Wednesday, September 16, 2009

MLA Seventh Edition is Up

I finally went out and bought the book -- MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers: Seventh Edition. I've completely redone all of the citation templates and you may notice some minor changes in the format of the page, but nothing major. Hopefully, you will notice some performance increase, though the map may be slowing things down. I may remove that. It's just cool to see who's hitting this thing.

Now somebody is calling for the AMA format. I hadn't even heard of that one. But I may just add it in.

41 comments:

Les Copines de Livres said...

Dave, I don't think that your formatting is correct for citing articles from subscription services. You have the database name appearing last; it should appear before the word Web. (Check out the examples in MLA 7th 5.6.4.)I hope you'll be able to correct this! Our students love using Son of Citation Machine and I want to continue to promote it.
thanks!

Xlander said...

Is there any chance of setting up the online newspaper formatting in MLA? I have a book from my school with examples but it doesn't tell you which date is research date and which is last print date. The web document option isn't quite what my instructor is looking for.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Hi Dave,

I am a student who uses your resource almost every day. I am so grateful for your time and effort in this. A huge huge thank you to you!!

The expanded and updated version you been working on is very helpful and the extra choices at least in the APA section are wonderful. They don't seem to follow as strictly to the APA guidelines as they used though, and that is a little concerning for seeing how much I rely on it for my school work.

Take the web citation, your template does not include the option to add the name of the web page that is being cited, only the name of the document. It also doesn't automatically put in the date retrieved like it used to. Here is the example from our APA reference:
Copeland, L. (2003). Managing a multicultural workforce. California Job Journal. Retrieved
October 16, 2004, from http://www.jobjournal.com

With the citation machine it would have looked like this:
Coopland, L. (2003). Managing a multicultural workforce. Retrieved from http://www.jobjournal.com

Thanks again for all your hard work, and please know that there are sooo many grateful students out there because of you!! I would never have been able to get all my papers in on time without your citation site. It was also helping me learn the rules for the different kinds of materials, but I have to say with the updates they are not all correct and I have to double check them sometimes.
It's a bummer because your site it soo perfect otherwise.

Ok, so again thanks!!
And please just double check the APA guidelines.

clutzclemens said...

Just a note that under Web Document on the MLA page, there is a spelling error. "Suppliementary"

Love the tool and use it with my students.

Developer said...

Thanks, Suzanne, for the tip. Fixed...

Naomi B. said...

I have a question for you. How do you do MLA style referencing for the Bible?

loribeek said...

Good morning Dave,
What happened to the 'disclaimer statement' that used to be on the page? I used it to make a point with my students that they cannot blame Citation Machine if something is incorrect! When I click on 'disclaimer & privacy policy' all I get is the privacy info. I'm starting the next round of lessons using CM with my sevies tomorrow!
I'm a 7-12th grade Library Director. Thanks so much- I love, love, love CM and use it all the time with our students!!

lalalamoney said...

I think you need to check your MLA format. I went right to the susscription database source and found an error (the library accessed is no longer used). Your site is great and I want to continue to use it but this mistake has made me skeptical of its accuracy. Can you make sure all the MLA formats are correct now that you have ourchased the guide? Thank you.

Karen said...

Dave, I also encourage my students to use CM - I embed it in their online project pages! I do caution them that only they are responsible for the content of their citations. CM isn't getting a grade for the citation- the student is.

I would like to see the "journal article from a database through a library" become just a journal article in a database. Could you also add something for original material from a database? ABC-CLIO offers content that is unique to that database, and I'd love to be able to point my students at that choice. Right now there are not really appropriate options that completely fill the need.

Thanks so much for creating this tool - my students have learned so much by using it.

Karen

RLP said...

On the entry page for "MLA • Anthology or Compilation." In the drop-down box for medium, "digital" is misspelled "ditial."

I know this is an enormous undertaking, so I feel a little ungrateful by pointing out an error. I've used the Citation Machine with my students for years. Believe me, I greatly appreciate and respect your work. Thanks!

Celestine Bloomfield said...

Dear David,
My fifth grade students can't handle the bathing suit photos of women needing to lose weight. The advertisements are limiting my student's use.
celestine Bloomfield

Deecon said...

Hi Dave! I’m a librarian at a community college and the other librarians and I absolutely love Citation Machine! Very helpful for all our students. We have noticed a few issues with the citing from subscription services (as noted by Suzanne and perhaps others).
From what we can determine, with the new MLA (7th ed.) the subscription service name is never used in a citation. We’re going with the examples from the MLA guide page 193 (5.6.4). The database name is required and the URL is optional; however, the subscription service name is never included.
In Citation Machine, there are two options for this type of source: “Work from a Subscription Service” and “Work from a Subscription Service accessed through a Library (adapted)”. Each of these asks for the Subscription Service name. The option for access through a library also asks for the library the subscription service was retrieved, also not included with the MLA, 7th ed.
In fact, with the new MLA citation format, the second option here is not needed at all (the one noting access through a library). If this one could just be deleted it would be helpful. On the first option, “Work from a Subscription Service”, merely changing the name of the box from “Subscription Service” to “Database Name” would fix the problem.
Sorry for the long note here – we just thought we should mention this to you! Thank you :)

Deecon said...
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Unknown said...

