Common MLA Models

It's open season on research-based writing for college classes. The secret to writing correct bibliographic entries is to use a reference book such as Diane Hacker's A Writer's Reference (5th ed., with 2003 MLA update) or the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Joseph Gibaldi, 6th ed.) and find the appropriate model or models (sometimes you must combine a couple of models) for the source you are using.

It might be useful to review the four MLA bibliographic citations that cover the sources most students use in their research papers: the scholarly article accessed via a database, the document from a government web site, the webpage from a larger web site, and a short work from an anthology.

Scholarly Article Accessed Via a Database

If you are using Hacker's A Writer's Reference as your guide, then you will wish to follow model no. 31 (360). To write this citation, you provide all the information that's available for the print version of the article, and then you add the necessary information about how you accessed it online. Example:

Koumans, Emilia H., et al. "Sexually Transmitted Disease Services at US Colleges and Universities." Journal of American College Health 53.5 (2005): 211-217. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOhost. Hinckley Lib., Northwest Col., Powell, WY. 31 Mar. 2005 ‹http://www.epnet.com›.

Within the body of your paper, you would use the following intext citation: (Koumans et al. 212).

Document from a Government Web Site

When a webpage comes from a government-sponsored web site--such as the CDC--then you need to identify the government as the "corporate author" of the document. You would use Hacker's model at the top of page 366, the second example for no. 49. Example:

United States. National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV and Its Transmission. 22 Sep. 2003. 31 Mar. 2005 ‹http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pubs/facts/transmission.htm›.

The intext citation for this source would be (United States); for subsequent citations, you could use an abbreviation (US). If you had more than one document from this same web site, then you need to add more information so readers can find the citation easily in your Works Cited list: (United States, HIV).

Webpage from a Larger Web Site

The model for a webpage (or a short work) from a larger web site is no. 28 in Hacker (358). Here's an example for a webpage without an author:

"HIV/AIDS: Antiretroviral Therapy (ART)." World Health Organization. 2005. 31 Mar. 2005 ‹http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/arv/en/›.

The appropriate intext citation for this webpage would be ("HIV/AIDS").

A Chapter or Section or Short Work from a Book/Anthology

The model for a work in an anthology is no. 10 in Hacker (352). Here's an example for a short story from an anthology:

Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 73-79.

The appropriate intext citation for this webpage would be (Faulkner 74).

Remember: When in doubt, contact your professor for guidance.

One Element of Fine Writing

Our admiration of fine writing will always be in proportion to its real difficulty and its apparent ease. --Charles Caleb Colton, author and clergyman (1780-1832)

Writers Are Readers, Too

The Independent (online edition) published "The 100 favourite fictional characters . . . as chosen by 100 literary luminaries" earlier this month in honor of World Book Day. Since The Independent is a British publication, the newspaper "asked the leading lights of British letters to name the characters who give them the greatest reading pleasure."

In the resulting list, each character is linked to the author who chose him/her/it, along with a brief rationale, such as

• "There is something appealing about a man who stows his stethoscope under his top hat. . . ." (said of Dr. Watson, chosen by Judith Kerr)
• "I can't pick just one, but at the Fictional People Awards Ceremony I hope they put me on a table with Mikhail Bulgakov's Devil and Robert Bolt's Thomas More, for their erudition and conversation. The Cheshire Cat would be welcome for his humour and his knack with practical metaphysics. Finally, Madame Bovary should fumble her way to our table, flushed-looking and late, to dish some dirt on the judges." (chosen by David Mitchell)
• "For the charm of his intelligence, the quickness of his wit, the brilliance of his mimicry, the fastidiousness of his temperament, the soundness of his judgement, the excellence of his literary criticism, for his loathing of the world's opinion." (said of Hamlet, chosen by Howard Jacobson)
• "Morgan le Fay is my dream girl, Odysseus my hero guy, but the character I've really loved is Dr Seuss's the Cat in The Hat: a total anarchist getting away with it. Torturing the sanctimonious fish appealed, too." (chosen by Peter Florence)

The list is appealing and entertaining; see the whole thing at The Independent.

Writing Tool #48: Create An Editing Support Group

Perhaps the most disabling myth of authorship is that writers practice a lonely craft. There is something romantic about the notion of a writer locked away in a loft overlooking the ocean, his only companions a portable typewriter, a bottle of gin and a kitty named Hemingway.

In the real world, writing is more like line dancing, a social function with many partners. Some of those partners -- a writing teacher, a producer, an assigning editor -- may be required to achieve our publishing goals. Other helpers can and should be of our choosing.

This week's advice from Roy Peter Clark of Poynter.org is to "Create An Editing Support Group." He couldn't be more right. As writing teacher Rob Koelling says, "Everyone needs an editor," and I'd add that everyone also needs a person (or a group of persons) who helps keep a person writing.

Clark lists six kinds of helpers who keep him writing:

1. A helper who keeps me going.
2. A helper who understands my idiosyncrasies.
3. A helper willing to answer my questions.
4. An expert helper to match my topic.
5. A helper who runs interference.
6. A coach who helps me figure out what works and what needs work.

All writers need to seek out helpers. Writing is one of those activities which should carry a warning label: "Don't try this at home alone!"

Throat-Clearing

I've blogged Cory Doctorow's writing tip from bOing bOing in the past, but it's so good I may blog it annually, just as a reminder:

Random advice for composition

Here's a procedure that I almost always find useful for improving almost any kind of written composition -- a speech, an essay, an op-ed or a story. As a first pass, try cutting the first 10 percent (the "throat clearing") then moving the last 30 percent (the payoff) to the beginning of the talk (don't bury your lede!). About 90 percent of the time when someone gives me a paper for review, I find that it can be improved through this algorithm.

Weirdly, I almost always need someone else to point this out to me. I circulated a draft paper for comment this week, and it took Grad to remind me that I'd buried my lede and spent too much time throat-clearing. It turned out that he was completely right, but I didn't see it until it was pointed out to me.

Just a bit of random foo for the day.