MLA Online Source Documentation
With the rapidly rising well of information available through electronic sources, writers are constantly challenged to develop ways of documenting these exciting research opportunities. Finally, the Modern Languge Association has addressed this issue in the latest edition of the MLA handbook. Reprinted here are some of those guidelines.
No set standard has yet emerged for citing electronic media, and in fact, the forms that documents in elctronic media take are fluid, making it difficult to cite a "completed" work. Nevertheless, you can include electronic documents in your list of works cited by using the standard MLA format for author, title, and publishing information (where available) followed by an online statement; an availability statement, which includes information sufficient to trace the material being cited (for example, Telnet, FTP, E-mail, or a particular Gopher client...), and the directory/directories and the file name and item number.
On-line Book
Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Women. New York: Everyman Library, 1929. [On-line] Available Telnet: gopher.wiretap.spies.com Directory:Library/Classics File:woman.txt.
On-Line Journal Article
Rosenberg, Martin E. "Dynamic and Thermodynamic Tropes of the Subject in Freud and in Deleuze and Guattari." Postmodern Culture 4.1 (1993): 32 paragraphs. [On-Line] Available Telnet: gopher.nebula.lib.vt.edu. Directory: Electronic Bookshelf/ejournals/postmodern culture/PMCV4N1 File: rose0401.txt
On-Line Abstract
Natchez, Gladys. "Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera: The Transformation of Catasttrophe to Creativity." Psychotherapy-Patient 8 (1987):153-74. [On-Line] Abstract Available: DIALOG File: PsychINFO Item: 76-11344
CD-ROM Abstract
Natchez, Gladys. "Frida Khalo and Diego Rivera: The Transformation of Catastrophe to Creativity." Psychotherapy-Patient 8 (1987):153-74. [On-Line] Abstract Available: Silverplatter File: PsychLIT Item: 76-11344
All this information was taken from the fourth edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, which also features sections on computer research methods and other electronic resources. This text is available in the The Learning Commons Resource Room along with an outstanding resource for Internet research titled Online! a reference guide to using internet sources.
Whether you are using traditional research methods or electronic sources, failure to acknowledge borrowed material--whether that failure is intended or careless--is plagiarism. Regardless of the medium all plagiarism is literary theft and will be treated as such at Guilford College. Be Sure to check out our Pages on Plagiarism and the World Wide Web. |
