Guide to Citing Sources
For all projects, citing your sources fully and properly is the most important step in the process and ethically required to avoid plagiarism. Any outside source that is used in your Meridian Stories project, including royalty free images and sound files, must be cited somewhere in your project.
Below are some templates for citing the most common sources you will be using to create your projects. The guidelines presented here are consistent with directions given in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed. (2009).
Together, these resources should provide you with a powerful set of tools for citations for your work for Meridian Stories competitions. Media covered in this document include:
- Books
- Chapters or Stories in an Anthology
- Newspapers
- Magazines
- Websites
- DVDs
- Songs
- Images
- Personal Interviews
At the very end of this document is a short section called Shortcuts.
Books
You will need the author(s) name, title of the book, the city of publication as well as the publisher, and the publication year of the book. If the book has two authors, you must include both of their names; however, if there are more than two authors, only include the first one and add the term et al after their name. At the end of the citation, you must specify which medium you viewed the book in (Print, Web).
MLA Style:
Last, First MI. Title. City Published: Publisher, Year Published. Print.
Last, First MI, and Last, First MI. Title. City Published: Publisher, Year Published. Print.
Last, First MI, et al. Title. City Published: Publisher, Year Published. Print.
Chapter/Anthology
To cite a chapter or story in an anthology you will need the author(s) name, the section title as well as the title of the book/anthology. Citing a chapter/anthology also requires the name of the editor(s), the city of publication along with the publisher and year published. Also, for a chapter/anthology you must include the page range of the section you used. At the end of the citation, you must specify which medium you viewed the story/anthology in (Print, Web).
MLA Style:
Last, First MI. “Section Title.” Book/Anthology. Ed. First M. Last. City Published: Publisher, Year Published. Page Range. Print.
Newspaper
In order to cite an article you read from a newspaper, you must know the authors name(s), the title of the article, what newspaper published the story, what day the story was run, and which page(s) it was on. If the city that the newspaper was published in is not apparent in the title of the newspaper, include the city of publication in brackets. At the end of the citation, you must specify which medium you viewed the newspaper in (Print, Web).
MLA Style:
Last, First MI. “Article Title.” Newspaper [City] Day Month Year: Page(s). Print.
Magazine
To cite a magazine, you must include the authors name(s), the title of the article, the name of the magazine, what day the magazine was published, and the page(s) that the article appeared on. At the end of the citation, you must specify which medium you viewed the magazine in (Print, Web).
MLA Style:
Last, First MI. “Article Title.” Magazine Day Month Year: Page(s). Print.
Website
In our current age of technology, most research that was previously contained in books is now viewable online through various websites. As the Internet is easily accessible for many people, be careful what websites you choose to use and make sure they are credible sites. Check out this website from the University of California, Berkeley, to read about determining website credibility: Evaluating Web Pages
Once you’ve deemed your website credible, you will need to create a citation consisting of the website’s author(s), the article/section title, the name of the website, who the publisher was, what the publication date was, the date you accessed the website, and its URL. Since a website has to be in the Web medium, you must include the word Web following the date of publication.
MLA Style:
Last, First MI. “Website Article.” Website. Publisher, Day Month Year. Web. Day Month Year of retrieval. <URL>.
DVD
Although you cannot legally insert a clip from a DVD into your project without the permission of the producer of that DVD, you can use DVDs for research and quotes to strengthen your projects. Further, royalty free video clips are available to use as long as you cite them properly. Sometimes royalty free media will have their own designated ways they would like you to cite their work so make sure you look around for instructions on how to cite your royalty free media. If there are no specific instructions, DVDs and video clips should be cited in MLA style. To do this, you must state the title of the movie or clip, the director and the major performers, and the distributor of the film along with its release date. At the end of the citation, you must specify which medium you viewed the movie or clip in (DVD, VHS, MP4 file).
MLA Style:
Title. Dir. Director. Perf. Major Performers. Distributor, Release Date. DVD.
Song
Although you cannot legally insert an entire song produced by someone else into your project without the permission of the producer of the song, you can use parts of songs in your projects under Fair Use Laws. Further, royalty free songs and sound clips are available to use as long as you cite them properly. Sometimes royalty free media will have their own designated ways they would like you to cite their work so make sure you look around for instructions on how to cite your royalty free media. If there are no specific instructions, song and sound clips should be cited in MLA style. This type of citation includes the singer/performer, the title of the song or sound clip, the name of the album it was on, and the manufacturer of the song along with its release date. At the end of the citation, you must specify which medium you viewed the song or sound clip in (CD, MP3 file).
MLA Style:
Singer. “Title.” Album. Manufacturer, Release Date. MP3 file.
Image
As with video clips and sound files, adequate permission must be obtained in order to legally insert certain images into your project. Nonetheless, there are a multitude of royalty free images available for use on the Internet. Sometimes royalty free media will have their own designated ways they would like you to cite their work so make sure you look around for instructions on how to cite your royalty free media. If there are no specific instructions, images should be cited in MLA style. The artist’s name and title of the image should be listed along with the date of composition and the location of the image. At the end of the citation, you must specify which medium you viewed or used the image in (JPEG file, photograph, painting).
MLA Style:
Artist. Image Title. Date of composition. Location of image. JPEG file.
Personal Interview
In order to cite a personal interview, you must list the name of the interviewee, state that it was a personal interview, and include the date of the interview at the end.
MLA Style:
Last, First MI [interviewee]. Personal Interview. Day Month Year.
Short Cuts
At Meridian Stories, we encourage students to create citations by hand before jumping into templates that, essentially, do the work for them. This allows them a clear understanding of the design and purpose of citations, in general.
However, One of the many beauties of the Internet is that citations no longer need to be done by hand. Below are listed two sites that will help you with the citation of almost any source using easy-to-fill-out forms:
On both of these websites, citation is almost as simple as entering the URL or the site you wish to reference or the title of the book from which you are quoting. Although each cite may ask you to provide some information, they will also provide tooltips to point you to where that information is likely to be located.
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