Lecture topic: Names of authors, titles of books, and miscellaneous items:

Names of authors:

For a works cited page citation (and by extension for citations in annotated bibliographies) you must be careful to omit from an author’s name any degree or other type of title he may hold.

For example, if the author’s name appears on the title page of his work as John W. Smith, Ph.D, or John W. Smith, MD, or Dr. John W. Smith, or John W. Smith, President and CEO, your citation would begin as follows:

Smith, John W.

As you can see in the above example, I have omitted any other information that has to do with the degree the author has earned, or a title or position he holds.

Naming authors in your own prose:

When you are writing your essays, the first time you name an author you must give the full name under which the author publishes. You cannot, for example, omit a middle initial. Using the author named above, the first time he is mentioned in your prose he should be referred to as John W. Smith, and in all subsequent instances he should be referred to as Smith.

Also, if a source has more than one author, do not change the order in which they are listed in the source. The authors have decided on the order in which they will be listed, and you cannot change it.

Titles of scholarly articles:

Because the articles you will engage are sometimes written in accordance with style guidelines other than MLA, you may find that capitalization within the titles varies. Still, in MLA the important words in the title must be capitalized. The important words are everything except prepositions, conjunctions, the definite and indefinite articles.

For example, you may run across an article titled:

The broken syntax in stream of consciousness writing: A closer look at the narratology of Samuel Beckett’s Molloy

The above example is incorrect in terms of MLA formatting because the important words in the article’s title must be capitalized. The important words are everything but the words “a” and “the,” as well as prepositions.

It should read as follows:

The Broken Syntax in Stream of Consciousness Writing: A Closer Look at the Narratology of Samuel Beckett’s Molloy

Notice the following in the above example:

• The word “A” is capitalized only because it is the first word after the colon.
• The word Molloy is italicized because it is the title of a book. Titles of plays and films would also be capitalized, but if Molloy were the title of a short story or a scholarly article then it should go inside quotation marks.
• The prepositions are not capitalized.

Another example:

The flying saucer phenomena and the state of hard evidence: a guide to the open-minded skeptic

Correctly cited, it would read as follows:

“The Flying Saucer Phenomena and the State of Hard Evidence: A Guide to the Open-Minded Skeptic.”

• Notice that the first instance of “The” is capitalized because it is the first word of the title, and the word “A” is capitalized only because it is the first word after the colon.

Titles of plays, films, and books should either be in italics or underlined, like so:

“The Ghost in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.” Or “The Ghost in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.”

Basically, quotes within quotes go inside single quotation marks. Notice the triple quotation marks that begin the citation.

What if part of the title of the article you want to cite has quotation marks in it?

For example:

“This England” in the New World Order

Correctly cited, it would read as follows:

“‘This England’ in the New World Order.”

Basically, quotes within quotes go inside single quotation marks. Notice the triple quotation marks that begin the citation.

Another MLA style guideline not covered in your course book deals with abbreviations in citations:

When naming a publisher in a citation the words University and Press should be abbreviated to U and P, respectively.

For example:

Martz, Louis. The Poetry of Meditation. New Haven: Yale UP, 1961. Print.

Further examples:

The University of Chicago Press would be cited as: U of Chicago P

Abbreviate these words only when naming the publisher in a works cited citation.

Follow these rules when composing works cited page citations, and when composing citations for your annotated bibliography.