Basic Citation Practices
Table of Contents
Although there are different citation systems, there are some general rules #
When to use italics and/or quotation marks #
The names of books (and journals) should be italicized.
The names of smaller units, i.e., things that can be parts of books, should be put in quotation marks, but not italicized. This includes titles of essays, short stories, or poems.
Example #
Let’s say you are discussing the book Anatomy of Criticism by Northrop Frye
Correct Usage #
The title of the book should always be italicized.
For example:
- As Northrop Frye argues in his book Anatomy of Criticism…
Incorrect Usage #
The title should not be put under quotation marks.
For example:
- As Northrop Frye argues in his book “Anatomy of Criticism”…
Incorrect Usage #
You should also not use both italics and quotation marks.
For example:
- As Northrop Frye argues in his book “Anatomy of Criticism”…
Example #
Let’s say you are citing an article called “Learning English in Hong Kong” and published in The Journal of International Education.
Correct Usage #
The title of the article should be in quotation marks and the name of the journal in italics.
For example:
- “Learning English in Hong Kong,” The Journal of International Education
Incorrect Usage #
You should not leave out the quotation marks or put the journal name in them.
For example:
- Learning English in Hong Kong, “The Journal of International Education”
Incorrect Usage #
Nor should you put the article title in italics.
For example:
- Learning English in Hong Kong, The Journal of International Education
Style Manuals & Citation Systems #
The most important thing when quoting is to be consistent throughout the paper. In literary studies (this will be different for linguistics) there are two major citation systems. You should choose one in consultation with your supervisor and stick to it.
Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS)
MLA Style
Detailed instructions on how to apply both of these styles can be found at the Purdue Online Writing Lab website. In this guide we are listing only the most basic citation rules according to each system.
Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) #
Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) allows you to use two different citation systems
- Author-Date System
- Notes-Bibliography System
Author-Date #
Author-Date system simply means that in the body of the text you only list the name of the author, the year of publication of the work and the page, while all the other bibliographical information goes into the references section at the end of the paper.
Author-Date System Examples #
Let’s say you are discussing various theories of the novel. For example:
While Moretti (1987) suggests that the female Bildungsroman is an impossibility (25), other scholars disagree (e.g., Fraiman 1993, 78), although they recognize that it departs from the male models of development. As Marianne Hirsch points out, “The plot of inner development traces a discontinuous, circular path which, rather than moving forward, culminates in a return to origins, thereby distinguishing itself from the traditional plot outlines of the Bildungsroman” (Hirsch 1983, 26).
In that case, all the other information about the sources you are quoting will go to the back of the paper, in alphabetical order:
References
Fraiman, Susan. 1993. Unbecoming Women: British Women Writers and the Novel of Development. New York: Columbia University Press.
Hirsch, Marianne. 1983. “Spiritual Bildung: The Beautiful Soul as Paradigm.” In The Voyage In: Fictions of Female Development, edited by Elizabeth Abel, Marianne Hirsch, and Elizabeth Langland, 23–48. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Moretti, Franco. 1987. The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture. London: Verso.
For an example of a paper using the Author-Date system, go here.
Notes-Bibliography System Examples #
Let’s now see what the same paragraph would look like in the Notes-Bibliography system.
While Moretti suggests that the female Bildungsroman is an impossibility¹, other scholars disagree², although they recognize that it departs from the male models of development. As Marianne Hirsch points out, “The plot of inner development traces a discontinuous, circular path which, rather than moving forward, culminates in a return to origins, thereby distinguishing itself from the traditional plot outlines of the Bildungsroman.“³
In that case, all the information about the sources you are quoting will go into the footnotes:
1 Franco Moretti, The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture (London: Verso, 1987), 25.
2 Susan Fraiman, Unbecoming Women: British Women Writers and the Novel of Development. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 78.
3 Marianne Hirsch, “Spiritual Bildung: The Beautiful Soul as Paradigm,” in The Voyage In: Fictions of Female Development, edited by Elizabeth Abel, Marianne Hirsch, and Elizabeth Langland (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England), 1983, 42.
For an example of a paper using the Notes-Bibliography system, go here.
Using Shortened Titles #
When you are using the Notes-Bibliography system, you don’t need to put all the information into the footnotes every time you cite a source. You should put in all the information (publisher, date, etc.) only the first time you cite something. The second and any subsequent time you cite a source, you can use the shortened title of the work.
For instance, the first time you quote Moretti, the footnote should look like this:
1 Franco Moretti, The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture (London: Verso, 1987), 25.
However, when you quote him the next time in the same text, you can just use the author’s name:
2 Moretti, 65.
In case you quote several works by the same author (for instance, you are citing both Moretti’s Way of the World and his Modern Epic), you need to list the title of the work along with the name of the author, but you can use the shortened version, so:
2 Moretti, Way of the World, 65.
Writing the Bibliography #
Finally, at the end of paper you need to have a list of all the sources you quoted in alphabetical order:
Bibliography
Fraiman, Susan. Unbecoming Women: British Women Writers and the Novel of Development. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
Hirsch, Marianne. “Spiritual Bildung: The Beautiful Soul as Paradigm.” In The Voyage In: Fictions of Female Development. Edited by Elizabeth Abel, Marianne Hirsch, and Elizabeth Langland, 23–48. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1983.
Moretti, Franco. The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture. London: Verso, 1987.
Note that the format of bibliographic entries in the Notes-Bibliography system is slightly different than the format of entries at the end of a paper using the Author-Date system, this is because in the latter case the year of publication is put in front and in the former at the end of the entry.
MLA Style #
MLA Style involves parenthetical quotations in the body of the text followed by a Works Cited list at the end of the paper.
MLA Style Examples #
Let’s say you are discussing various theories of the novel. For example:
While some scholars suggests that the female Bildungsroman is an impossibility (Moretti, 25), other disagree (e.g., Fraiman, 78), although they recognize that it departs from the male models of development. As Marianne Hirsch points out, “The plot of inner development traces a discontinuous, circular path which, rather than moving forward, culminates in a return to origins, thereby distinguishing itself from the traditional plot outlines of the Bildungsroman” (Hirsch, 26).
In that case, all the other information about the sources you are quoting will go to the back of the paper, in alphabetical order:
Works Cited
Fraiman, Susan. Unbecoming Women: British Women Writers and the Novel of Development. Columbia UP, 1993.
Hirsch, Marianne. “Spiritual Bildung: The Beautiful Soul as Paradigm.” The Voyage In: Fictions of Female Development, edited by Elizabeth Abel, Marianne Hirsch, and Elizabeth Langland, UP of New England, 1983, 23–48.
Moretti, Franco. The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture. Verso, 1987.
For an example of a paper using the MLA system, go here.
"Never, ever, ever, ever, refer to the author just by their first name!" #
This is a comparatively minor point, but referring to an author solely by their first name looks really unprofessional and suggests a deep lack of understanding of the basic conventions of academic writing in English, so avoid it at all costs, regardless of which citation system you are using.
Example #
Let’s say you are discussing the book Anatomy of Criticism by Northrop Frye
Correct Usage #
When you first mention the work, you will usually refer to the author by both first and last name. For example:
- As Northrop Frye argues in his book Anatomy of Criticism…
In subsequent mentions you should normally simply refer to his last name. For example:
- As Frye demonstrates in his discussion of romance…
Incorrect Usage #
However, in no circumstances should you refer to the author solely by his or her first name.
For example:
- As Northrop demonstrates in his discussion of romance…