Many of the following guidelines for documentary format come from the 1984 Modern Language Association handbook by Joseph Gibaldi and Walter S. Achtert :
            The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Second edition
            New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1984.

 The MLA handbook is an authoritative guide for people writing about literature. Be sure to consult it whenever you need more information than this handout provides.

 Another source used in preparing these guidelines was Kelly Griffith, Jr.'s book:
            Writing Essays About Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet. Second edition
            Toronto: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1986.

• Reasons for Giving Credit to Sources
• When to Give Credit for Sources
• Documenting Sources Within the Text of Your Research Paper
• Documenting Sources at the End of Your Research Paper: The "Works Cited" List
• Sample Works Cited List, with Explanations
• Guidelines for Citing Internet Sources

 I. Reasons for Giving Credit to Sources

Giving credit to sources we use in our essays serves several purposes:

• We acknowledge the thoughts and words another person has put to paper. Were we to present these as our own, we would be guilty of plagiarism , that is to say, "theft". This crime is punishable at Seneca by failure of the plagiarized assignment, failure of the student in the course in question and, ultimately, expulsion of the student from the college.
• We strengthen our arguments by supporting them with the words of published authorities.
• We allow our reader to verify the reliability of our sources and to check whether we have presented them accurately and fairly.
• We allow our readers to locate and read the same sources which inspired us.

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 Give credit for "primary" sources. These are the actual works of literature from which you are quoting. Various editions and different translations may contain omissions, misprints, different pagination, and so on.

 Give credit for "secondary" sources. These are all the books, articles, documentaries, etc. that you consult over and above the pieces of literature you are analyzing.

 Whether you are citing a primary or secondary source, use these guidelines to decide when to document your source:

• Give credit for facts that are not considered "common knowledge" (facts a well read individual would probably know.).
• Give credit for all direct quotes. Your reader needs to know exactly which are your thoughts and which are another's.
• Give credit for summaries or paraphrases of another's ideas. Even if you thought up this idea and then discovered it in a book, you must give credit to the person who actually published it. If, however, you have truly assimilated these ideas and added to them, you can consider the resultant thoughts your own and you need not credit someone else.
• Give credit for ideas not truly conceived by you. Be honest with yourself: if the words, the style, and the substance don't seem to come "organically" from you, then seek out and acknowledge the source that inspired you.

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III. Documenting Sources Within the Text of Your Research Paper

We document our sources in an abbreviated fashion in the text/body of our essays and provide full bibliographic details at the end of our essays in the "Works Cited" list. In the text of our papers, we have two ways of giving credit:

• Textual References Combined with Parenthetical References

 For instance, we could write:

            In an interview with Donatus Nwoga, Chinua Achebe explains, "In this paper I saw my role, this is only one of the roles of  the writer, as a teacher" (Duerden et al 7).

(Here the reader will understand that an interview of Achebe conducted by Donatus Nwoga was printed in a book authored or edited by "Duerden" and two or more others. The passage quoted comes from page seven of that book.)

        Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's theory about cultural conflict is   [insert your paraphrase here] (341).

 Here the reader will understand that the reference comes from page 341 of Ngugi's book and that there is only one book by Ngugi in the "Works Cited" list. (By the way, "Ngugi" is the surname, in this case.)

 Of course, all quotations or paraphrases are followed by a parenthetical reference which, alone or along with the name mentioned in your essay, would allow your reader both to identify the work in the "Works Cited" list and to locate the page of the reference in the work cited.

• Parenthetical References

 For instance, we might write:

        Not all critics agree on this point (W. Jones 116).

 We give Jones' initial or whole name only  if we cite two or more Joneses in our paper.

 Here no initials are provided because no other authors bearing the same names exist in your list of "Works Cited".

 Here the title, or a portion of it, is used in the parenthetical reference only when we have listed two or more works by the same author in our list of "Works Cited". 

