In all of my classes students are required to submit bibliographies and document sources in the style developed for the Modern Language Association. This widely-used format offers consistency among the various disciplines in the humanities, and guarantees that the sources being used are properly attributed, and that the bibliography provides sufficient information for the reader to be able to access and assess the sources when necessary.

Although the websites listed below have been chosen for quality of presentation and ease of use, the ultimate arbiter is available in the LRC (I also have a copy): Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2003. This newest edition has simplified the system somewhat, and methods for documenting electronic media are much clearer. Many new examples are included, and Gibaldi also provides guidelines for conducting research, and an updated section on avoiding plagiarism. Note that many of the sites listed below will not have updated their information to the 6th edition, which has just been published, but guidelines for non-electronic media do not seem to have changed. Consult the MLA page for electronic media if necessary.

Sample MLA Bibliography. This is my rather infamous "Flinstones Bibliography," with examples of the most common citations used by my students. It's still based on the 5th edition, and I'll update it shortly. As long as your bibliography approximates this one, however, I'll give you full credit.

MLA Style. This is from the MLA home page, and lists the general guidelines and examples for citing electronic texts.

Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format. Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)

Honolulu Community College Library: How to Document Sources in MLA Style (.pdf). This page provides examples of how to cite sources within the paper or essay itself, and what the corresponding bibliographic entry would look like.

The New Guide to Writing Research Papers from Monroe Community College (New York). The link is to the MLA style section, which offers a nicely indexed, easily accessible set of examples for a variety of sources.

Several of the sites I located when searching for useful MLA sources were still based on the 4th edition of the Handbook (published in 1995); I did not include any of these, no matter how helpful they looked otherwise, because the formats have changed fairly radically since then. All of those listed above conform to the 5th edition (1999), which is similar to the latest edition (6th) except in regard to electronic sources.

history of art & design l l history of art & design II l art & design since 1945 l visual anthropology
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