A blue handout was given in class today listing sample entries for the MLA Style for Listing Sources. It contains examples for books and other resources; at the bottom of the page, there is a sample of how it should look, along with some things to notice -- the sample list is in alphabetical order by author's last name, the first line sticks out, and the additional lines for the same entry are indented (this is called a hanging indent), and a line has been skipped between each resource.
Our textbook would show up in a bibliography as follows:
Berwald, Juli, et al. Focus on Earth Science. New York,
New York: McGrawHillGlencoe, 2007. page start - page end.
If you were using a workbook which does not have an author nor copyright date listed (seems very odd, but it does occur), I would treat this as a chapter book (not listed on the blue handout from class). You have two options for the
resource list, (1) Putting the title first, and putting it into your
alphabetical list of sources using the title only; (2) calling the
author "---" which represents that the author of the work is unknown.
The samples below go the with the unknown option. The entry would look
similar to this, including the hanging indent. [notes:
1. it is possible that the hanging indent does not show up correctly on
this page due to different sizes of computer monitors; 2. the
"n.d."stands for no date, because the Holt workbook does not list it's
copy right date.]
option 1:
"Chapter's Title." Holt California Earth Science Interactive Reader and Study Guide. Orlando: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, n.d. page start--page end.
option 2:
---. "Chapter's Title." Holt California Earth Science Interactive Reader and Study Guide. Orlando: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, n.d. page start--page end.
However where it says "Chapter's Title" you will enter the title of the
chapter or section in which you found the information. Then, where
it says page start -- page end, you would type the pages that you got
the information from. Let's imagine that you used chapter 17, Biomes
and Ecosystems, the section on Land Biomes. It begins on p. 310-317.
Imagine that you also looked at page 307 for the definition of biome,
which is being quoted in your work. Here is a sample of what your bibliography would look like.
option 1:
"Biomes and Ecosystems." Holt California Earth Science Interactive Reader and Study Guide. Orlando: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston, n.d. 307, 310-317.
option 2:
---. "Biomes and Ecosystems." Holt California Earth Science Interactive Reader and Study Guide. Orlando: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston, n.d. 307, 310-317.
For more samples, you could look at, http://www.aresearchguide.com/11guide.html#date
which looks like it is very comprehensive and would be extremely
useful, although I have not come across it before so I am somewhat
hesitant in suggesting it. If it gives you the option to download
anything, close the window immediately. According to their site, you would set up the bibliography for a radio or television program (like those we have seen in class relating to Earthquakes) as follows: Radio, television Components:
1) Title of episode, underlined; or in quotes if appropriate. 2) Title
of program, underlined. 3) Title of series. 4) Name of network. 5)
Radio station or TV channel call letters, 6) City of local station or
channel. 6) Broadcast date.
However, I have used the next to sites
before and they are from more reputable sources
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/07/ and
http://www.library.cornell.edu/newhelp/res_strategy/citing/mla.html
and of course, there is the Google search option. The Perdue.edu site was used to create the sample entry on the video shown in class about earthquakes. There are things called parenthetical citations, which is usually used if you are taking a direct quote from your resource; it is a very good way to avoid plagiarism. I did not go over this in class, however, you can find more details on how
they work by using the three sites.
"Angry Earth Education." Naked Science. Writ. and Dir. Stuart Everett.
National Geographic. NTGEO, Washingtoon D.C.. 20 Nov. 2004.
A common error I saw last year occurred when students listed the website for a picture after doing a Google Image Search. If you are using pictures from the internet that you found by doing a Google Image Search, you must give the web address of the picture, not the search. To do this, click on the image, remove the frame, then look to see the web address for the picture. The address must NOT contain http://images.google.com because Google did not post the picture, it only found it for you. It would be like saying that PW made the milk for you (PW's role was that it sold the milk, where as the cow on the dairy farm made the milk).
One last reminder, be sure to put each item for your bibliography
in alphabetical order by last name. If there is no name given,
consider where "unknown" fits in alphabetically with the other author's
last names, or just have the title be the first thing listed in the bibliography.