Your research cards should contain the information that you need to handle the "in-text" citation appropriately. I
recommend that you not only provide a "slug" or "sub-headling" but--eventually--where this information will fit into your MLA Outline (i.e. II.A.1.) Notice that this sample is numbered in the right hand corner and that they page number(s) are in the bottom right hand corner. This card is a tad too thin in the amount of information that is included on it. Moreover, types of support include: direct quotations, an indirect quote, a paraphrase or a summary. Remember, though, that types of evidence include: facts, inferences, expert opinions, charts/graphs, statistics, personal experiences, interviews, and much more. I suggest that researchers include what type of evidence is being researched in the bottom right hand corner.SAMPLE NOTECARD (ABOVE) TAKEN FROM:Denny, Rialta. "evasive4.tripod.com/notecardformat.gif." evasive4.vze.com. 13 Jan 2007.
=2&tbnid=_Sg-Oe6fObkXNM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=141&ei=egipRYCFNJSCjAGD4pmLBg
&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMLA%2BNotecard%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D>.
NOTE: After the first line of an MLA Work's Cited entry, the author is to indent the subsequent lines. This blog will not allow me to do so for you.
Correct Ways to Handle "In-Text" Citations
Single author named in parentheses.
Example: The tendency to come to terms with difficult experiences is referred to as a "purification process" whereby "threatening or painful dissonances are warded off to preserve intact a clear and articulated image of oneself and one’s place in the world" (Sennett 11).
Note: The punctuation here uses a direct quotation. Notice that the end quotation mark ends prior to the "in-text" citation in parentheses. Notice that there is no commo, nor an abbreviation for page number. Also notice that the parentheses are followed by the appropriate punctuation mark.
Single author or Sinlge Source named in a signal phrase.
Example: Social historian Richard Sennett names the tendency to come to terms with difficult experiences a "purification process" whereby "threatening or painful dissonances are warded off to preserve intact a clear and articulated image of oneself and one’s place in the world" (11).
Note: If you introduce the author or source in the text of your paper (and there is no duplicate in the author's name or a book with the same exact title (not likely but possible), you need only include the page number of that source and not the source itself.
Two or more authors.
Example. Certain literacy theorists have gone so far as to declare that "the most significant elements of human culture are undoubtedly channeled through words, and reside in the particular range of meanings and attitudes which members of any society attach to their verbal symbols" (Goody and Watt 323).
Corporate author (organization, association, etc.).
Example. The federal government has funded research concerning consumer protection and consumer transactions with online pharmacies (Food and Drug Administration 125).
Works with no author.
Example. Several critics of the concept of the transparent society ask if a large society would be able to handle the complete loss of privacy ("Surveillance Society" 115).
Two or more works by the same author.
Example. In his investigation of social identity, The Uses of Disorder, Sennett defines adulthood as a stage where people "learn to tolerate painful ambiguity and uncertainty" (108).
Note: The author can identify which of the two works is being referenced by signaling it in his or her writing.
In a surprising move, Richard Sennett combines the idea of power with that of virtue: "the idea of strength is complex in ordinary life because of what might be called the element of its integrity" (Authority 19).
Note: In this situation, the author signifies which of the two works is being referenced--not in the text of the writing--but by using the title of the source in the in-text citation.
Work found in an anthology or edited collection.
Note: For an essay, short story, or other document included in an anthology or edited collection, use the name of the author of the work, not the editor of the anthology or collection, but use the page numbers from the anthology or collection.
Lawrence Rosenfield analyzes the way in which New York’s Central Park held a socializing function for nineteenth-century residents similar to that of traditional republican civic oratory (222).
Bible passage.
Unfortunately, the president could not recall the truism that "Wisdom is a fountain to one who has it, but folly is the punishment of fools" (New Oxford Annotated Bible, Prov. 20-22).
Note: The author needs to include the specific Bible in the in-text citation.
Secondary source of a quotation (someone quoted within the text of another author).
As Erickson reminds us, the early psychoanalysts focused on a single objective: "introspective honesty in the service of self enlightenment" (qtd. in Weiland 42).
Note: If one author is quoted by another, this is the appropriate way to handle it.
Web page.
Abraham Lincoln's birthplace was designated as a National Historical Site in 1959 (National Park Service).
Note: Internet citations follow the style of printed works. Personal or corporate author and page number should be given ONLY if they exist on the website itself.
Other Awesome Online Sources for In-Text Citations and Work's Cited Style
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite5.html
http://www.library.unr.edu/depts/bgic/guides/government/cite.html
http://www.lib.montana.edu/instruct/guides/
http://www.mla.com/