IV. Documenting Sources at the End of Your Reserch Paper: The "Works Cited" List

We must give credit for our sources in a list of works cited at the end of our essay. We list all the books we used in the writing of the essay. Here are some pointers which should help you prepare your list correctly:

• Arrange your entries alphabetically by the author's name. In the absence of an author's name, list the entry alphabetically by its title
• Do not number your entries.
• For each entry, place the author's last name first. Where there is more than one author, list the last name first for the first author but not for the others. Also, maintain the authors' names in the same order in which they were listed on the work's title page.
• The first line of each entry will be flush with the left margin. Subsequent lines will be indented five spaces from the left margin. (I couldn't double space on this page because of my lack of technical knowhow.) Use "left justification" to avoid odd spacing in your entries.
• Include without exception every source - primary or secondary - cited in your paper.
• When you list more than one work by an author, substitute three hyphens for the author's name after the first citation.
• Place the "Works Cited" list at the end of your paper, on sheets separate from your text.
• Double-space each entry and triple space between them. (I couldn't double space on this page because of my lack of technical knowhow.)

On the following pages are some sample entries listed in proper bibliographic form. After this list, you will find some notes identifying the nature of each entry, such as "book with two authors". Of course, you will not find a sample of all possible bibliographic formats in this list and you should consult the original MLA guidelines or a good style guide for further advice.

V. Guidelines for Citing Internet Sources

Since the Internet provides so many of our sources, here is a brief set of guidelines for citing such electronic sources. As well, on the home page for CAN 217 is an outside link to a guide for citing online sources.

The MLA Handbook provides a detailed list of the many possible ypes of information that may be available and that would therefore be included in a reference. Below they are listed in the order each element would appear if it is present in your Internet source. Of course, not all these elements are present in any one entry. But this list will help you determine how best to construct and order your online references.

• Name of the author or other person responsible for the work - an editor or a translator, for example - identified by the usual MLA abbreviation: ed., trans., etc.
• Title of a short work (article, essay, etc.) which is part of a larger database or work, in quotation marks.
• Title of a book or other self-standing document, in italics or underlined.
• Name of editor, translator, etc. of a book (unless used earlier), in the usual MLA format.
• Publication information for a print version.
• Title of the web site, database, periodical, or scholarly project, etc. (italicized or underlined); or for untitled and untitleable sites, a descriptive term like Home page.
• Name of editor or person responsible for the web site, database, periodical, or scholarly project, etc.
• Version number (if not part of the title) or volume or issue number.
• Most recent date of posting or updating.
• Name of the organization(s) responsible for or associated with the web site.
• Retrieval date (the date you retrieved the information), for example: 1 Jan. 2000.
• The URL: (the Internet address in angle brackets <underlined url address> and underlined.

Here are various types of online pages you might encounter, presented in proper MLA format for a Works Cited page:

1. Private or personal web site

Philip, M. Nourbese. Hold We to the Centre of Remembrance. N.d. 3 November, 2006 <http://www.nourbese.com/>.

2. Organizational or corporate web site

African Drums and Art Crafts. Home page. N.d. African Drums and Crafts. 5 November 2006. <http://www.jembe.net/adac/>. Black Loyalist Heritage Society. Home page.N.d. Black Loyalist Heritage Society. 5 November 2006. <http://www.blackloyalist.com/>. Black Pages Directory: The Official Guide to Canada's Black and Caribbean Community. 5 November 2006. Black Pages Canada Inc. 5 November 2006. <http://www.blackpages.ca/home.asp>. Seneca. Home page. N.d. Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology. 5 November, 2006 <http://www.senecac.on.ca/cms/>.

If you cite several documents or pages from an organization's web site, you should provide a reference for each separate text.

3. Online book

Jewett, Sarah Orne. The Country of the Pointed Firs. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin [c1910]; Bartleby.com, 1999. 15 August 2000. <http://www.bartleby.com/125/>.

4. Article in an online journal or magazine

Edelstein, David. "Pols on Film." Slate Magazine. 18 Aug. 2000. 20 Aug. 2000 <http://slate.msn.com/MovieReview/00-08-18/MovieReview.asp>.

5. Newspaper article

Dowd, Maureen. "Stop That Canoodling!" New York Times on the Web. 20 Aug. 2000. 20 Aug. 2000 <http://www.nytimes.com/library/opinion/dowd/082000dowd.html>.

Other types of texts—editorials, letters to the editor, reviews, and so on, parallel the traditional citation with the inclusion of online information (most importantly retrieval date and URL) instead of page information.

