English Department students at Rhodes University use the MLA Referencing Style.
List references in alphabetical order in the Bibliography at the end of the essay
All Examples of reference types as detailed in the English Department 'Guide to essay writing'
Last name, First name. Title of the book. Edition used. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication. Medium of publication.
Fitzgerald,F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 1926. Intro. Tony Tanner. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990. Print
OR
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet . Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984. Print
NOTE: 1926 refers to the original date of publication of the novel, and this particular edition has an introduction by Tony Tanner.
NOTE: Only the date of the edition used is provided, as there is often doubt about the date of the first publication of Shakespeare's plays.
NOTE: After the first line, all subsequent lines are indented/'tabbed'.(The "hanging" option in the "special" window of the paragraph format options in Microsoft Word enables you to do this automatically, i.e. after you have typed in all the correct information against the left-hand margin.
Aprilson, Andy. The Emergency Budget Task Force Handbook. Mississippi: Haberdasher,2001.
The format is the same as for a single-author volume:
Stem, Milton R. The Golden Moment: The Novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald .Urbana, IL:U of Illinois P, 1970.
Appiah, Kwame Anthony . "Kindness to Strangers. " Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: Norton, 2007. 155-174.
Bercovitch, Sacvan and Myra Jehlen, eds. Ideology and Classic American Literature. Cambridge: University Press, 1986.
Kehler, Dorothea, ed. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Critical Essays. New York: Garland, 1998.
NOTE: In the first entry above, only the first editor's name is arranged alphabetically according to surname; thereafter, names are arranged with first name(s)/initials first, followed by surnames. (The same convention applies to multi-authored works . Alternatively, if more than three editors/authors are involved, simply use "et al").
This includes full details of the book too:
Gamer, Shirley Nelson. "A Midsummer Night's Dream: 'Jack Shall have Jill; I Nought Shall Go Ill."' A Midsummer's Night's Dream: Critical Essays .Ed. Dorothea Kehler. New York: Garland, 1998. 127-43.
Marx, Leo. "Pastoralism in America. "Ideology and Classic American Literature. Ed. Sacvan Bercovitch and Myra Jehlen. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986. 36-69.
NOTE: In the two examples above, "Ed." means "edited by", and the editor's name/editors' names follow the first name(s)/initials, followed by surname, arrangement.
The format here includes details about the journal's publication.
Bryer, Jackson R."Four Decades of Fitzgerald Studies: The Best and the Brightest." Twentieth Century Literature 26.2 (1980): 247-67.
NOTE: The title of the article is put in inverted commas, because it is part of a larger journal which contains other articles too. The journal 's title is underlined (if handwritten) or italicised (if typed), followed by the volume and edition number (26.2), the year of publication in parentheses, and the inclusive page references for the entire article.
If you have used an academic journal in an electronic format you need to indicate that you used the electronic and not the printed version. Always try to use an electronic version with page numbers to make footnoting easier. You also need to indicate which database you used to access the journal (in brackets), adding the full database URL is optional:
S. Benatar, "Health Care Reform and the Crisis of HIV and AIDS in South Africa", The New England Journal of Medicine, 351, 1, 2004 (accessed using EBSCOhost).
Include the department, the university, the subject of the handout, and the date. Only list the lecturer's name if you are sure that the lecturer wrote the handout;
Department of English, Rhodes University. Handout on The Great Gatsby. 2006.
Beard, Margot. Handout on The Great Gatsby. Department of English, Rhodes University. 2006.
Include the name of the lecturer, the subject of the lecture, the department, the university, and the date:
Beard, Margot. Lecture on The Great Gatsby. Department of English, Rhodes University: 6 April 2006.
The names of the compilers are not mentioned, so the entry begins with the title:
Productions of Time. Comp. Department of English. Grahamstown : Rhodes University,2012.
See English Online: A Student's Guide to the Internet and World Wide Web, kept on Short Loan, for a comprehensive guide to citing from electronic sources and listing these sources in your bibliography.
