ESSAY DOCUMENTATION -- HELP SHEET
ENC 1102 - Dr. Blanchard – Spring Semester, 2012
Note: These guidelines are by no means a complete presentation of MLA style documentation
rules. Rather, they highlight those rules you may find most relevant to writing your critical essays
and research paper. As such, you may find them useful. You may also find the following sections
of our anthology to be helpful, especially when writing and documenting your research paper:
 "Quotation, Citation and Documentation"
 "Sample Research Paper" (2325-33)
(2313-24)
For additional or more detailed presentation of MLA style documentation, you should consult a
general reference such as the handbook used in ENC 1101. You are, of course, expected to
follow all applicable rules of MLA style documentation when developing and supporting your
critical essays and your research paper. All sources used as examples in these guidelines are
taken from our anthology.
Listing Sources:
Works Consulted (or Cited)
Note: The examples provided are all taken from our anthology, The Norton Introduction to
Literature, since all three critical essays will be on work found in the anthology. Remember, the
list of your source(s) should be attached as a separate page at the end of your critical essay.
Example #1 - Fiction: entering your primary source
Kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed.
and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010. 176-77. Print.
Ed. Alison Booth
Example #2 - Poetry: entering your primary source
Neverov, Howard. "The Vacuum." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed.
Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010. 826-27. Print.
Ed. Alison
Example #3 - Entering a secondary source when both author and title are known
Fisher, Rudolph. "The Caucasian Storms Harlem." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th
ed. Ed. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010. 1281-85. Print.
Example #4 - Entering a secondary source when only the title is known
"Jamaica Kinkaid." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed.
J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010. 811. Print.
Ed. Alison Booth and Kelly
Example #5 - Entering a secondary source when only the title is known
"point of view." The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. Ed. Alison Booth and
Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2010. A9. Print.
ENC 1102 - Documentation Help Sheet (2)
In-Text, Parenthetical Citations
Remember: A parenthetical citation is a note in parentheses you insert in the text of your essay
when you 1) quote, 2) paraphrase or 3) summarize a research source to ensure you are not
plagiarizing. This notation must clearly reference a source you have entered in your list of works
consulted (or cited), as explained on page one.
Example #1: Citing a short quotation of prose (four or fewer lines) (author named)
The protagonist, who is the "girl" of Kincaid's title, is told by the unnamed speaker
"don't sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn't speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give
directions; don't eat fruits on the street -- " (176).
(Note:
When citing prose quotations, use page numbers; DO NOT note the author’s name
if the author is noted in your text OR the author of the source is obvious. )
Example #2: Citing a long quotation of prose (more than four lines) (author uncertain)
The protagonist in this story occasionally attempts to defend herself from the dominant
speaker's accusations, both implied and explicit:
don't sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn't speak to wharf-rat boys,
not even to give directions; don't eat fruits on the street -- flies will follow you;
"but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school"; this is how
to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself
from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming;
(Kincaid 176)
Example #3: Citing a short quotation of poetry (three or fewer lines) (author uncertain)
The narrator seems to be severely depressed after the death of the woman who used
the vacuum cleaner from which the poem get its title. He says, "I've lived this way long
enough, / But when my old woman died her soul / Went into that vacuum cleaner . . . "
(Nemerov 6 - 8).
(Note: When citing quotations of poetry, use line numbers and show line breaks.)
Example #4: Citing a long quotation of poetry (more than three lines) (author named)
In the final lines of the poem, Nemerov completes the metaphor in which he compares
the vacuum cleaner to his dead wife as well as to his own despairing self:
She used to crawl, in the corner and under the stair.
I know now how life is cheap as dirt,
And still the hungry, angry heart
Hangs on and howls, biting at air.
(12-15)
(Note: If the identity of the author of a quotation is obvious from the text of your essay, you
should not name the author in your parenthetical citation. Keep the citation as simple as
possible.)