If I want to cite an essay from a textbook (this book has a collection of various essays from different authors as well as regular textbook stuff) in my Works Cited pages, should I consider it a collection? Should I cite the textbook authors first, or the essay author?
Citation styles may differ between the sciences and the humanities. However, in the sciences I would write the citatation as:
(Assuming Black is the author of the essay, and White is the author of the textbook it is contained in)
Black, A. 2003. The blood-sucking midges of Panama. In: White, B. Blood-sucking Pests of the World, pp 234-345.
or:
Black, A. 2003. The blood-sucking midges of Panama. pp 234-345 in: White, B. Blood-sucking Pests of the World.
There are many variants of this style. If there is not a particular style specified for your article, then select a particular stylebook (e.g. University of Chicago) and go with whatever they specify.
I am very familiar with the MLA handbook 5th edition (Gibaldi). As a former paper grader (last semester) in a faculty that exclusively uses MLA, I can tell you that sometimes there are varying ways to cite, all of which are acceptable; sometimes it is left to the writer’s best judgment as to which is most suitable. As long as you follow the nuts and bolts of what’s laid out in the handbook, even if your reader is picky (as I had to be) it should be OK.
If you are citing only the essay from this textbook, you should cite the author of the essay first in your works cited and in-text citations.
Smith, John. “Name of Essay.” Title. Author/editor and so on…
(Disclaimer: I haven’t looked at the MLA handbook in at least a month, so double-check, but I don’t think for MLA style you use “in” before the name of the book and its details.)
If you only want to cite several essays from the book, and no info by the author directly, you could treat it as a collection. Since this source includes info by the author, not just an editor, as well as essays from other sources, this may be less desirable. If you wish to cite the essay as well as things the author wrote, you might do best with a cross-reference … make an overarching citation for the book itself, then cite the essay separately using the crossreference format in the Handbook.
It seems there are a number of sites with the MLA stlye on line, such as this:
http://www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm
As far as I can tell, the following style would apply:
Book Article or Chapter
James, Nancy E. “Two Sides of Paradise: The Eden Myth According to Kirk and Spock.” Spectrum of the Fantastic. Ed. Donald Palumbo. Westport: Greenwood, 1988. 219-223.
That is the style I decided to go with, since it makes sense to me that the essay’s author would get primary credit over the textbook authors. If my instructor prefers something different I’m sure she will let me know. Thanks for the input, much appreciated!
Not quite.
The book title needs to be underlined or italicised.