A critical part of the writing process is knowing when a citation is
appropriate. An unnecessary citation is annoying, but lack of a proper
citation when one is needed can be confusing at best, plagiaristic at worst.
The following sorts of material must be cited:
- Quotes.
- An interpretation, opinion, or judgment from another source, even if
put in your own words.
- Facts that are not obvious or generally known.
How to Cite
Any material in your paper that falls in the above categories must be cited,
even if the source is a friend or professor. Exact quotes must always have
quotation marks around them. The lack of quotation marks around an exact quote
is plagiarism, even if the source is otherwise acknowledged.
A citation in MLA style will follow the statement to be acknowledged as the
author's last name and a page number (or numbers) that the statement came
from: (Lanier 49). (Note that the period follows the citation and there is
no comma or "p" or "pp" abbreviation for page/pages.) For more information
on the details of MLA citation style, see The St. Martin's Handbook.
One way to acknowledge a source is with an introductory statement in the body
of the text: "Robbe-Grillet states that..." or "Barth believes...", for example.
In this case you do not need to rename the source in the following parenthetical
citation in MLA style. The citation should contain only the page number:
"Longyear points out that Romantic escapism was a reaction to the Industrial
Revolution (9)."
Gray Areas
There are often gray areas in each of these categories, especially in the
arts, where subjective judgments form such an important part of the literature.
For example, suppose that you read that a source describes The Rite
of Spring as "dynamic," and you agree. Does that mean that every time
you use the word "dynamic" you have to put it in quotes and refer to that
source? Probably not, since it is a common word and few people would disagree.
What if the source referred to the use of syncopated rhythms?
You would not have to cite that either, since syncopation is an objective
quality that anyone can see or hear; that is, it is a statement of general
fact for most people.
What if the source found a hidden quotation of a Russian folk
song? That is a fact that would not be obvious to most people and which
the writer probably only found after some detailed analysis. Therefore
you would cite such information.
What if the source describes The Rite of Spring as being
the first truly modern composition? Well, some people might disagree, as
that's a subjective judgment. Even if you agree, if the source gave you
the idea, then you should cite it.
Non-specific References
Sometimes in everyday speech, we refer to common knowledge by saying something
like, "They say that..." or "Some people say...". In most cases, this is
not acceptable in a formal paper. If you think that there was a general
dislike among critics for symbolist poetry, you cannot simply say, "Some
critics condemned symbolist poetry." It may not be common knowledge among
your readers who these critics are. You should cite at least one critic
and make a case that this point of view represented a consensus at the
time: "Critics such as Albert Raymond of Le Monde harshly condemned
the innovations of symbolist poetry (Raymond 1)." Alternatively, you could
cite an authoritative secondary source: "Many critics of the time condemned
the innovations of symbolist poetry (Smith 98)." Whenever you make a point
that somebody said something or held a certain opinion, you need to cite
that fact, unless it is truly common knowledge as defined above.
Quotations within Quotations
If a source you are quoting quotes another source, the reader needs to
know who is saying what: "'[Apollinaire] had the gift of discovering sources
of joy, pleasure, amusement, where others would only have seen platitude
and banality...'"
There are two sources here, as shown by the interior quotes. It
is insufficient to simply cite the source you used. Your reader will want
to know who said these words. In this case, you can cite it as: (Billy
qtd. in Schwartz 35). If Schwartz doesn't attribute the quote to a particular
source or if the source is otherwise clear from your text, that name can be
left out: (qtd. in Schwarz 35).
Electronic sources
The explosion of information on the web and other electronic sources has
created problems as well as opportunities never considered by earlier writers.
Now it is not only incumbent on the writer to find information, the writer
must also verify its reliability and authority. While the very fact that
a source was printed by a reputable publishing firm previously vouched
for its authority in questions of fact (at least for the purposes of papers
for this class), no such mechanism exists on the web. One way to establish
credibility is to show that the work previously appeared in a peer-reviewed
journal, for example, but, if that's the case, you might as well cite the
journal. Electronic sources are best used as a way to browse a lot of information,
but not as cited sources in your final paper. However, if you do need to
cite electronic materials, here is the latest MLA format for web pages --
author, title, date of last update, date of access, and URL:
Seeger, Peggy. Ruth Crawford Seeger. 1996. September 16, 2001.
<http://www.pegseeger.com/html/dio.html>.
While authors and dates of the latest updates are not always obvious,
they can often be found with a little searching. Not including them when
they are available may affect your grade. For more details on citing electronic
sources, see The St. Martin's Handbook.
An Example Exercise
Here are two excerpts from actual sources. Below are some possible sentences
in a paper. What needs to be cited, what needs to be in quotes, and why?
"Pierrot Lunaire is an ambiguous work in many senses. The
soloist is required to use Sprechgesang, a mode of vocalization lying between
song and speech....The manner is part that of 'serious' music, part that
of the cabaret, the vocalist being accompanied by a small band of flute,
clarinet, two strings, and piano....Above all the 'light, ironic, satirical
tone' is fused with feelings of terrified isolation, murderous violence,
macabre glee and hopeless nostalgia....Though still freely atonal, Pierrot
returns towards the contrapuntal proprieties and so prepares the way for
ordering of atonality which Schoenberg was to achieve in serialism." Griffiths,
Paul. Modern Music: A Concise History. Revised ed. New York: Thames
and Hudson, Inc. 1994.
"Schoenberg's Pierrot is a far cry from the clown of the commedia
dell'arte. This Pierrot presents many apparently psychotic features whose
significance was being brought to light by psychoanalytic psychology....In
its musical form, Pierrot Lunaire represents a shift from Schoenberg's
recent expressive compositions to a new emphasis on form....In the piece
'Moonspot,' when Pierrot looks around and discovers a white spot on his
back, his action is accompanied by the piano playing a three-part fugue,
the clarinet and piccolo forming canons in diminution with the first two
voices of the fugue, and a third canon, independent of the others, handled
by the violin and cello." Peyser, Joan. The New Music: The Sense Behind
the Sound. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1971.
Pierrot Lunaire demonstrates ambiguity in its use of Sprechgesang
(a kind of speech-song), its debt to the cabaret tradition, and the irony
of the text.
Pierrot Lunaire is a "freely atonal" work, which means
that, while it does not have any key like conventional music of the time,
neither is its atonality systematized by serialism, as Schoenberg's later
works would be.
Giraud's expressionistic text for Pierrot Lunaire presents
dark, psychotic images of terrified isolation in the character of a clown
of the commedia dell'arte. Unlike the immediately preceding pieces, Schoenberg's
techniques in Pierrot include a return to the proprieties of counterpoint,
including the use of fugue and canon, as in the piece "Moonspot."
The apparent psychoanalytical view of the mind in Pierrot
may indicate the influence of Schoenberg's fellow-Viennese contemporary,
Sigmund Freud. |