Thursday, August 22, 2013
Quotations: citations for print fiction
When you write an essay about a work of fiction (a novel or short story) your supporting quotations should be lifted word-for-word from the text of the book, including capitalization and internal punctuation. Follow standard quotation punctuation rules, and then add a citation at the end.
Your citation should include the last name of the work's author, followed by a page number. KEEP IN MIND that if the entire paper is about the same work, and therefore the same author, you DO NOT have to keep writing that author's name over and over again in the citations. Do it the first time, and thereafter you may skip the name! Also, if the author's name appears IN your sentence, you need not repeat it in the parentheses as well. The object of your citation is to be clear, not to be repetitive or annoying!
After the author's name, put the page number (with no punctuation in between). After the page number, you may wish to insert a semicolon followed by the part number or the chapter number. These must be identified by the abbreviations "pt." or "ch." so as to differentiate between numbers.
Remember that the period for the entire sentence goes AFTER the citation.
Examples: (Smith 577) (577) (Smith 577; ch. 13) (577; pt. 2, ch. 13)
In the following examples, identify and correct the errors (one per item). All sentences are from George Orwell's Animal Farm.
1) Orwell opens the book by telling us that "Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night" (Orwell 15).
2) Major asks the other animals if "the wild creatures, such as rats and rabbits" are their friends or their enemies. (21).
3) The animals took a vote, and "it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were comrades" (21, 1).
4) Major went on to say: "No animal must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink alcohol...(21)."
Your citation should include the last name of the work's author, followed by a page number. KEEP IN MIND that if the entire paper is about the same work, and therefore the same author, you DO NOT have to keep writing that author's name over and over again in the citations. Do it the first time, and thereafter you may skip the name! Also, if the author's name appears IN your sentence, you need not repeat it in the parentheses as well. The object of your citation is to be clear, not to be repetitive or annoying!
After the author's name, put the page number (with no punctuation in between). After the page number, you may wish to insert a semicolon followed by the part number or the chapter number. These must be identified by the abbreviations "pt." or "ch." so as to differentiate between numbers.
Remember that the period for the entire sentence goes AFTER the citation.
Examples: (Smith 577) (577) (Smith 577; ch. 13) (577; pt. 2, ch. 13)
In the following examples, identify and correct the errors (one per item). All sentences are from George Orwell's Animal Farm.
1) Orwell opens the book by telling us that "Mr. Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night" (Orwell 15).
2) Major asks the other animals if "the wild creatures, such as rats and rabbits" are their friends or their enemies. (21).
3) The animals took a vote, and "it was agreed by an overwhelming majority that rats were comrades" (21, 1).
4) Major went on to say: "No animal must ever live in a house, or sleep in a bed, or wear clothes, or drink alcohol...(21)."
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