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Can I use brackets to change the tense of a verb so that a quotation will fit syntactically into my sentence?
AnswerWhen a verb in a quotation does not fit syntactically into your sentence, you may use brackets to change the tense:
If Charles Dickens were alive today, he would likely say, “It [is] the best of times, it [is] the worst of times” (5).
Work Cited
Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. Updated and rev. ed., Penguin Classics, 2003.
Brackets can be distracting to your reader, though, so it is often better to revise:
In 1859, Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (5). If he were alive today, he would likely make a similar comment about our era.
How do I punctuate quoted dialogue from a novel?
AnswerHow you punctuate quoted dialogue from a novel will depend on what you are quoting and how you are quoting it. See the three most common considerations below.
Quoting Dialogue and Text
If you are incorporating a quotation featuring both exposition and a character’s speech into your text, use double quotation marks around the quotation and single quotation marks around the character’s speech that is within the quotation:
Early in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Miss Baker, upon meeting Nick Carraway, makes the first reference in the novel to the title character: “‘You live in West Egg,’ she remarked contemptuously. ‘I know somebody there’” (11).
Quoting Only Dialogue
If you quote only the speech, use double quotation marks around it:
Early in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Miss Baker tells Nick Carraway that he must be familiar with someone she knows from West Egg: “You must know Gatsby” (11).
Using Block Quotes
When quoting dialogue from a novel, set the quotation off from your text as a block if each character’s speech starts on a new line in the source. Indent the extract half an inch from the left margin, as you would any block quotation. If a character’s speech runs onto a new line, as it does below, indent each line of dialogue an additional half an inch. Use double quotation marks around the spoken words:
Early in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gastby, Miss Baker tells the narrator, Nick Carraway, that she knows someone from his town:
“You live in West Egg,” she remarked contemptuously. “I know somebody there.”
“I don’t know a single–”
“You must know Gatsby.”
“Gatsby?” demanded Daisy. “What Gatsby?” (11)
Work Cited
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Scribner, 1953.
If I am referring to two sources that make the same point, how do I make my citations clear?
AnswerIf you directly cite two sources that make the same point, you must make clear to your reader the source of each quotation.
Johnson argues that “mint chip ice cream is better than chocolate ice cream” (10). Smith agrees: “Chocolate ice cream is not as good as mint chip ice cream” (30).
It may be best, however, to paraphrase:
Scholars agree that when it comes to ice cream, mint chip is superior to chocolate (Johnson 10; Smith 30).
How do I cite a meme?
AnswerHere we refer to meme in its sense as “an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or genre of items that is spread widely online especially through social media” (“Meme”).
Citing Particular Examples of Memes
You would cite a meme in MLA style just as you would any other work: follow the MLA format template. When citing a meme, you should cite the particular instance or instances of the meme you consult—not the entire genre, the examples of which are usually created by many different hands and published in various places and at various times. (Although you can, of course, describe the genre in your prose.)
For example, you might cite a meme from a Twitter post featuring the Elf on the Shelf meme:
@nsarmoredfrog. “You’ve heard of elf on the shelf, now get ready for . . .” Twitter, 17 Sept. 2017, twitter.com/nsarmoredfrog/status/ 909460799365693440.
If you refer to an online article that collects various examples of a meme, the article is your source:
One example of the Elf on the Shelf meme features a cat on a mat (Kircher).
Work Cited
Kircher, Madison Malone. “You’ve Heard of Elf on the Shelf, Now Get Ready for This Meme with a Rhyme Scheme.” Select/All, 15 Sept. 2017, nymag.com/selectall/2017/09/rhyming-elf-on-the-shelf-memes-explained.html.
Titles of Memes
Many meme genres develop de facto titles—for example, Elf on the Shelf, Evil Kermit, and What People Think I Do. Style the title like a series title: capitalize it title style and do not use italics or quotation marks.
One challenge in citing memes is that individual meme examples often lack a title or employ the same formulaic textual framework. In the case of Evil Kermit, for example, the meme consists of a photo of “good” and “evil” Kermit with a statement from “Me” succeeded by a statement by “Evil Kermit.” If you were citing various examples of this meme, you would substitute a description in the “Title of container” slot.
Your entries might then be distinguishable by the author:
Whereas some Evil Kermit memes focus on avoiding yoga (Parker), others focus on calling in sick to work (Sanchez).
Works Cited
Parker, Susan. Evil Kermit meme. Facebook, 3 Dec. 2017.
Sanchez, Roland. Evil Kermit meme. Facebook, 3 Dec. 2017.
Or, in cases where the same person used the meme repeatedly, perhaps the date would disambiguate references:
Susan Parker’s Evil Kermit memes focus variously on avoiding yoga (3. Dec.) and mixing cocktails while avoiding yoga (5 Dec.).
Works Cited
Parker, Susan. Evil Kermit meme. Facebook, 3 Dec. 2017.
—. Evil Kermit meme. Facebook, 5 Dec. 2017.
