00:01 [intro music] 00:10 >> NARRATOR: This video is a brief introduction to the 8th edition of MLA Style. 00:18 >> NARRATOR: For more complete information, please look at the overview on the MLA’s 00:22 own website, or consult the Manual. 00:24 Librarians and the Writing Center staff can help too. 00:26 >> NARRATOR: Just to review: There are two main reasons to document your sources. 00:30 >> NARRATOR: The old, familiar reason is to avoid plagiarism. 00:33 >> NARRATOR: The other reason is that you are participating in a scholarly conversation: 00:37 by documenting your sources, you establish your own credibility, and place your work 00:42 into the flow of that conversation. 00:43 >> NARRATOR: None of this has changed with MLA’s new edition! 00:47 >> NARRATOR: So what has changed? 00:48 >> NARRATOR: MLA now defines their citation style very broadly, so that one template can 00:53 be used for most works. 00:55 >> NARRATOR: For the new style, there are some new definitions and a new term. 00:59 >> NARRATOR: The work you cite is always called “the source”. 01:02 But when that work is also part of a larger whole, the larger work is called “the container”. 01:07 >> NARRATOR: It’s analogous to having a single-serving pie versus a slice from a large 01:11 pie! 01:12 >> NARRATOR: We’ll go through some examples so you can see how this works. 01:15 >> NARRATOR: Start by asking yourself: Is the work complete all by itself? 01:19 Or is it also part of a larger work? 01:21 >> NARRATOR: When we’re citing an entire book, then the book is the whole thing. 01:25 It is the source and does not have a container. 01:27 >> NARRATOR: But when you’re citing a chapter from a book, then the chapter is the source, 01:31 and the book is the container. 01:33 >> NARRATOR: This applies when you cite a single chapter regardless of the authorship. 01:37 >> NARRATOR: The idea of containers is probably clearest for articles, or sources, in magazines 01:42 and journals, or containers. 01:44 >> NARRATOR: Here’s a table with examples of sources and their containers, when there 01:47 is one. 01:48 >> NARRATOR: But in a library, things can get more complicated, because articles and 01:52 books are often provided within a database: There can be two containers for a source! 01:57 >> NARRATOR: Here’s another analogy: 01:59 >> NARRATOR: The source is like the smallest of these nesting dolls, the journal or magazine 02:03 is the middle doll, and the database is the largest doll. 02:06 >> NARRATOR: MLA has identified core elements of information, or facts, common to most works: 02:13 find them for each source, and each container if there is one. 02:15 >> NARRATOR: Remember that usually you will NOT find all elements. 02:19 >> NARRATOR: How the elements are ordered in this table is also how you’ll order them 02:23 in citations. 02:24 >> NARRATOR: Don’t worry about finding the perfect way to cite an item: MLA clearly states 02:28 that there are often several options. 02:30 >> NARRATOR: That’s because the main goal for your citations is to make them useful 02:34 to your reader. 02:35 >> NARRATOR: And of course, find out your instructor’s preferences?! 02:38 >> NARRATOR: Let’s look at a specific example, an article in the print magazine Popular Science. 02:43 >> NARRATOR: Here’s the table of the core elements I can find for the article, and how 02:47 the citation will look in the Works Cited List. 02:50 Things to notice: 02:51 >> NARRATOR: The author’s last name comes first 02:53 >> NARRATOR: The article title is in quotation marks; the magazine title is in italics. 02:57 >> NARRATOR: This article is on pages that are not consecutive. 03:01 Therefore, we indicate the beginning page, but not the ending page. 03:05 Instead there’s a plus symbol. 03:06 >> NARRATOR: Here’s the same article, but now we’ll cite it as coming from a database. 03:09 Therefore, there are 2 containers! 03:12 >> NARRATOR: Just add the database core facts to the other elements. 03:15 >> NARRATOR: Things to notice: 03:16 >> NARRATOR: There are now two Location fields in the table: one for the article’s page 03:21 numbers, and one for the database URL. 03:23 >> NARRATOR: Always omit the http colon slash slash. 03:27 >> NARRATOR: Look for the URL designated durable or permanent, found in most databases. 03:32 >> NARRATOR: In ProQuest, you can find it on the Abstract/Details tab. 03:35 >> NARRATOR: Here’s what the citation looks like: The database title is in italics, just 03:40 like the magazine title. 03:41 >> NARRATOR: For this article, I’m showing you a section of the PDF because there is 03:45 something new for MLA here. 03:47 A DOI, or digital object identifier. 03:50 >> NARRATOR: This is a unique and permanent identifying number, most commonly found on 03:54 scholarly sources. 03:55 >> NARRATOR: You can find it sometimes in the PDF, sometimes in the database record. 03:59 >> NARRATOR: When it is available, MLA now recommends using this number instead of a 04:04 database URL. 04:06 >> NARRATOR: Things to notice: 04:07 >> NARRATOR: When there are more than two authors, name only the first author and add 04:11 the Latin phrase 'et al.' 04:13 >> NARRATOR: For the DOI, also omit the http colon slash slash. 04:18 >> NARRATOR: If you still have questions, ask a librarian.