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ENGL 100: Drama, Film, and Society

Professor Pierre Hecker - Fall 2023

The Basics

As you're writing:

When you refer to someone else's words or ideas, include a citation at the end of the sentence that has the author's last name and a page number or page numbers, all enclosed in parentheses just before the period. So, for example, (Franke 15). This refers to the 15th page of Franke's book, the full entry for which is included at the end of the paper in the Works Cited section.

Works Cited:

When you make your bibliography it should be alphabetical by author last name, and it should use a "hanging indent" so that the first line lines up with the left-hand margin but the second and subsequent lines are indented half an inch (which I can't do here in this guide). The whole bibliography should be double spaced with no extra space between entries.

More detailed instructions are available here, but here are examples of the most common things you'll be citing.

Books:

Johnson, Roberta. Gender and Nation in the Spanish Modernist Novel. Vanderbilt UP, 2003.

Articles:

Piper, Andrew. “Rethinking the Print Object: Goethe and the Book of Everything.” PMLA, vol. 121, no. 1,  Jan. 2006, pp. 124-38. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25486292.

Chapters or Essays in a Book:

First cite the author and title of the smaller work, and then add the information for the larger work that contains the small work.

Copeland, Edward. “Money.” The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, edited by Copeland and Juliet McMaster, Cambridge UP, 1997, pp. 131-48.

Films:

Note that in this example, the optional original date of publication is included, as well as several people in the Other Contributors category. If you were studying a particular person associated with the work, that person could be listed in the Author position, like so: "Capra, Frank, director."

It’s a Wonderful Life. 1946. Directed by Frank Capra, Performance by James Stewart et al., Republic, 2001.

Bloedel, Peter, director. “BLC Theatre Presents Hamlet by William Shakespeare.” YouTube, 20 August 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz6GL6AFphU.

Live Performances:

If you were studying a particular person associated with the work, that person could be listed in the Author position with that person's contribution listed, like so: "Sher, Antony, actor." Marlowe's name might then move to the spot after the title like so: "Written by Christopher Marlowe, directed by Terry Hands."

Marlowe, Christopher. Tamburlaine the Great. Directed by Terry Hands, Swan Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon, 5 Oct. 1992.

Interview or Audio Commentary on a DVD:

Note that in the first example the title is in quotation marks because that is the name the author gave it. In the second and third examples the interview had no given title, so we present a brief description without quotation marks instead.

Blanchett, Cate. "In Character with: Cate Blanchett." Notes on a Scandal, Directed by Richard Eyre, Fox Searchlight, 2006.

Olivier, Laurence. Interview by Kenneth Tynan. Richard III, Directed by Laurence Olivier, 2004, The Criterion Collection, www.criterion.com/films/366-richard-iii.

Verbinski, Gore and Johnny Depp. Audio Commentary. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 2004.

Shakespeare plays:

In Shakespeare, you'll cite the play as if it were a book (if it is published on its own) or as if it were a chapter in a book (if it's published as part of a collection of plays all in a single volume). But then in the text of your paper you'll cite act, scene, and line numbers rather than page numbers. The standard formula is (Name/Title Act.Scene.Line) where the "identifier" is likely only necessary sometimes. If it's clear from your paragraph that you're talking about a Shakespeare play, and if you're only citing one play in your paper, you won't need the Name/Title. If you're citing one play and it's not clear from your paragraph that you're citing Shakespeare, you'd include "Shakespeare" there. If you're citing multiple Shakespeare plays in your paper, you should include the title of the play there.

Example 1 (no play title needed): Shakespeare's line "To sleep: perchance to dream" opens the possibility that death may not be pleasant (III.i.68).

Example 2 (play title needed):  Shakespeare's line "To sleep: perchance to dream" opens the possibility that death may not be pleasant (Hamlet III.i.68).