The Joys of Documenting Sources

Documenting Sources for Research

Books

Use the following info for books: author (last name first), title, city of publication, publishing company, copy write date, and the word Print.

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Random House, 1959. Print.

Entries in an Encyclopedia

If you use an encyclopedia, give the author’s/contributor’s name (if available—but not the editor’s; the contributor’s name is often at the end of the specific entry), the entry title, the name of encyclopedia, the city of publication, publishing company, copy write date, and the word Print.

Anastos, Milton V. “Byzantine Philosophy.” The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. New York: Macmillian

Publishing Co, Inc. & The Free Press, 1967. Print.

Internet Sites

These can vary so much because of what information is available. Write the actual name of web page(not the web address) ,the copy write year, name of publisher (both the copy write and the publisher are found at the very bottom of a web site), the word Web, the date of access (the day you looked at the web site), and entire URL (web address).

CNN.com. 2002. Cable News Network. Web. 14 May 2002

<http.//www.cnn. com/TRAVEL/atevo/city/SanFrancisco/intro.html>.

Multiple Authorship (regardless of source)

For two authors, put a comma after the first author, write the word and, and list the second author in regular order (first name before last name).

Eggins, Suzanne, and Diana Slade. Analyzing Casual Conversation. London: Cassell, 1997. Print.

For three authors, do the same thing that you would do for two authors, but write the word and after the second author, and put the second and third authors’ names in regular order (first name before last name).

Smith, Robert, Stephen Merritt, and Robert Pollard. A Guide to Melodies. New York: Penguin, 2009.

For four or more authors, list only the first author and then put a comma, followed by the words et al.

Lagarsfeld, Paul F., et al. Hysteria Beyond Freud. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993. Print.

Other Authorship Issues (regardless of source)

If the book only gives an editor and not an author, use the following example.

Lopate, Phillip, ed. The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present.

New York: Anchor-Doubleday, 1994. Print.

If the book has a corporate author, use the following example.

National Research Council. Beyond Six Billion: Forecasting the World’s Population. Washington:

Natl. Acad., 2000. Print.

Missing Info

Sometimes a source may not have all of its publication information. If you are missing any information, replace it with the appropriate abbreviation where the actual information would normally go.

No place (city) of publication……..N.p Ex.: N.p.: Penguin, 2008.

No publisher……………………….n.p. Ex.: New York: n.p. 2008.

No date…………………………….n.d. Ex.: New York: Penguin, n.d.