MLA gives confusing advice about multiple articles from the same source.
Your students can use cross references (one citation for the whole book, and
then just article title, editor, and page numbers for the other citations).
[See 5.6.10 in the MLA Handbook]. The Handbook discusses this in relation
to "collections" but a reference book is similar in nature, so it's
customary to apply it to this situation.
You may be interested in checking the NoodleTools Knowledge Base
http://www.noodletools.com for questions like this.
Debbie Abilock
NoodleTools/NoodleTeach
debbie@abilock.net
http://www.noodletools.com/
"The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we
behave when we don't know what to do."
--- John Holt
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Jacqueline Henry
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 1:48 PM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: [LM_NET] Help needed with MLA citation format
I have been searching the MLA handbook and cannot find a definitive
answer. I have several students who are using multiple articles from
single one-volume reference books. In one case, the student has read
10 articles that are all pertinent to her topic from a single volume
book titled "The Encyclopedia of Serial Kilers." Does she need to put
10 seperate citations in her works cited list - one for each article.
Or - can she do one citation for the entire book? If the latter is
possible, is there a "rule" I am missing that covers these situations?
Something like - if you are using 3 or more articles, or if you use more
than a certain percentage of a refrenece article, you can do one single
citation. Students often list whole books in their works cited lists,
even though they have only read or used 2 or 3 chapters of the book.
But when it comes to reference books - unless I am missing something -
it appears that there must be a citation for every article. This is not
unduly burdensome for 3 or 4 articles - but it does seem a bit much for
more than that.
If you know of such a rule, please let me know. Also - if you can give
me "chapter and verse" from the MLA handbooks - that would be terrific.
I am trying to track this down for our English teacher who is teaching
College English to seniors, and she wants them to follow MLA guidelines
exactly.
Jacquie
"The Librarian, whose job is to heal ignorance, to keep life safe for
poetry and to put knowledge smack dab in the middle of the American
way."
From The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9-20-03
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jacquie Henry, MLS
Ruben A. Cirillo High School (GHS)
Gananda Central School District
3195 Wiedrick Road
P.O. Box 609
Macedon, NY 14502
jhenry@gananda.org
http://www.gananda.org/library/mshslibrary/indexgcl.htm
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