The MLA style as set out in the third (1988) edition of Gibaldi and Achtert's MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers should be used in all essays for this unit. Below is a brief guide to this system. Students should refer to the MLA Handbook for further information. Copies should be available from the library.
ASSIGNMENTS
Assignments should be typed, double spaced,
feature a wide (3cms) margin on both sides of the page. All pages
should be numbered with the possible exception of the title page.
All pages should be stapled or firmly secured using a convenient and reliable
method. Paper clips are inadequate. Loose leaf in clear plastic
envelopes or folders is unacceptable. Always keep a copy of your
assignment. Edit and proofread your essay before submission.
STYLE
Titles
Underline or Italicise (the full title of) any work published separately: books, plays, long poems, periodicals, newspapers, films, paintings, TV Series (eg Mr Bean or Mr Bean), recordings.
Enclose in quotation marks any work published as part of another work: poems, short stories, essays, articles, chapters in books, TV or Radio episodes (eg. "Mr Bean at School").
Exceptions (do not underline or enclose in quotation marks): Sacred works (New Testament), publishing series (Portable Australian Authors), editions series (Signet Classics), courses (Sociology of Literature).
Names
Use full common form for first usage and the last name only on subsequent occasions. For authors use the name under which they publish: W.H. Auden, Henry Lawson, e e cummings.
Numbers
Use words for one to ten and numbers for 11
and beyond. Include the second number for a range of numbers up to 99 and
from then on the last two digits only unless this interferes with comprehension.
Examples 13-56, 72-77, 256-78, 691-92,
1099-264.
Dates
Use the form day month year without punctuation: 18 January 1992. Lower case for centuries and decades: seventeenth century, fifties. Numerals are permitted: 1890s (no apostrophe).
Quotations
Quotations should follow exactly the form of the original. Departures from the original should take the following forms: ellipses for omissions, square brackets for additions (clarifying comments, emphasis, signals that an error belongs to the original).
Example:
"The colonial girl could ride a hoarse [sic] ... sew a skirt, boil a billy, shear a sheep ... and give a wayward husband good measure for his trouble" (Brennan 34).
"there was a depth in him [the bear]
she could not reach, could not probe and with her intellectual [emphasis
added] fingers destroy" (Engel 119).
Quotations less than four lines in length should be included in the text and enclosed within quotation marks. Verse lines should be indicated by a slash.
Examples:
Alex Sheppard describes Ken Slessor as
"an experienced journalist who understood the limitations and responsibilities
to a point which surprised [him]" (qtd. in Dutton 255).
Ryan's polemic is apparent from the
opening lines: "I'd shoot the man who pulled slowly up in his hot car this
morning/I'd shoot the man who whistled from his balcony/I'd shoot ...."
("If I had a Gun" 247).
Quotations longer than four lines should be separated from the text by two lines, indented ten spaces from the left margin and not enclosed in quotation marks. Where the text is double spaced the indented quotation should be single spaced. These quotations are normally introduced by a colon.
Example:
Writing to Norman Lindsay, McCrae said:
I had a visitor the other day in the
person of young Slessor: a boy not yet twenty-one [actually he was by three
days] who writes leading-articles for the Sun and is so well-paid
that he was enabled to turn down the editorship of Art in Australia.
His presence is hardly a pleasing
one, but ... he writes like an angel .... (qtd in Dutton 57)
McCrae must have been impressed; it is
one of the rare instances of his appreciating contemporary poetry.
DOCUMENTATION
Documentation allows distinctions to be made in the field of intellectual property. It distinguishes between your ideas and those of other scholars. Failure to document someone else's ideas or expressions is intellectual theft: this is called plagiarism. You need to document anything which you draw from another source. This includes: ideas, arguments, facts, paraphrases and direct quotations. Public domain information does not require documentation. This includes: proverbs, cliches and common quotations or sayings.
It is not enough to claim that you did not understand the correct referencing procedures or that you did not know that Doug Gumby came up with the same argument ten years ago. Your research for any particular assessment should be extensive enough to prevent this from happening.
One of the advantages of the New MLA style is that it abolishes the need for a large proportion of footnotes and endnotes. It achieves this through the parenthetical documentation of sources. This means that you indicate your sources in brief in parentheses in the body of your essay.
Examples:
It has been argued that Landscape gardening `distinguished the pleasures of civilised society from the pursuits of savage and barbarous nations' (Repton 2).
Murphy Brown has recently been criticised by a high profile figure in the United States (Quayle 11).
Recent figures show that more than twenty
percent of the population live below the poverty line (Bureau of Statistics
Report 67).
The full bibliographic details can then be found in the list of 'Works Consulted' appended at the end of the essay. For the form this list should take see the next section: List of Works.
When citing an author who appears more than once in the list of Works Consulted you should place a comma (,) after the author's name then add the title (shortened if it is lengthy; NO Acronyms).
Example:
Bakhtin's concept of the chronotope is complex. A good brief definition of its role as a narrative category, however, explains it as `the total matrix that is comprised by both the story and the plot of any particular narrative' (Holquist, Dialogism 113).
Where the author is clear from the context a page number only is required. If the specific text is uncertain then the text followed by the page number is all that is required.
Example:
In Past the Last Post Helen Tiffin
argues that post-structuralism has acted in `alliance with postcolonialism'
to erode `the centrality of British literature' within the academy (15).
Elsewhere she has presented a lucid account of the way in which this decentering
process features in post-colonial fiction ("Recuperative Strategies" 27-45).