In general, however, you need to include: the author's name, if available (if not then the title of the site); the title of the work (journal, magazine, anthology) or title of the document (if available);information about electronic publication; date accessed; and URL (Internet address) . If there is no URL for the document, provide the site's homepage address :
Sohmer, Steve. "12 June 1599: Opening Day at Shakespeare 's Globe. "Early Modern Literary Studies 3.1 (1997):46 pars. @6 June 2002.<http://www.shu .ac.uk/ems/03-llsohmjuli.html >
NOTE: Here we have author's name, the title of the document/article, information about electronic publication (no. of pages/paragraphs), date accessed, URL
Some academic journals may only be available online in electronic format. These must be acknowledged using the academic journal format, but the full URL must be cited:
e.g. G.Baines, "The rainbow nation? Identity and nation-building in post-apartheid South Africa", Mots Pluriels, No.7 (July, 1998) at
http://www .arts.uwa.edu.au/MotsPluriels/MP798gb.html
List all newspapers and newspaper articles that you have read. Include the name of the author, the name of the newspa per (in italics or underlined) and the exact date (day-month-year):
e.g. George Monbiot, "Sleepwalking to Extinction ", Mail and Guardian, 15 July
2004.
or Unknown author, "Slavery Should Not be Abolished in Grahamstown",
Graham's Town Journal, 1September 1828 (Cory library).
When using material from an archive (such as the Cory library) you should acknowledge the archive and use the referencing system employed by them. (This also facilitates other researchers using the material.)
If you use material from several archives standard practice is to put the name of the archive as a heading then list all the sources used alphabetically by reference (this applies mostly to post-graduate work).
Whichever system you choose to use, be consistent :
e.g. Sophia Pigot, Personal Diary, January-December 1838, Doc.779 Pig, Cory Library, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
or Cory Library, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. MS 786
Lovedale Institution Records.
MS 7277 South African Teachers Association .
PR 3682 B 2695 Correspondence of R. Shepherd 1888-1970.
Only put primary sources/archival material that you yourself have used in your bibliography.
These are academic works that have not been published as books or journals, and include theses or papers delivered at conferences. Unpublished material can also refer to pamphlets or manuscripts that have not been published.
Unpublished works are listed in a similar manner to published works and must include the name of the author, the title and the year produced and the type of work:
e.g. C. Kros, 'Economic, Political and Intellectual Origins of Bantu Education 1926B51', PhD Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1997.
or C. Tsampira s, 'Challenging Legacies: Gender, Violence and Slavery in Graaf-Reinet (1830-1834)' paper presented at Eastern Cape: Historical Legacies and New Challenges Conference, East London, South Africa, 27-30 August 2003.
Interviews with informants should be listed alphabetically and must indicate the name of the informant, the place the interview was held and the date: ·
e.g. J. Njokweni (Healdtown, Eastern Cape,South Africa, 18 January 2000) .
Sr.Josefilia (Mariannhill, KZN, South Africa, 27 June 1998).
When referring to films, videos and DVDs make sure that you indicate:
the title (consistently either italicised or underlined); the name of the director; the name of the studio OR production company OR distributor of the film; if necessary indicate the version, release or other distinguishing feature of the film (e.g.if you are using a special edition or director's cut version of the film) the format in which you watched the film, video or DVD; the release dates (both the original and the version you use); if you refer to a specific scene or dialogue, you may also refer to the specific time it occurs in the film (this is optional but easier to reference when using a DVD or video with a timer):
e.g. The Hours, Dir. Stephen Daldry, (DVD, Paramount, 2002, DVD release December 2003); 01:27:59.
e.g. Citizen Kane, Dir. Orson Welles (Film, RKO Radio Pictures, 1941).
e.g. A Bout de Souffle (Breathless), Dir. Jean-Luc Godard (Videocassette, Prod. Georges de Beauregard,1960; Dist. Connoisseur Video Collection, 1989).
e.g. Apocalypse Now - The Complete Dossier, Dir. Francis Ford Coppola (DVD, Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition, Paramount, 1979, DVD release August 2006).