If the same author published multiple instances of a meme on the same platform on the same date, you could add more detail to your description of the meme:
Some versions of the Evil Kermit meme, such as those by Facebook user Eleanor Freely, explore the joys of having a cocktail with friends instead of baking (“Me: Bake”) and the temptations of binge watching The Crown instead of doing household chores (“Me: Iron).
Work Cited
Freely, Eleanor. “Me: Bake cookies for the grandkids” Evil Kermit meme. Facebook, 3 Dec. 2017.
—. “Me: Iron the tablecloth” Evil Kermit meme. Facebook, 3 Dec. 2017.
Work Cited
“Meme.” Merriam-Webster Unabridged, unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/meme.
How do I cite an image in a periodical?
AnswerWhen you are citing an image reproduced in a periodical, it is usually sufficient to refer to it in your text and create a works-cited-list entry for the essay in which the image appears. In the example below, the image, printed in an essay from PMLA, is described in prose, and the figure number and page number on which the figure appears are given parenthetically:
Adoration of the Mystic Lamb is the central panel of an altarpiece painted by Hubert and Jan van Eyck for the Cathedral of Saint Bavo, in Ghent (Connolly, fig. 1, p. 102).
Work Cited
Connolly, Thomas C. “Primitive Passions, Blinding Visions: Arthur Rimbaud’s ‘Mystique’ and a Tradition of Mystical Ekphrasis.” PMLA, vol. 132, no. 1, Jan. 2017, pp. 101–18.
Another way to cite an image from a periodical is to treat the image as a work contained in another work. For examples, see our post on citing images reproduced in a book.
How do I cite an appendix?
AnswerAn appendix can be cited like any other division of a work: in the text.
A Single Appendix
You may refer to a single appendix in your prose or parenthetically.
In the appendix to her essay, Judith Bryant Wittenberg details several useful questions for classroom discussion of The Sound and The Fury.
Work Cited
Wittenberg, Judith Bryant. “Teaching The Sound and the Fury with Freud.” Approaches to Teaching Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, edited by Stephen Hahn and Arthur F. Kinney, Modern Language Association of America, 1996, pp. 73-78.
or
Judith Bryant Wittenberg details several useful questions for classroom discussion of The Sound and The Fury (appendix).
Work Cited
Wittenberg, Judith Bryant. “Teaching The Sound and the Fury with Freud.” Approaches to Teaching Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, edited by Stephen Hahn and Arthur F. Kinney, Modern Language Association of America, 1996, pp. 73-78.
Multiple Appendixes
Appendixes are generally labeled numerically or alphabetically, like tables and figures; sometimes, they are titled. If you cite an appendix from a work that includes more than one, include the label or title so that your reader can locate it:
Grady C. Wray catalogs Christ’s finezas, or love offerings, according to the Church Fathers, Antonio Viera, and Sor Juana (appendix A); he also details the scriptural references for Viera’s opinions (appendix B) and for Sor Juana’s (appendixes C, D).
Work Cited
Wray, Grady C. “Sacred Allusions: Theology in Sor Juana’s Work.” Approaches to Teaching the Works of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, edited by Emilie L. Bergmann and Stacey Schlau, Modern Language Association of America, 2007, pp. 65-76.
Appendix with Separate Author
Rarely, appendixes have an author different from that of the work. When the appendix appears in a unified, stand-alone work, you can treat it as a separate work:
Donaldson, Abby. “Appendix: Textual Emendations in the McDragon Monastery Manuscript Compared.” Studying Dragonology through Texts, edited by James T. O’Griffin and Kathy Fields, Augustine Press, 2007, pp. 342-44.
But for appendixes to sections of a work, as for an essay in an anthology, find a way to acknowledge the author in the text:
In her appendix to James M. Dean’s “The Hag Transformed,” Rachel Lapp compares plot elements in three medieval loathly lady tales (156-57).
Work Cited
Dean, James M. “The Hag Transformed: ‘The Tale of Florent,’ Ethical Choice, and Female Desire in Late Medieval England.” Approaches to Teaching the Poetry of John Gower, edited by R. F. Yeager and Brian W. Gastle, Modern Language Association of America, 2011, pp. 143-58.
In my works-cited-list entry, how do I give the title of a foreign work that is provided on the title page in both English and the original language?
AnswerWhen referring to a work in a bilingual volume in which titles appear in both languages, give both titles and interpolate a slash between them. The slash has a space on each side when the title on either side contains a space:
Leopardi, Giacomo. “Storia del genere umano / History of the Human Race.” Operette morali / Essays and Dialogues, translated and introduced by Giovanni Cecchetti, U of California P, 1982, pp. 22-55.
Should a hyphen or an en dash be used for inclusive page ranges?
AnswerIn the MLA Handbook and examples of student writing on The MLA Style Center, hyphens are used in page ranges since hyphens may be easier for students to use. Publishers, however, use en dashes.
If the date of a source is in the format October 04, 2017, when I convert it to MLA style, should I include the zero?
AnswerNo, the date in MLA format would be 4 October 2017.