If you include a quotation in the title of your paper, you should discuss the quotation in the body of your essay. Do not place a parenthetical citation or an endnote with source information after the title. Instead, cite the quotation where it occurs in your essay. For example, in the March 2017 issue of PMLA, . . .
Published 16 April 2018
As section 3.2.1 of the MLA Handbook explains, when you need to shorten a title for a parenthetical citation, “give the first noun and any preceding adjectives, while excluding any initial article: a, an, the” (117). Thus, if a title consists of a compound subject, use only the first noun and any adjectives that precede it as the . . .
Published 11 April 2018
Remember that the goals of parenthetical citation are clarity and concision. Thus, if a title begins with a number–for example: 1066: A New History of the Norman Conquest use the number as the short title in your parenthetical reference: Peter Rex offers a new take on the Norman invasion of England (1066). Works Cited Rex, . . .
Published 4 April 2018
A thread is a series of separately written but related tweets that are given a single URL. If you’re discussing the thread as a whole (rather than simply quoting an individual tweet in the thread), treat the thread as a collaborative work. As always, follow the MLA template of core elements. Author Follow the guidelines . . .
Published 2 April 2018
In our editing, we often note that writers misuse titles in three key ways . . .
Published 15 March 2018
Cite an unpublished translation by following the MLA template of core elements. List the author of the work, the title of the translation in quotation marks (since it is an unpublished work), and the name of the translator. In the optional-element slot at the end of the entry, indicate the format: Wallace, David Foster. “Ludus . . .
Published 12 March 2018
If you need to shorten a title enclosed in quotation marks that begins with a quotation, use the title within the title as the short form and retain the single quotation marks within double quotation marks: As Barry Menikoff shows, Stevenson’s novels were influenced by his relation to the South Seas (“‘These Problematic Shores’”). Works Cited . . .
Published 21 February 2018
The MLA Handbook explains that when you refer to an untitled poem known by its first line, you should style the line the way it is shown in the source (68). This guideline applies both to the text and the works-cited list: Dickinson’s poem “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—” contrasts the everyday and the momentous. Work Cited Dickinson, . . .
Published 19 January 2018
Yes.
Published 10 January 2018
The script of a play and each performance of it are different works and should be cited separately. Apply the MLA template of core elements to the work to create your works-cited-list entry. Published Script Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015. Unpublished Script Although the title of a published play is styled . . .
Published 29 December 2017
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