Preparing the Works Cited Page for Essay #3

From the cover and the title page of Labor Days, you decide that it appears to be “a book with an editor.” So, in RFW, on page 427, you find item #9, and you write your bibliographic citation using that model:

Gates, David, ed. Labor Days: An Anthology of Fiction about Work. New York: Random House, 2004.

However, after writing that citation, you notice item #10 on page 427 in RFW: “work in an anthology.” Labor Days is an “anthology” because it is a collection of works all written by different authors but these works are collected or “anthologized” by one editor. (Note: you will probably encounter a lot of anthologies in various college courses.) So, you begin to follow that format instead:

Carver, Raymond. “Fat.” Labor Days: An Anthology of Fiction about Work. Ed. David Gates. New York: Random House, 2004. 15-20.

At this point, you read the next part of #10 on page 427 in RFW and you know that you are going to be using several of the short stories in Labor Days when you write your paper. This “cross-reference” system seems easier since you don’t have to write a full citation for each author. So, in addition to the complete bibliographic citation for a book with Gates as the editor, you can write shorter citations for each selection in the book:

Works Cited

Carver, Raymond. “Fat.” Gates 15-20.

Gates, David, ed. Labor Days: An Anthology of Fiction about Work. New York: Random House, 2004.

Hempel, Amy. “Now I Can See the Moon.” Gates 92-99.

For your future reference, pages 423-444 in RFW contain 56 “models” to help you write bibliographic citations in MLA format for many different kinds of sources. Along with each model is a brief description of important information to keep in mind when writing the citation.

Using In-Text Citations in Essay #3

In-text citations usually contain two parts:

1.) A “signal phrase” (or an “attribution phrase”) -- which “signals” to your reader that something is coming up that doesn’t belong to you (or, which “attributes” something coming up to the person who wrote or thought it).

2.) A “parenthetical citation” -- which gives your reader more specific information about exactly where to find that information in the outside source

Between the signal phrase and the parenthetical citation, you include the information from the outside source.  You can include this information in one of three ways:

1.) Summary -- you condense the information and put it into your own words

2.) Paraphrase -- you restate or “translate” in the information in your own words; the length will probably be about the same as in the original source

3.) Quotation -- you copy the original source exactly as it appears

Information about signal phrases, parenthetical citations, summaries, paraphrases, and quotations can be found in RFW:

• Pages 398-400 -- information on summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting
• Pages 402-406 -- information on avoiding plagiarism by citing, quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing correctly
• Pages 406-413 -- for more “technical” information on quotations and signal phrases -- includes a good table of signal phrase verbs!
• Pages 413-422 -- more information on documenting sources within your paper

Examples of Various Signal Phrases:

In Raymond Carver’s story, “Fat,” ________________________ (19).

In Carver’s story, “Fat,” _________________________ (18).

In Carver’s “Fat,” __________________________ (17).

In Carver’s story, ______________________________ (15).

In his story, Carver describes ___________________________ (19).

At one point, Carver’s narrator makes the remark that _______________________________ (19).

The waitress in Carver's story remarks that _______________________________ (17).

At one point, the narrator/waitress remarks that _______________________________ (Carver 18).

In “Fat,” _______________________________ (Carver 18).

When the waitress reflects on serving the fat man, _______________________________ (Carver 18).