Washington State University
MLA-style documentation of your primary source consists of author and page parenthetically. If you are quoting repeatedly from a single primary source and it's clear to readers, you may omit the author's name and provide just the page reference. Book titles are italicized or underlined. Note also proper punctuation in quoting directly: that the quotation's final punctuation is cut off since the sentence is not yet done (necessary material remains). Also note that we speak of events in literature and film in the present tense. For example, Axel reports that the plesiosaur's neck "writhed like a worm cut in half" (Verne 180). Soon, "the reptile came to the end of its death agony" (181).
When providing quotations running four lines or longer, use block quotation format: instead of adding quotation marks, double indent (to distinguish from normal paragraph indentation) and note the end puncutation (irrationally different from linear).
John Roxton's got a dig. He found an incomplete skeleton he thought might be a new species of Velociraptor, and wanted me to have a look.... Roxton never really did know his anatomy. He's an enthusiastic fund-raiser, but if he actually uncovers something, he's incompetent to proceed. (Crichton 19)Offer parenthetical citations (just author and page) for quoted, summarized, or paraphrased material from sources. For example, Verne is praised for his use of verisimilitude (Thornton viii-ix). Interested readers can easily retrieve full bibliographical information by referring to your alphabetized list of works at the end of the paper. The following list shows correct format for books, articles, television shows, films, primary sources contained inside edited anthologies, works by two authors, and mostly actual resources for various types of research relevant for our class.
Aliens, Dragons, Monsters & Me. Videocassette. Midwich Entertainment Inc., 1990.
Bradbury, Ray. The Martian Chronicles. 1950. NY: Bantam Books, 1974.
Brians, Paul. "Study Guide for Ursula LeGuin: The Dispossessed (1974)." Course Materials for the Study of Science Fiction. http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/science_fiction/dispossessed.html. (22 Feb. 2002).
Crichton, Michael. The Lost World. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.
Delahoyde, Michael. "Medieval Dragons and Dinosaur Films." Popular Culture Review 9.1 (February 1998): 17-30.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Lost World. 1912. Mineola, NY: Dover Pub., 1998.
Gould, Stephen Jay. "The Dinosaur Rip-Off." Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History. NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1991. 94-106.
Heinlein, Robert A. "They." Science Fiction Terror Tales. Ed. Groff Conklin. NY: Gnome Press, Inc., 1955. 214-232.
"H.G. Wells: Visionary." Science Fiction Authors. Narr. Bobby Vinton. Time-Life Productions. NBC. KHQ, Spokane. 18 January 2006.
The Island of Dr. Moreau. Starring Marlon Brando. New Line Cinema, 1996.
Kilday, Gregg. "Hollywood Scores Big." Entertainment Weekly 21 Jan. 1994: 32-3.
Landon, Brooks. The Aesthetics of Ambivalence: Rethinking Science Fiction Film in the Age of Electronic (Re)Production. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Lem, Stanislaw. Solaris. NY: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1961.
The New English Bible. NY: Oxford University Press, 1972.
Rogers, John. "Cosmic Ray." The Spokeman-Review (Spokane, WA) 27 Jan. 2002: F1+.
Shay, Don, and Jody Duncan. The Making of Jurassic Park. NY: Ballantine Books, 1993.
Sobchack, Vivian. Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film. 2nd ed. NY: Ungar Publishing Co., 1987.
Thornton, Lawrence. Introduction. Journey to the Center of the Earth. Trans. Lowell Bair. NY: Bantam Books, 1991. v-xvii.
Verne, Jules. Journey to the Center of the Earth. 1864. NY: Bantam Books, 1991.
Wells, H.G. The Island of Dr. Moreau. 1896. NY: New American Library, 1988.