Indirect Quotation
Always seek to use the direct source of a quotation.
When this is not possible quote the reference which you actually used.
Do not pretend that you have consulted a reference which you have only
encountered through secondary quotation.
That is plagiarism and you will be caught
out.
Example:
D.H. Souter describes the Australian
girl as 'a menace to public safety' (qtd. in Pearce 65).
Notes
This parenthetical system means that there
will rarely be a need for Foot- or End-Notes. These rare occasions
when they do arise will take one of two forms: Content Notes and Bibliographic
Notes. These provide additional comment or information to that given
in the body of the essay. You should always seek to incorporate the
information in your essay. Occasions when this might not be possible include:
the need to supply supporting information, facts, identification of earlier
work which prefigures the point you are making, or direction to a subsidiary
argument. Long notes distract attention from your main argument.
Use them sparingly.
WORKS CONSULTED
The List of works consulted should be appended to the end of your essay and it should list alphabetically all the sources (cited and uncited) which you consulted during your research. Do not list sources which you have not consulted.
Sources should be described in the following form and order:
1. Author's name in the form it appears on the book, last name first, Christian name second. Eg. Dawe, Bruce. or Eliot, T.S..
2. Title of the section of the book. Eg. "Australian Poetry" or "The Wasteland".
3. Title of the Book. Eg. Australian Literary Studies or Selected Poems.
4. Name of editor, translator or compiler. Eg. Ed. Carole Ferrier or Trans. Alan Sheridan.
5. Edition used. Eg. 2nd ed. (books only)
6. Number of Volumes or Volume number. Eg. 3 Vols. [3 Volume edition] or Vol. 3. [The third volume in the Edition] Convention differs for periodicals. See below.
7. Name of the Series. Eg. Australian Authors or Penguin Classics. (books only)
8. Place of Publication, Name of publisher, and date of publication. Eg. London: Oxford U P, 1978. (No need to spell out press or university press; books only).
9. Page numbers. 27-89. (p. and pp. are unnecessary)
COMMON CATEGORIES/FORMS OF ENTRY
1. A book by a single or joint author(s) or
editor(s)
2. An essay/story/poem in a collection by
the same author
3. An essay/story/poem in a collection or
anthology edited by a different person
4. An article in a journal which uses continuous
pagination throughout a volume
5. An article in a journal which paginates
each issue separately
6. A review of a book/play/film/exhibition
etc.
7. An article/cartoon/letter/advertisement
in a newspaper or magazine without volume numbers
8. An anonymous work
9. Internet Site
Examples
1. A book by a single or joint author(s) or
editor(s)
Dutton, Geoffrey. Kenneth Slessor:
A Biography. Ringwood: Penguin, 1991.
Hodge, Bob, and Vijay Mishra. Dark Side of the Dream: Australian Literature and the Post-Colonial Mind. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1990.
Hampton, Susan, and Kate Llewellyn, eds.
The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets. Ringwood: Penguin, 1986.
2. An essay/story/poem in a collection by the same author
Masters, Olga. "The Little Chest." A
Long Time Dying. St.Lucia: U of Queensland P, 1985. 28-33.
3. An essay/story/poem in a collection or anthology edited by (a) different person(s)
Ryan, Gig. "If I Had A Gun." The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets. Ed. Susan Hampton and Kate Llewellyn. Ringwood: Penguin, 1986. 247-48.
Or:
Ryan, Gig. "If I Had A Gun." Hampton
and Llewellyn 247-48. [Then give details for anthology separately as above.
Use this form when citing more than one work from the anthology].
4. An article in a journal which uses continuous pagination throughout a volume
McKenzie, Judy. "G.A.S. in Australia:
Hot Air Down Under?" Australian Literary Studies 15 (1992): 313-22.
5. An article in a journal which paginates each issue separately
Dobson, Rosemary. "Frances Webb: A Note." Southerly 52.4 (1992): 144-45.
Williams, Daniel. "Not a Boofy Bloke."
Inside Sport July (1993): 26-32.
6. A review of a book/play/film/exhibition etc.
Buchanan, Ian. "Investment Without Profit." Rev. of To the Burning City, by Alan Gould. Southerly 52.4 (1992): 182-86.
Van Toorn, Penny. Rev. of Dark Side of the Dream: Australian Literature and the Post-Colonial Mind, by Bob Hodge and Vijay Mishra. Span 34 & 35 (1992-93): 371-75.
Rev. of An Australian Girl, by
Catherine Martin. Age 12 Sept. 1890: 14.
7. An article/cartoon/letter/advertisement in a newspaper or magazine without volume numbers
"What to do With Dead Husbands." Cartoon. Bulletin 1 Dec. 1888: 12.
Davies, J.M. "Failures or Successes." Dawn 1 April 1902: 7-8.
Yokohama Tyres. Advertisement. Inside
Sport July 1993: 42-3.
8. An anonymous work
Follow above procedure omitting the authors name and listing alphabetically by title.
9. Internet Site
Basic form: 1 Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Document." Title of Complete Work [if applicable]. Version or File Number [if applicable]. Document date or date of last revision [if different from access date]. Protocol and address, access path or directories. (Date of access)
Eg. Burka, Lauren P. "A Hypertext History of Multi-User Dimensions." MUD History. 1993. http://www.utopia.com/talent/lpb/muddex/essay (2 Aug. 1996).
For more information see Harnack
and Kleppinger.