ENG111 - Introduction to Literature

Prof. Eileen Joy

Spring 2004

SAMPLE IN-TEXT CITATIONS & WORKS CITED ENTRIES

(for Critical Essay #1)

Sample Parenthetical In-Text Citations

from a play or story printed in our textbook anthology>

    In Sophocles's play, Antigone, Antigone is extremely cruel to her sister. For example, in the beginning of the play, when Ismene tries to talk Antigone out of doing something that she thinks is impossible, Antigone tells her, "Go away, Ismene: I shall be hating you soon, and the dead will too" (1428).

    In "The Prodigal Son," when the older son complains to the father about how he is lavishing so much attention on the son who wasted his inheritance, the father tells the older son, "It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found" (233).

*note that end punctuation comes AFTER parentheses, but quotation marks go BEFORE

long quotations (called "block quotations")>

    Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning" is mainly told through the consciousness of the young boy, Colonel Sartoris Snopes ("Sarty" for short), and therefore you only really see and feel what he sees and feels throughout the story. For instance, at the end of the story, when there is a lot of confusion and the boy is running away from the plantation house, you get all the frightened and chaotic thoughts running through his head:

. . . . the galloping mare was almost upon him before he heard her, and even then he held his course, as if the very urgency of his wild grief and need must in a moment more find him wings, waiting until the ultimate instant to hurl himself aside and into the weed-choked roadside ditch as the horse thundered past an on, for an instant in furious silhouette against the stars, the tranquil early summer night sky which, even before the shape of the horse and rider vanished, stained abruptly and violently upward . . . . (174)

note: in general, avoid long quotations, but when you absolutely feel they are necessary, "block indent" them as above (1 inch or hit the "tab" key twice); notice that, with block quotations, the end punctuation goes BEFORE the parentheses--this ONLY happens with block quotations

dialogue between two or more characters in a play>

    In Garrison Keillor's play Prodigal Son, we get more insight into what the older brother is feeling when he complains to his father about all the nice things he's doing for the younger brother when he returns home. One example of this is when the father utters the famous last words of the original parable and Dwight responds:

        DAD. But your brother was dead and now he's alive again! He was lost

            and now he's found!

        DWIGHT. I don't think you're hearing what I'm saying, Dad. You never

            ran up to me and hugged me--I'd just like to point that out. (1366)

note: quoting dialogue between two or more characters is indented like a long block quotation

from an electronic online text of a play>

    In Romeo and Juliet, when Mercutio is dying after being stabbed by Tybalt, and Romeo is trying to comfort him, he screams out, "A plague o' both your houses!" (Act 3, Scene 1).

Sample "Works Cited" Entries

Faulkner, William. "Barn Burning." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction,

    Poetry, and Drama. 8th ed. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York:

    Longman, 2002. 162-75.

Keillor, Garrison. Prodigal Son. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction,

    Poetry, and Drama. 8th ed. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York:

    Longman, 2002. 1361-66.

Luke. "The Parable of the Prodigal Son." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction,

    Poetry, and Drama. 8th ed. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York:

    Longman, 2002. 232-33.

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. <http://the-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/romeo_juliet/>.

Sophocles. Antigone. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.

    8th ed. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Longman, 2002. 1425-55.

William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. Dir. Baz Luhrmann. VHS. 20th Century

    Fox, 2001.

note: story titles are placed within quotation marks, but play and film titles are underlined (or italicized--your choice, but be consistent); also, if you have more than one item on your "Works Cited" list, they should be alphabetized by either author's last name or the beginning of the title of the work (when alphabetizing, articles like "the," "a," and "an" don't count)