Debating in class or composing a persuasive paper is a fruitful intellectual practice. Doing so, participants and writers are expected...
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Let us explain what is what and how it can be used. An anthology is a published collection of poems or other pieces of writing. In other words, it is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It is very convenient to read a compilation of different literary pieces united in one book by a theme, idea, genre, period, author, etc. Sounds like an interesting work, but difficulties arose when it is time to formulate sources appropriately. Every anthology one has to cite in a proper way.
To cite an anthology is a necessary condition for a qualitative anthology. The readable and understandable citation of an anthology forms the reader’s opinion of the book just before he reads it or not.
The very first step you should take to cite correctly is to define the citation style you need to follow. There are three most used: MLA, APA, and Chicago. They all have slightly different guidelines to cite individual works in an anthology and whole anthologies.
However, there are some general recommendations:
- To cite an item in an anthology, begin with the name of the author (last name, first name)
- The title of the piece comes next, followed by a period. To cite an essay, a short story or a poem in your anthology, enclose the title in the quotation marks. If it was originally published as a book (a play or a novel) the title of the piece should be in Italics or underlined – whatever you like more
- The title comes next. It also ought to be in italics or underlined
- A list by an editor or editors should be followed by a comma and “editor” or, for multiple editors, “editors.”
If it is still a little difficult, look at the examples:
Hill, Charles A., and Marguerite Helmers, editors. Defining Visual Rhetorics. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
Peterson, Nancy J., editor. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches. Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.
Jones, James. “Daydreaming.” Fictions. Comp. and Ed. Lorence Smith. New York: Yale UP, 1978. New York: Harper, 1968. 127-35
Alternatively, to cite a work in your anthology with more than one editor:
Kempf, Rachel. “Mice, Men, and dreams.” Interpretations of Steinbeck. Eds. Harold Bloom and Karen Kohler. Baltimore: Random House, 2016. 21-32. Print
