LibGuides: MONT 199C-F12: Learning from the Past (Andreoni): Citation and Annotated Bibliographies

Academic Honesty & Academic Integrity

Academic Honesty means being honest and ethical about the way that you do academic work. This includes citing and acknowledging when you borrow from the work of others. As Holy Cross students, you are required to follow the College's Academic Honesty policy.

Excerpt from the College Academic Integrity Policy:

It is the responsibility of students, independent of the faculty’s responsibility, to understand the proper methods of using and quoting from source materials (refer to http://libguides.holycross.edu/citationhelp or standard handbooks such as The Little Brown Handbook and The Hodges Harbrace Handbook), and to take credit only for work they have completed through their own individual efforts within the guidelines established by the faculty.

For more information and guidelines on Academic Honesty, visit the Academic Honesty & Academic Integrity Research Guide.

Research and scholarship is one big conversation - you are building your research with the support of another researcher who built their research with the support of another researcher who built their research with the support of another researcher... And so on. By citing sources, you are putting your work into that legacy and conversation. And who knows, maybe in the future someone will cite your work in their research.

Other reasons to cite sources:

Give a road map to information: Your professor or others who read your work can see where you found your information and can review those sources themselves.
Give credit to the hard work of other researchers: Research and publication take a lot of time and effort. Citing your sources helps other researchers continue to do their work and shows respect for the time they put into their research.
Boost your own credibility: When you are evaluating how credible or accurate a source is, you may check the source’s citations to see if they are using scholarly sources and using them effectively. The same is true for your work - citing your sources makes you more credible and helps you build a stronger argument.
Academic integrity: Education at Holy Cross is a cooperative process. Using information honestly and ethically is one way to contribute to that cooperation and create a strong academic standard across campus. Everyone at Holy Cross is part of this educational conversation and has a responsibility to uphold academic integrity.
School policy: The College takes issues of academic integrity seriously. Violating the Academic Integrity Policy can result in a failing grade and disciplinary action. So make sure to cite your sources and present your own original work!

What needs to be cited?

In addition to citing exact quotations from your sources, you need to cite any ideas or words that you did not think up yourself. You should always cite:

Anything you summarize from another source
Websites (even if there is no author listed)
Information you received from other people, such as information learned during interviews
Graphs, illustrations, and any other visual items you use in your work. (This includes images from websites.)
Video and audio recordings that you sample in your work.

Some things you don't need to cite:

Your own life experiences or ideas
Your own results from lab or field experiments
Any artwork or media you have created yourself
“Common knowledge” (This is information that can be found undocumented in many places and is likely to be known by many people.)

From the Claremont Colleges Library's tutorial on Exploring Academic Integrity: http://libraries.claremont.edu/achontutorial/pages/achon_mod02pg10.html

Good practice for taking notes:

Before writing a note, read the original text over until you understand the meaning.
Use quotation marks around any exact phrasing you use from the original source.
While you are taking your notes, record the source for each piece of information (including page numbers) in your notes so that you’ll be able to cite the source in your paper.

Use a variety of sources in your research.

If you use only one source, you may end up using too many of that author’s ideas and words. Research is a conversation and you should include multiple perspectives and sources to help you come to your point. Using multiple sources can help you craft a better argument and can make sure you're not leaning too heavily on one author's work.

Plan ahead!

Leave yourself enough time to do your research and writing. If you are rushing to finish your paper, you’ll be more likely to improperly cite things or to accidentally plagiarize. Give yourself time to look over your work and check your citations.

MLA Citations

About MLA Style

The Modern Languages Association (MLA) citation style is often used in the language arts, literature studies, and other humanities fields. The 9th edition of the MLA Handbook was published in 2021 and is the most current version. In MLA style, sources are cited in-text using parenthetical references and in a complete Works Cited list at the end of a paper. See the box on this page labeled MLA Style Guides for links to the MLA Handbook and associated websites to help you with your citations.

Works Cited Entry: Basic Structure

MLA provides a standard format for the core elements to include in a Works Cited list, which are shown in the image here.

In general, a citation will start with the author's name, followed by the title of the source. The citation will then provide information about the "container" - the larger work where the source is found. This could be a book, a scholarly journal, or a web page. Periods are used between the author and title of the source. Within the container, commas separate the individual elements and the entire citation ends with a period.

Works Cited Entry: Example

Here is an example of a journal article cited in MLA format in a works cited page.

Verini, Alexandra. "Medieval Models of Female Friendship in Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies and Margery Kempe’s The Book of Margery Kempe.” Feminist Studies, vol. 42, no. 2, 2016, pp. 365-391. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.15767/feministstudies.42.2.0365.

Now let's see how this citation corresponds with the MLA core elements:

1. Author.	Verini, Alexandra.	Author's name is listed Last name, First name.
2. Title of Source.	"Medieval Models of Female Friendship in Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies and Margery Kempe’s The Book of Margery Kempe.”	The article title is capitalized "headline style," meaning each word is capitalized. In this case, the title also contains the title of books. Those are formatted in italics.

