English 215 Style Sheet

     Students should know that 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.  Because this course is taught in the English Department, papers should conform to the MLA Stylesheet, a summary of which is presented  below. For full instructions, see the  MLA Handbook for Writers of  Research Papers (3rd edition, 1988 or later), a copy of which is available at the Writing Center or at the library.  ("MLA" stands for the Modern Language Association, a major professional organization in the field of English literature and composition studies.)  These rules help writers share resources with their readers, and advertise the writers’ willingness to have their facts checked.  Both of those functions are essential to the creation of intellectual property. Ask your instructor and Writing Center tutors  for help. 

Overall Paper Format:

     All papers must be typed or computer printed, double-spaced,  with appropriate margins.  If your printer will print both sides of the page, I encourage you to do so.  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 quoted, paraphrased, or summarized (including handouts you get in class) must be acknowledged in  parentheses in your text, as in this direct quotation of a claim that "the cost of elective pregnancy termination . . . must be approaching $500 million a year" (Wilson 19).

     Use endnotes only to explain complex indebtedness.  The  course encourages discussion outside of class.  If your paper has  benefited in any important way 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 Mary Marchand’s English 250 class, 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 contains  similar ideas about poverty and the arts, or that another writer  who talked with Nancy Atwell had a similar thesis about  Ginsberg.  Remember, acknowledged collaboration on a paper is not  plagiarism unless your teacher has told you specifically not to  collaborate (e.g., on a take-home exam, etc.).

 Common Types of "Works Cited" Citations:

 Book with one author:

 DeLillo, Don.  White Noise.  N.Y.: Penguin, 1986.

[Notice that MLA style forbids us to include any publisher's information beyond the root name, so "Penguin Books, Inc." becomes just "Penguin," and "Harvard University Press" becomes "Havard UP" without even periods after the abbreviation for "University Press."]

 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 (note that a translation credit comes after the title of both articles and books):  

Tolstaya, Tatyana.  "In Cannibalistic Times."  Trans. James  Gambrell.  The New York Review of Books  XXXVIIII:7  (April 11, 1991) 3-6.

 An article published for the first time in a collection (e.g., an edition of essays on a theme or author or work): 

Cherewatuk, Karen.  “Sir Thomas Malory’s ‘Grete Booke’.”  In D. Thomas Hanks, Jr. ed., The Social and Literary Contexts of Malory’s Morte Darthur.  42-67.

[Notice that this entry would refer to the entry for the whole anthology under the title, alone, like this.]

The Social and Literary Contexts of Malory’s Morte Darthur.  Ed. D. Thomas Hanks, Jr.  Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2000.

 A single article reprinted in a collection (e.g., Norton Anthology): 

Tolkien, J.R.R.  "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936)    Rpt. in R.D. Fulk ed., Interpretations of "Beowulf": A  Critical Anthology.  Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana U P, 1991. 

 A movie or video:

 The Manchurian Candidate.  Dir. John Frankenheimer.  M.C. Productions, 1962.

 Internet web page (note that the date is essential—web page 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

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) definition:

“Psalm.” Def. 1. Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. 10 Oct. 2006  <http://dictionary.oed.com>

[Sample "Works Cited" Section: would be located after the last endnote, or after the last paragraph of text.]

Works Cited

 Primary Sources 

Augustine.  The "Summa Theologica." Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 2nd Edition, Rev. (N.Y.: Bensiger Brothers, 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.  3^rd 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. 

Secondary Sources 

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. 

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.