CITATION FORMATS

Question 1

Author named in a signal phrase

Answer 1

Fredrick Lane reports that employers do not necessarily have to use software to monitor how their employees use the Web: employers can “use a hidden video camera pointed at an employee’s monitor” and even position a camera “so that a number of monitors [can] be viewed as the same time” (147).

Question 2

Author named in parentheses

Answer 2

Companies can monitor employees’ every keystroke without legal penalty, but they may have to combat low morale as a result (Lane 129). If the signal phrase does not name the author, put the author’s last name in parentheses along with the page number.

Question 3

Author unknown

Answer 3

A popular keystroke logging program operates invisibly on workers’ computers yet provides supervisors with details of the workers’ online activities (“Automatically”). Either use the complete title in a signal phrase or use a short form of the title in parentheses.

Question 4

Page number unknown

Answer 4

As a 2005 study by Salary.com and America Online indicates, the Internet ranked as the top choice among employees for ways of wasting time on the job; it beat talking with co-workers–the second most popular method–by a margin of nearly two to one (Frauenheim). Do not include a page number if a work lacks page numbers, as is the case with many Web sources.

Question 5

One-page source

Answer 5

If the source is one page long, MLA allows, but does not require you to omit the page number. Even so, it’s a good idea to supply the page number because without it readers may not know where your citation ends or, worse, may not realize that you have provided a citation at all.

Question 6

Two or three authors

Answer 6

Kizza and Ssanyu note that “employee monitoring is a dependable, capable, and very affordable process of electronically or otherwise recording all employee activities at work” and elsewhere (2). Name the authors in a signal phrase or include their last names in the parenthetical reference.

Question 7

Four or more authors

Answer 7

The study was extended for two years, and only after results were reviewed by an independent panel did the researchers publish their findings (Blaine et al. 35). Name all of the authors or include only the first author’s name followed by “et al.”

Question 8

Organization as author

Answer 8

According to a 2001 survey of human resources managers by the American Management Association, more than three-quarters of the responding companies reported disciplining employees for “misuse or personal use of office telecommunications equipment” (2). When the author is a corporation or an organization, name that author either in the signal phrase or in the parentheses.

Question 9

Authors with the same last name

Answer 9

Estimates of the frequency with which employers monitor employees’ use of the Internet each day vary widely (A. Jones 15). If your list of works cited includes works by two or more authors with the same last name, include the author’s first name in the signal phrase or first initial in the parentheses.

Question 10

Two or more works by the same author

Answer 10

Mention the title of the work in the signal phrase or include a short version of the title in the parentheses.

Question 11

Two or more works in on citation

Answer 11

To cite more than one source in the parentheses, give the citations in alphabetical order and separate them with a semicolon.

Question 12

Repeated citations from the same source

Answer 12

When your paper is about a single work of fiction or nonfiction, you do not need to include the author’s name each time you quote from or paraphrase the work. After you mention the author’s name at the beginning of your paper, you may include just the page numbers in your parenthetical citations.

Question 13

Encyclopedia or dictionary entry

Answer 13

Unless an entry in an encyclopedia or a dictionary has an author, the source will be alphabetized in the list of works cited under the word or entry that you consulted. Either your text or in your parenthetical citation, mention the word or entry, No page number is required, since readers can easily look up the word or entry.

Question 14

Multivolume work

Answer 14

If your paper cites more than one volume of a multivolume work, indicate in the parentheses the volume you are referring to, followed by a colon and the page number.

Question 15

Entire work

Answer 15

Use the author’s name in a signal phrase or a parenthetical citation. There is no need to use a page number.
Lane explores the evolution of surveillance in the workplace.

Question 16

Selection in an anthology

Answer 16

Put the name of the author of the selection in the signal phrase or the parentheses.
In “Love Is a Fallacy,” the narrator’s logical teachings disintegrate when Polly declares that she should date Petey because “[h]e’s got a raccoon coat” (Shulman 379).

Question 17

Government document

Answer 17

When a government agency is the author, you will alphabetize it in the list of works cited under the name of the government such as United States or Great Britain. For this reason, you must name the government as well as the agency in your in-text citation.

Question 18

Historical document

Answer 18

For a historical document, such as the United States Constitution or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, provide the document title, neither italicized or in quotation marks, along with relevant article and section numbers. In parenthetical citations, use common abbreviations such as “art.” and “sec.” and abbreviations of well-known titles.

Question 19

Legal source

Answer 19

For legislative acts and court cases, name the act or case either in a signal phrase or in parentheses. Italicize the names of cases but not the names of acts.

Question 20

Visual such as a photograph, map, or chart

Answer 20

To cite a visual that has a figure number in the source, use the abbreviation “fig.” and the number in place of a page number in your parenthetical citation: (Manning, fig. 4).

Question 21

Email, letter, or personal interview

Answer 21

Cite email messages, personal letters, and personal interviews by the name listed in the works cited entry, as you would for any other source. Identify the type of source in your text if you feel it is necessary.

Question 22

Web site or other electronic source

Answer 22

Your in-text citations for an electronic source should follow the same guidelines as for other sources. If the source lacks page numbers but has numbered paragraphs, sections, or division, use those numbers with the appropriate abbreviations in your in-text citation: “par.,” “sec.,” “ch.,” “pt.,” and so on. Do not add such numbers if the source itself does not use them; simply give the author or title in your in-text citation.

Question 23

Indirect source (source quoted in another source)

Answer 23

When a writer’s or a speaker’s quoted words appear in a source written by someone else, begin the parenthetical citation with the abbreviation “qtd. in.”

Question 24

Literary work without parts or line numbers

Answer 24

Many literary works, such as most short stories and many novels and plays, do not have parts or line numbers. In such cases, simply cite the page number.

Question 25

Verse play or poem

Answer 25

For verse plays, give act, scene and line numbers that can be located in any edition of the work. Use Arabic numerals and separate the numbers with periods.

Question 26

Novel with numbered divisions

Answer 26

When a novel has numbered divisions, put the page number first, followed by a semicolon and the book, part, or chapter in which the passage may be found. Use abbreviations such as “bk.,” “pt.,” and “ch.”

Question 27

Sacred text

Answer 27

When citing a sacred text such as the Bible or the Qur’an, name the edition you are using in your works cited entry. In your parenthetical citation, give the book, chapter, and verse, separated with periods.