6. Government publication

United States. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Commission Staff Issues Accounting Bulletin on Revenue Recognition." Press Release. 3 Dec. 1999. 17 July 2000 <http://www.sec.gov/news/press/99-162.txt>.

7. Short work in larger work or database

The Columbia World of Quotations.  1996. "Cuckoo Song." The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900. Ed. Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch. Oxford: Clarendon, 1919. Bartleby.com, 1999. 16 August 2000. <http://www.bartleby.com/101/1.html>.

8. Other web materials

When possible put a descriptive phrase after the title (e.g., chart, MP3, video, photograph, map).

"Rose Fortune (ca. 1774-1864)." Painting. African Nova Scotians in the Age of Slavery and Abolition.Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management. 2 October 2006 <http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/africanns/archives.asp?ID=33&Language=English> King, Jr., Martin Luther. "I Have a Dream". Audio MP3 of Address. Top 100 American Speeches Online Speech Bank. 2006. American Rhetoric.4 November, 2006 <http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm>.

9. Forum or conference posting

Wills, Dorothy. "Reflections on Multiple Lenses: Voices from the Diaspora Located in Canada." Online posting. N.d. Multiple Lenses: Voices from the Diaspora located in Canada. Dalhousie University. 2 November, 2006 <http://jamesrjohnstonchair.dal.ca/johnston_7251.html>

Achebe, Chinua. Arrow of God. 1964. London: Heinemann, 1969.  ( ** See explanation of entry)

 ---. Things Fall Apart. 1958. London: Heinemann, 1987.   **
 

Aidoo, Christina Ama Ata. Introduction. The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. By Ayi Kwei Armah. New York: Collier Books, 1969.  **
 

Arnold, Matthew. "Dover Beach." Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams et al. 4th ed. 2 vols. New York: Norton, 1979. 2:1378-79.  **
 

Berlioz, Hector. Symphonie fantastique, op. 14. Cond. Georg Solti. Chicago Symphony Orch.London, CS 6790, 1968. **
 

Berry, Lester V. and Melvin Van den Bark. The American Thesaurus of Slang: With Supplement. New York: Crowell, 1947. **
 

Blake, Patricia. "Gingerly Removing the Veil." Rev. of Josephine Herbst, by Elinor Langer. Newsweek 3 Sept. 1984:80.  **
 

Chaplin, Charles, dir. Modern Times. With Chaplin and Paulette goddard. United Artists, 1936. **
 

Chiappini, Luciano. "Este, House of." Encyclopaedia Britannica: Macropaedia. 1974 ed.  **
 

Coneroy, Herman. "David Copperfield Revisited." New York Times 19 August 1962, F23.  **
 

"Conrad, Joseph." Dead White European Male Authors: A Readers' Guide. Ed. James H. Jones et al. 5th ed. 50 vols. London: Oxbridge Press, 1985. 3:1384-96.  **
 

Det Sjunde Inseglet [The Seventh Seal]. Dir. Ingmar Bergman. Svensk Filmindustri, 1956.  **
 

"Graham, Martha." Who's Who of American Women. 13th ed. 1983-4.  **
 

Malone, Michael. "Books in Brief." Harper's June 1977: 82-84.  **
 

"Mandarin." Encyclopedia Americana. 1980 ed.  **
 

Ontario Provincial Police. Dec. 1998. Government of Ontario. 6 Feb. 1999  <http://www.gov.on.ca/opp/>.  **

Pritchard, Allan. "West of the Great Divide: A View of the Literature of British Columbia." Canadian Literature 94 (1982): 96-112.  **
 

Roumain, Jacques. Masters of the Dew. 1947. Trans. Langston Hughes and Mercer Cook. London: Heinemann, 1978. **
 

Spiller, Robert E. et al. Literary History of the United States. 4th ed. rev. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1947. Vol. 1.  **
 

Stevick, Philip, ed. The Theory of the Novel. New York: The Free Press, 1967.  **
 

Trollope, Anthony. The Last Chronicle of Barset. Ed. Arthur Mizener. Boston: Riverside, 1964.  **
 

Troy, Judy. "In One Place." New Yorker 10 Sept. 1984: 42-43.  **
 

Troyka, John. Telephone interview. 3 November, 1998.  **
 

Umuntu, Amos. Personal interview. 23 June, 1998.  **

Achebe Entry - Arrow of God:
This is a novel first published in 1964, but  the edition cited was reprinted in 1969. This distinction is important because differences in pagination and typesetting could exist between different printings.
Titles of books and films are either underlined or put in boldface.

