USE OF SECONDARY (CRITICAL AND THEORETICAL) MATERIAL IN YOUR ESSAY

Reading other critics’ analyses of the text you are discussing may help you to define your own response to the work in question, but should not replace your analysis.  Research done about the author or text will provide you with helpful background information, and theoretical material may also assist you in the formulation of your own position regarding both the primary and other secondary texts.  However, no essay should be a mere tissue of quotations.  What we are primarily interested in is your own response to and analysis of the work, and the ideas of other critics should never be used as a substitute for this.  On the other hand, you should not ignore the existence of scholarly discussion of the text or topic about which you are also writing: aim to enter into debate with other commentators on its meaning(s).

ACKNOWLEDGING THE SOURCES OF YOUR IDEAS WHEN THEY COME FROM SECONDARY MATERIAL

Any and all ideas from a critic or theorist which you use in constructing your own argument must be acknowledged by means of a reference in brackets in the text of your essay.  (This form of reference is now used in preference to footnotes or endnotes; see below.)  Indebtedness to a critic must be acknowledged, even when you have not quoted word for word from the critic.  Failure to do this is a form of plagiarism and may result in your receiving no marks for your essay, or even in your exclusion from the course: see the separate section on plagiarism at the end of this brochure.

Notes in the text

When you submit an essay to the English Department, you are required to reference according to the MLA system.  References to works which you have consulted or from which you are quoting should be given in parentheses (brackets) within the text of your essay.  Works should be referred to by author, short title, and page number, but any or all of these elements should be omitted if they are mentioned in the text of your essay. The short title should be omitted if only one work by the author in question is cited in your essay.

Please refer to the e-Learning section on the English Department website for more examples.

7.1 The following example indicates how references are given in the text of an essay:

According to one view, "poetry differs from prose and everyday speech mainly because it says so much more in the same number of words" (Bateson 31).

Here only one work by Bateson is cited in the essay, hence there is no need for the use of a short title. If another work by Bateson had been cited, then the parenthetical reference would look like this: (Bateson, English Poetry 31).  If Bateson had been referred to previously in the sentence ("According to Bateson, …") then the parenthetical reference would contain only the page number (31).  For the sake of simplicity and clarity, it is preferable to cite the author's name in the text of your essay ("According to Bateson …") rather than in the parenthetical reference.  All references should be kept as concise as possible.

To avoid interrupting the flow of your writing, place the parenthetical reference where a pause would naturally occur (preferably at the end of a sentence), and as near as possible to the material it refers to.  For example:

In his Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin states that he prepared a list of thirteen virtues (135-37).

Note that full details of works referred to in this way must be given in a bibliography at the end of your essay, otherwise your reference is meaningless (see Section 8).

7.2 Citing literary works

Reference to a poem should give line numbers (except in the case of a short poem); references to a novel should give page numbers and those to a play the act, scene and line numbers.  Nowadays Arabic numerals are preferred to roman numerals, as follows: Macbeth 1.7.12 (this is a reference to line 12 of scene 7 of act 1 of Shakespeare's Macbeth).

For example:

It is difficult to believe Antony when he describes himself as "a plain blunt man" (3.2.219).

The abbreviations "l." or "ll." should not be used when referring to lines of poetry.  (See the example in section 5.)  You should use the word “line” or “lines” for the first reference, and thereafter simply use the numbers alone.

7.3 Use of footnotes or endnotes

Content notes may be used to offer the reader comment, explanation, or information that the text cannot accommodate.  You should avoid using such notes if possible, as they distract attention from the primary text.  Bibliographical notes may also be used, containing either references to several sources or comments on sources.  Notes may be placed either at the end of the text (as endnotes) or at the bottom of the page (footnotes), although the former convention (endnotes) is preferred.