Dave, I've been using your website for years now and wanted to thank you for all you've contributed. It is a fantastic site!

Unknown said...

I cannot access your Citation Machine; is it on vacation?

Xlander said...

Is there something wrong with the site? It just opens up a funny text line that requests an isbn. It doesn't allow for dropping your own information in. That would be great except that the citation I need doesn't have an isbn. I tried to use a random isbn from a book I do own and the site failed to do anything but reload the broken page.

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Is citation machine down?

Library Girl said...

Dave,

I'm a middle and high school librarian. We love Citation Machine, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to link to the version that doesn't have ads. We use CM for all our classes but the ads are way too distracting. I found this link http://citationmachine.net/login_40.php?page=login but it doesn't work. I looked for something that said register on the CM homepage but didn't see anything.

Thanks,
Pam

Kristal said...

Hi,
Just curious, several other MLA
7th edition sites state when entering an anthology, that page numbers should be listed. When prompted to enter all the information for an anthology on your site there is no prompt or box for page numbers other than the bottom where the in-text citations are. Should or should not page numbers be added to a bibliography citation? Other than that, thank you for this wonderful resource.

MC said...

Hi Dave,
My first-year college students love your Son of Citation Machine. I'm afraid, however, there's an error in the in-text parenthetical citations generated for online journal and magazine articles when no author is given (MLA style). Instead of placing the article title in the citation, CM removes the italics from the magazine/journal title, surrounds it with quotation marks, and places that title in the parentheses. Any chance of a fix?
MC

Anonymous said...

I was wondering if your son of citation machine 5.0 is up yet? Every time it comes up in a search engine, and I click on it, it takes me to the usual 4.0 version. I was just curious, since I absolutely LOVE the son of citation machine and was excited to try the new one. Thank you SOOOOOOO much for all of the hard work you do to provide such a wonderful service, in making life easier on us super busy 21st century students!

Littlebear said...

Just curious, is it possible to write a <"embed"> code for distribution of other's works so they don't have to input these target and request the whole page via script such as wget a page and look for the html tag <"title"> for title and <"body"> ? Thank you for all your hardwork :)

Anonymous said...
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eda said...
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Unknown said...

Regarding Citation Machine. I am a librarian in a high school and we're trying to find good places to help students write citations. I love Son of Citation Maker and will be recommending it because of ease of use and the fact that it is free!! (Thank you!!)

We found what could be a mistake in your template for MLA Web Sites, if we are to understand the 7th Edition of the MLA Handbook.

The pattern we understand is...
Author’s last name, Author’s first name. "Title of the Web Page." Title of the Overall Web Site. Publisher or Sponsor of site, day Month year of publication. Medium of publication. day Month year of access. (MLA 5.6.2.b)

Your citation maker inserted the publisher or sponsor of the site after the date of publication - instead of the other way around.

Just want to help - because we appreciate what you've offered!

Unknown said...

Regarding Citation Machine. I am a librarian in a high school and we're trying to find good places to help students write citations. I love Son of Citation Maker and will be recommending it because of ease of use and the fact that it is free!! (Thank you!!)

We found what could be a mistake in your template for MLA Web Sites, if we are to understand the 7th Edition of the MLA Handbook.

The pattern we understand is...
Author’s last name, Author’s first name. "Title of the Web Page." Title of the Overall Web Site. Publisher or Sponsor of site, day Month year of publication. Medium of publication. day Month year of access. (MLA 5.6.2.b)

Your citation maker inserted the publisher or sponsor of the site after the date of publication - instead of the other way around.

Just want to help - because we appreciate what you've offered!

gg said...

When citing an essay for a math course, which style is used. I cannot find a straight answer. Some say it is a Liberal Art and others say it is a Performing Art. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Aloha Girl said...

Dave, I want to add my thanks to you for Citation Machine and for making it available for FREE to our students. I love it as do my students. There is a bit of a problem with website citing (it's been mentioned in an earlier comment but is still doing the same thing). The date of the website should come after the sponsoring organization (or N.p.) but instead it is being put in front of the sponsoring organization name. Although students are told they are ultimately responsible for checking their citations most of them don't take the time to check it. If you could make that change it would be GREAT!

RK CLOTHING DESIGNS said...
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RK CLOTHING DESIGNS said...
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bobb said...

Ive used your formatting for the past 3 years, but using your formatting for a citing assignment for a class. Unfortunatly, there were many errors that were found and my grade suffered. I hope that you fix the problems so other students dont have the same problem.

bobb said...
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bobb said...
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bobb said...
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F. Bautista said...
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mani said...
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MeMeselfAndI said...

I am lost when it comes to work consulted. What is the difference between work consulted and work cited?

Thank you.

Meow said...
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