Achebe Entry - Things Fall Apart:
The place of publication was London, and the publisher was Heinemann.
The three dashes indicate that this novel is written by the same author who wrote the work listed in the previous entry.

Aidoo Entry -
This entry shows you how to present a book that has an introduction that you consulted. Ms. Aidoo wrote the introduction to the novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. That novel was written by Ayi Kwei Armah. By the way, the spelling of "Beautyful" is intentional.

Arnold Entry -
"Dover Beach" is a poem that was printed in the Norton Anthology. M. H. Abrams is the editor who selected the pieces to go in the anthology. The poem appeared in the fourth edition on pages 1378 and 1379 of the second of two volumes.
Titles of poems, articles, and short stories are enclosed in quotation marks.

Berlioz Entry -
This entry provides an example for citing an audio recording, in this case a peice of classical music.

Berry Entry -
This entry shows how to cite a book with two authors: The first author is listed surname first, and the second is listed with the first name followed by the surname.
The two parts of the title are separated by a colon, even though this punctuation mark may not be used on the original title page.

Blake Entry -
This entry shows how to cite a book review. In this case, Blake reviewed a book entitled Josephine Herbst whose author was Elinor Langer. The title of her review was "Gingerly Removing the Veil."
When citing popular weekly magazines such as Newsweek (as opposed to learned journals), we give we exact date as indicated, along with the page number, in this case 80.

Chaplin Entry -
If you are citing the contribution of a particular person to a film, begin your entry with that person's name. In this case, you would be stressing the contribution of Charles Chaplin, the director of the film.

Chiappini Entry -
This is a signed (authored) encyclopaedia entry. No page number is given. the articles are arranged alphabetically. This entry appeared in the 1974 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica: Macropaedia

Coneroy Entry -
Here we see a title within a title, in this case, a novel title David Copperfield quoted in an article title.
As well, we see how to cite an article from a newspaper, The New York Times.

Conrad Entry -
Here we see cited an article about the author Joseph Conrad. It appeared in volume three of a 50-volume series edited by James Jones "et al". The term "et al" simply refers to all the other editors of the series and is used whenever there are three or more authors or editors.

Det Sjunde Inseglet [The Seventh Seal] Entry -
Most film, filmstrip, slide program, and videotape entries begin with the title and include the dirtector, the distributor, and the year. (You may include other data if they seem pertinent: information such as the writer, performers, and producer would follow the title; physical characteristics, such as the size and length of the film, would go after the date.

Graham Entry -
Here is an unsigned  article in a reference book about the dancer/choreographer Martha Graham.

Malone Entry -
Here's an article by Malone that appeared in the popular monthly magazine, Harper's.

Mandarin Entry -
Here's an unsigned encyclopaedia article.

OPP Entry -
Here's an example of a Home Page for a professional site on the Internet. See Seneca's web page for many more examples of citations of electronic/internet web sites

Pritchard Entry -
Here we see an article (the title enclosed in quotation marks) that appeared in a scholarly journal entitled Canadian Literature. The volume number is 90, the year 1982, and the pages 96 to 112.

Roumain Entry -
Here we see how to indicate the translator of a book, in this case Hughes and Cook. The translation was originally published in 1947, but the edition cited here is the 1978 publication.

Spiller Entry -
Here we see a book with three or more authors. The writer of the essay is citing volume one of the fourth revised edition of this two-volume work.

Stevick Entry -
This entry cites a book which is probably a collection of essays by various authors assembled by the editor, Stevick.

Trollope Entry -
Here we see a novel, The Last Chronicle of Barset, which has been edited by Arthur Mizener. In many student editions, an editor provides information and criticism about the novel, the author, an the era in which the novel was written.

Troy Entry -
Here is an article by Troy which appeared in the weekly magazine The New Yorker.

Troyka and Umuntu Entries -
Here you see how to cite a personal interview conducted by you, one in person, and one by telephone.