English 104/105 Style Sheet
Every academic discipline requires writers to conform to certain standards of visual presentation or "format." Most disciplines' formats differ from one another, but all are important to readers. Therefore, papers for all sections will conform to the same style (the MLA Stylesheet), a summary of which is presented below. For complete instructions, see the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (most recent edition after 1986), or the online U. Illinois Urbana-Champaigne web site. The rules of standard academic English usage and grammar are not trivial. Failure to follow them will reduce the paper's grade. To see a large sample "Works Cited" section formatted in MLA style, click here. To see the most common citation formats, scroll down on this page.
The Writing Center:
Successful academic writing is a difficult art which few can master without coaching. Visit the Writing Center and plan your paper with a tutor's help. Don't wait until you are committed to a written draft--they are not a "proofreading service." Tutors do not have to be experts in medieval literature in order to help you. The simple act of explaining your thinking to a good writer clarifies and focuses your ideas. This is as true for an "A" writer as it is for a writer of marginal abilities. Moreover, the service is free. The Center is in Froelicher Hall (337-6551), M-F 10:30-4:30, M-Th & Sun, 7:00-10:00 PM.
Late paper Policy: Students who turn in papers late obtain an unfair advantage over those who turn in papers on time. Late papers will be penalized 1/3 grade per day starting with the day they are due (and including weekends).
Plagiarism Policy: Writing assignments must be prepared by each student in accordance with the Goucher College Honor Code. All papers submitted for a grade must be accompanied by all notes and rough drafts used to create them. No paper will be accepted for a grade without materials documenting its creation.
Overall Paper Format (very important--read this carefully!):
All papers must be typed or computer printed, double-spaced, with appropriate margins. Papers should not include separate pages for titles or Works Cited sections, and no blank pages or special binders should be used. All papers must identify themselves on the first page by title, author, course and section number, and date. All pages must be numbered. Each paper must end with an accurate and properly constructed "Works Cited" section. All sources must be acknowledged in parentheses in your text, as in this reference to a claim that "Vietnamese military officers approached [U.S. Ambassador] Lodge to ask whether the United States would support a coup" (Chafe 270). This reference would be correct only if a corresponding entry for Chafe's publication existed in the Works Cited section.
Use endnotes only to explain complex indebtedness. The course encourages discussion outside of class. If your paper benefited from the ideas of others, acknowledge them in an endnote to the first sentence which says something like this:
1) This paper benefited from conversations in Professor Marx's Political Science 231 course, especially from Edith Piaf's comments on poverty and arts funding. I also thank my Writing Center tutor, Nancy Atwell, whose conferences helped me define my thesis about Ginsberg's struggles to write in poverty.
This note protects its author from violation of the Honor Code, helping to explain how it might be that Edith's paper may contain similar ideas about poverty and the arts, or that another writer who talked with Nancy Atwell had a similar thesis about Ginsberg. Remember, acknowledged prewriting collaboration on a paper is not plagiarism unless your teacher has told you specifically not to collaborate (e.g., on a take-home exam). Also see the web page on complex and unusual indebtedness for further guidance.
Common Types of "Works Cited" Citations
Note that all start "flush left" but they really are "hanging indents." If an entry runs over to another line, that next line and all others for the entry are indented five spaces to the right, leaving in the left margin the keyword from the parenthetical citation.
Book with one author:
DeLillo, Don. White Noise. N.Y.: Penguin, 1986.
Book with two or three authors:
Fornara, Charles W., and Loren J. Samons II. Athens from Cleisthenes to Pericles. Berkeley: U of
California P, 1991.
Book composed of essays edited by one or more authors:
Chafe, William H., and Harvard Sitkoff, eds. A History of Our Time: Readings on Postwar America. 3rd
ed. N.Y.: Oxford U P, 1991.
Article in a magazine or newspaper:
Tolstaya, Tatyana. "In Cannibalistic Times." Trans. James Gambrell. The New York Review of Books
XXXVIIII:7 (April 11, 1991) 3-6.
A single article reprinted in a collection:
Tolkien, J.R.R. "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936) Rpt. in R.D. Fulk ed., Interpretations of "Beowulf": A Critical
Anthology. Bloomington.: Indiana U P, 1991.
A film:
The Third Man. Videocassette. Carol Reed. London Film Studios. 1950. VHS 103 min.
Internet webpage (note that the date is essential--webpage contents change):
"Gilman Inducted into National Women's Hall of Fame." Charlotte Perkins Gilman Newsletter 5.1 (Spring
1995): n. pag. Online. Internet. 8 Dec. 1995. Available
http://orchard.cortland.edu/PerkinsGilmanNews.html.
Click here for additional web page format examples and the rationales for their construction.
Primary Sources
Augustine. The
"Summa Theologica." Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 2nd
Edition, Rev. (N.Y.: Bensiger, 1922).
Julian of Norwich.
Julian
of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love: The Shorter Version ed. from B.L. Add.
MS 37790.
Frances Beer, ed. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1978.
Malory, Sir
Thomas. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Eugène Vinaver and P.J.C.
Field. 3rd Edition. 3 Vols. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1990.
The Prophecy of Merlin (Bodley MS).
[Oxford University, MS Ashmole 59, f. 78r]. Ed. James M. Dean. Teams Middle
English Texts. Available at
http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/merldub.htm 2/12/02
Wright, Thomas, ed. Political Poems and Songs
Relating to English History Composed During the Period from the Accession of
Edw. III to that of Ric. III. London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts,
1859. 2 Vol.
Brown, Michelle P. and James P. Carley. “A
Fifteenth-Century Revision of the Glastonbury Epitaph to King Arthur.”
Arthurian Literature XII. Ed. James P. Carley and Felicity Riddy.
Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 1993. 179-91.
Carpenter, Christine. “Sir Thomas Malory and
Fifteenth-Century Local Politics.” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical
Research 53 (1980) 31-43.
Cawsey, Kathy. “Merlin’s Magical Writing: Writing
and the Written Word in Le Morte Darthur and the English Prose
Merlin. Arthuriana 11:3 (Fall 2001) 89-101.
Field, P.J.C. The Life and Times of Sir Thomas
Malory. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1993.
Green, Richard Firth. A Crisis of Truth:
Literature and Law in Ricardian England. Philadelphia: U Pennsylvania P,
1999.
Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn. “Prophecy and Suspicion:
Closet Radicalism, Reformist Politics, and the Vogue for Hildegardiana in
Ricardian England.” Speculum. 75:2 (April 2000) 318-41.
Malory, Sir Thomas. King Arthur and His Knights: Selected Tales by Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Eugene Vinaver. London: Oxford UP, 1975.
--------. Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, The Seventh and Eighth Tales. Ed. P.J.C. Field. N.Y.: Holmes & Meier, 1977.
--------. The Winchester Malory: A Facsimile. Ed. N. R. Ker. London: EETS, 1976.
--------. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Eugène Vinave. 2nd Edition. 3 Vols. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1967.
--------. The Works of Sir Thomas Malory. Ed. Eugène Vinaver and P.J.C. Field. 3rd Edition. 3 Vols. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1990.
Post, J.B. “Ravishment of Women and the Statutes
of Westminster.” Legal Records and the Historian: Papers presented to the
Cambridge Legal History Conference, 7-10 July, 1975 and in Lincoln’s Inn Old
Hall on 3 July 1974. Ed. J.H. Baker. London: Royal Historical Society,
1978.