source. Going over all of them is pointless when you can look them up, but you do need to be clear on the source is so you can look it up, which brings us to the citation activity. You will need to look at the copies of "Monster Culture (Seven Thesis)," "It's Alive, I'm Afraid" from The Monster Show, and "Slashers and Post-slashers" from The Horror Film. Each is available in the Course Materials section of Blackboard. Take a few moments to review the front and back of each text visually.
The challenge is how to categorize these items. To help you, I am telling you that one is a work from an anthology and two are just simply books. To demonstrate, look at "Slashers and Post-Slashers." While this text has a cool title, it's part of a larger book called The Horror Film. Note that the non-handwritten information on the first page does not include the author's name, but it does include the phrase "Chapter 9." What this information suggests is 1) this is a chapter in a book because it's call a chapter and 2) the author of this chapter is the same as the book because no other name is mentioned. It's just part of a book, and unless you have a good reason to cite it by chapter, just cite it as a book, The Horror Film. To do that, we need to find the MLA Rules for a book and follow them:
Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.
That translates as the following for this text:
Hutchings, Peter. The Horror Film. Pearson/Longman, 2004.
A work in anthology is more complicated. An anthology is a collection of different pieces of writing that may or may not have stood alone at one point, like a collection of essays by different writers on a topic or a short story collection by a single author. Most literature classes have a big anthology with a range of readings inside them. Bearing that in mind, look at "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)" for a minute and then read the next point.
"Monster Culture (Seven Theses)" is part of a larger book called Monster Theory: Reading Culture. Note that the book's title has a subtitle, which academics use a colon to connect when they write out the full title of a piece. The essay is by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen while the book is edited by someone also name Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. It turns out that Cohen (as editor of a collection about monsters in culture) also wrote a chapter in his anthology. Other details to note are the label "editor" to describe Cohen in relationship to the book, a dead giveaway that the book is an anthology because the editor puts the book together without claiming to have written the primary material in the text. Likewise note that the article title page has his name listed without the word "editor," indicating he actually wrote the article. These clues tell you it is a work from an anthology (beyond my handwritten note that it is an anthology). Thus, we need to find out how to mark a work from an anthology. Please note that there is a difference between citing an (entire) anthology and a work from an anthology. Generally, you cite a work from an anthology:
Last name, First name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection, edited by Editor's Name(s),
Publisher, Year, Page range of entry.
Thus, we get this citation:
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. "Monster Culture (Seven Theses)." Monster Theory: Reading
Culture, edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, U of Minnesota P, 1996, pp. 3-25.
Note that words like "University" and "Press" are abbreviated. Words like "Inc." are omitted. Also note that the hanging indent may be off depending on how big your browser window is. Finally, sometimes you have to count forwards and backwards to find out the starting or ending page number if a page number is missing.
To complete this assignment, go to the Dropbox, click on "Citation Activity," and complete the open-book, 15-point activity online.