3. Title of Container,	Feminist Studies,	The journal title is listed in italics.
4. Contributor,		Not applicable, so we leave this blank. The contributor may refer to an editor or translator, which this article does not have.
5. Version,		Not applicable, so we leave this blank. This is used if there are multiple editions of a source.
6. Number,	vol. 42, no. 2,	The volume and issue of the journal are listed with the abbreviations vol. and no. and separated by commas.
7. Publisher,		Not applicable, so we leave this blank. Citations for journals do not need to include a publisher because there typically is no publisher, or the publisher is the same as the journal title.
8. Publication Date,	2016,	Include as much of the date as you are given. Some journals may give a month and year or a season and year. Enter the date in the following order: Month Day, Year.
9. Location.	pp. 365-391.	Give information to help your reader find your source within the container. In this case, we provide the page numbers with the abbreviation pp. before the page range. Note that this does not refer to a geographic location - you would only use the geographic location for a source or event that is located in one physical location, like a painting in a museum or an orchestra performance you attended.
Because this article was found in a database, we also cite the database as a "Second Container." To conserve space, only the core elements that are included in the citation are listed below.
3. Title of Container,	JSTOR,	This is the database where the article was found.
9. Location.	https://doi.org/10.15767/ feministstudies.42.2.0365.	A DOI, URL, or permanent link is used to give the location of a source that is hosted online.

In-Text Citation: Basic Structure

In MLA, works are cited throughout the text using parenthetical references with the author's last name and the associated page number. The in-text citation should direct the reader to the full citation in your works cited list, so the first word in the in-text citation should match the first word in the works cited entry. This will usually be the first author's last name, but if you are ever citing a work by a title instead of an author you would use that title in your in-text citation. If you are quoting or paraphrasing a specific part of the source, you should also include a page number in your in-text citation.

In-Text Citation: Example

Here are some example in-text citations for the journal article cited in the last example.

Some scholars seek to fill a gap in the research of medieval and early modern portrayals of friendship by focusing on those authors who wrote about female friendship (Verini).

As Alexandra Verini notes, Pizan and Margery explore female friendship as "vital instruments of social change" (390).

The author explores the classic understanding of public and private spheres and describes how Pizan "imagines female friendship as a bond that moves within and between these spheres" (Verini 375).

When there is a direct quote or paraphrase from the work, include the page number. If the author's name is introduced in the text, do not include it in the parenthetical citation.

Footnotes

Footnotes are used to provide citations without breaking up the text with parenthetical references. In a footnote, the citation is listed at the bottom of the page with a number that corresponds to the part of the text where it is cited. The first time you include a source in a footnote, you should provide a full citation like you would in a Works Cited page. The following times you cite that source, include a shortened footnote with the author's last name and the page number (if applicable - for quotes and paraphrasing).

Annotated Bibliography

What is an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is like an expanded Works Cited list. In an annotated bibliography, you cite your sources and then add an annotation that describes and evaluates the cited source. Creating an annotated bibliography is an opportunity for you to think critically about your sources and how you will use them in your research. It can also help you keep track of the key arguments and content of each source and identify the strengths and weaknesses of sources.

Parts of an Annotated Bibliography

Citation: Start with a complete citation in MLA format. Your sources should be listed in your annotated bibliography in the same order and format as you would list them in a typical Works Cited page.
Annotation: Each citation is followed by a descriptive annotation. Keep in mind that your annotation is not simply a summary of the source. It should include some analysis and evaluation of the source. Think back to the section of this guide about evaluating sources - those questions may help you form your annotation. Some things to consider are:
- Arguments: What is the author trying to say or prove? How successful or unsuccessful are they?
- Comparison: How does this source compare to others you have found? Does it provide a similar perspective to other sources? A different perspective? What is unique about this source's argument?
- Usefulness: What is useful or not useful about this source? Why would someone want to use it, or why do you want to use it?
- Other information: What else stands out about this source? What do you want to remember about it?

Elements of a Successful Annotated Bibliography
Use this template to create your own annotated bibliography. This document also includes a sample annotated bibliography in MLA Style.

Annotated Bibliography Tips

Avoid simply summarizing the source. Use your annotations to think about the main arguments in the source and how it connects to your overall research.
Think about how your sources relate to each other. Research is a conversation! The sources you find should connect to each other in some way. Maybe they provide different perspectives on a similar theme. Maybe they support each other's findings, or maybe they disagree with each other. Think about common themes and points of disagreement in your sources and how this connects to your research question.
Consider what is unique about each source. Why would you use this source in your research over another? What new or interesting perspective does it add to the conversation?
Include what is helpful about a source in the annotation. This can even be with a sentence that starts with "This article is useful for..." Your annotations should work as a tool for deciding how how to use sources in your research.
Take notes as you read your source! Stop after each section and think about the main point of that section. Underline or highlight common themes or concepts that appear more than once. Make note of questions that come up as you read.