Hopefully you’ve checked out what I’ve posted before on documentation in general. It looks like people are doing google searches for research – even though we found great research in the library using the database. I’m seeing sources that don’t impress me and don’t lend anyone credibility. Anyone can get a web site and say anything. If you want to do a web search use Google Scholar. It provides much better sources. Best bet -though – is the library database.
Norton has some resources on how to document sources in MLA format. they even provide a free PDF of the MLA updates – and IT CONTAINS A SAMPLE PAPER! (go to page 40). It’s amazing how much I can tell from just a superficial glance at the physical format of a paper. Look at a sample paper.
I also recommend Citation Machine. Click MLA and follow directions.
We should all cite the 4 C’s statement that we are responding to. You can find it several places. I put a phrase from the statement in quotes and entered it in Google Scholar. One site quoted it in its entirety – it’s full text through JSTOR. I took info from that page and entered it into citation machine and voila!
Gilyard, Keith. “African American Contributions to Composition Studies.” National Council of Teachers of English. 50.4 (1999): 639. Web.
It doesn’t have the hanging indent – which is tough in electronic formats like blogs, web pages, etc. but otherwise it’s solid. Notice you don’t need or want “volume” or “Vol.” or “page” … if everything is in the right place I know the volume 50, the number is 4 and the page is 639.
