As you continue to research and write, pay careful attention to matters of style. Keep in mind that if you use a citation generator–either one available through the HPU Libraries databases or elsewhere online–the citations may include errors. Compare them with the models at the MLA Style Center, on OWL, or in the MLA Handbook, ninth edition.
The list of links on my blog includes the websites for both the MLA Style Center and OWL (Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab). At the library’s reference desk (pictured above), you can pick up a handout on MLA style and consult a physical copy of the MLA Handbook, ninth edition.
Documentation Styles
The library’s reference desk also houses handbooks and handouts for other documentation styles, including APA (the American Psychological Association), CSE (the Council of Science Editors), and Chicago Style. Those are styles you will be required to use for projects in art, history, religion, sciences, and social sciences. For more information on some of the styles you will use in your other college courses, see “The Four Documentation Styles: Similarities and Differences” in Writing Analytically (367-75).
Citation Generators
The pages in both pictures below include a citation-generating feature. (See the small rectangle on the right labeled Cite.) However, only one of the two will render all the information you will need to include in your entry. If you use a citation generator, make sure that you select the required style, MLA, ninth edition, and double-check the content and form for accuracy.
Bonus Assignment
Directions
- Determine which citation generator option–the one on the HPU Libraries page or the one on the JSTOR page–will provide all the information you need.
- Compose a comment of two complete sentences or more that (1) specifies the page as HPU Libraries or JSTOR, (2) notes what the other page’s citation lacks, and (3) identifies any stylistic changes that still need to be made to the “correct” citation. Simply looking at the two pictures above will not provide the answers; you will need to visit the HPU Libraries site and use the citation generators to see what they yield.
- Post your comment as a reply to this blog entry no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, March 27. (To post your comment, click on the post’s title, and scroll down to the bottom of the page. You will then see the image of an airmail envelope with a leave comment option.)
I will approve your comments (make them visible) after Friday’s deadline.
Next Up
Wordplay Day! To prepare for class, revisit the Dictionary and World Builder pages on the Scrabble website or the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Word Finder page, and review the blog posts devoted to Scrabble tips. tips.
Jane Lucas 
The JSTOR citation generator gives me all I need, as it is provides a more complete and properly formatted citation. The HPULibraries citation generator provides a citation that isn’t clean, it gives you a long URL which isn’t wanted in an MLA format, and the whole DOI thing just looks unorganized. But, JSTOR citation still need adjustments, stylistic, capitalization of the titles, and removing the date it was accessed as sometimes that isn’t needed.
In my opinion I believe that HPU libraries has a more complete citation generator compared to JSTOR. JSTOR is missing key elements and formatting of the title. Even though HPU libraries is a better option, it still needs adjustments, like Italics, and capitalization to have proper citation style.
When I used the HPU libary to cite my source, I see that this citation lacks a link, date accessed, and lacks where the source came from, before the link. Compared to this citation, JSTOR has all of these elements included, but also have the website page as “Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal,” while the HPU libary cited this website page as, “Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature.”
The citation generated by HPU Libraries is correct for MLA style. The citation generated by JSTOR has a couple of things wrong. The authors are in all caps, which is not MLA style. Also, the journal title is not correct in the JSTOR-generated citation.
I would say the JSTOR citation is better because of the thorough citation that gives you. It seems to be that the high point library is missing a few pieces of information in the citation compared to the JSTOR citation generator, which is more thorough and the one that my professor told me to use. She told me to use this because it is exact copies of the article book or document unlike the HPU libraries which give a bubble text of the original text. The HPU library is missing the date that you accessed the writing and also seems to miss the other writers involved in the writing.
The citation generator on the HPU Libraries site offers only the publication information for “The Ethics of Laughter” because a searcher viewing it there has not accessed a copy of the article through a database. Only on the JSTOR page will the citation generator offer the complete bibliographic information required for the article accessed through JSTOR.
Though the citation generated on the JSTOR page offers the complete bibliographic information, it still requires editing. The authors’ names should not be in all caps, and the entry lacks a hanging indent.
For examples, see the bibliographic entries for sources accessed from databases in my sample bibliography and the model entry on the MLA Style Center site.