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WRIT 1155 - Writing and Culture JS

MLA Annotation Examples

MLA EXAMPLE OF INFORMATIVE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY: 
TAKEN FROM "HOW TO WRITE AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY"

London, Herbert. "Five Myths of the Television Age." Television Quarterly 10.1     
    (1982): 81-89. Herbert London, the Dean of Journalism at New York 
    University and author of several books and articles, explains how television  
    contradicts five commonly believed ideas. He uses specific examples of 
    events seen on television, such as the assassination of John Kennedy, to 
    illustrate his points. His examples have been selected to contradict such 
    truisms as: "seeing is believing"; "a picture is worth a thousand words"; and 
    "satisfaction is its own reward." London uses logical arguments to support his 
    ideas, which are his personal opinion. He doesn't refer to any previous works 
    on the topic. London's style and vocabulary would make the article of interest 
    to any reader. 

MLA EXAMPLE OF INDICATIVE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EXAMPLE FROM PATRICIA BIZZELL AND BRUCE HERZBURG'S BOOK

Griffin, C. Williams, ed. Teaching Writing in All Disciplines.  San 
    Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1982. Ten essays on writing-across-the-curriculum 
    programs, teaching writing in disciplines other than English, and teaching 
    techniques for using writing as learning.  Essays include Toby Fulwiler,    
    "Writing:  An Act of Cognition"; Barbara King, "Using Writing in the 
    Mathematics Class:  Theory and Practice"; Dean Drenk, "Teaching Finance 
    Through Writing"; Elaine P. Mairnon, "Writing Across the Curriculum:  Past, 
    Present, and Future."

MLA EXAMPLE OF EVALUATIVE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EXAMPLE FROM BRENDA SPATT'S BOOK

Gurko, Leo. Ernest Hemingway and the Pursuit of Heroism. New York: Crowell, 
    1968. This book is part of a series called "Twentieth Century American 
    Writers": a Brief Introduction to the Man and his Work. After fifty pages of 
    straight biography, Gurko discussed Hemingway's writing, novel by novel.  
    There's an index and a short bibliography, but no notes. The biographical part 
    is clear and easy to read, but it sounds too much like a summary.

MLA EXAMPLE OF COMBINATION ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Doll, Susan and Greg Faller. "Blade Runner and Genre: Film Noir and Science  
    Fiction."  Literature Film Quarterly 14.2 (1986): 89-100.  Doll and Faller assert 
    that Ridley Scott's film, Blade Runner, exhibits elements of two distinct pulp 
    genres, film noir and science fiction. The genre cross-pollination is a reflection  
    of Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, upon which 
    the movie is based. After a useful discussion of genre, the authors go on to 
    effectively discuss defining characteristics of both noir and sci-fi, despite the 
    difficulties of such a project. Through the course of accessible discussion and 
    useful examples from the film, the complexities involved in the combination of 
    genres are revealed. In addition, the article also examines the ways that noir 
    and sci-fi in fact complement each other, noir providing a distinct style and sci-   
    fi a distinct narrative direction. Both genres are also concerned with many of   
    the same issues, especially social constructs, ethics, and the state of being 
    human.

MLA EXAMPLE OF TELESCOPIC ANNONTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
TAKEN FROM BRENDA SPATT'S BOOK  

Hingley, Ronald. Chekhov: A Biographical and Critical Study.  London: George 
    Allen & Unwin, 1950. A very good biography. A unique feature of this book is 
    the appendix, which has a chronological listing of all English translations of 
    Chekhov's short stories.

MLA EXAMPLE OF PARAGRAPH ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Renner, Stanley. "'Red hair, very red, close curling': Sexual Hysteria, 
     Physiognomical Bogeymen, and the 'Ghosts' in The Turn of the Screw." In 
     Henry James: The Turn of the Screw. Ed. Peter G. Beidler. Boston: Bedford  
     Books, 1995. 223-241.  Renner asserts that what has previously been
     considered a supernatural event in James' Turn of the Screw is actually a 
     psychological one. According to Renner, James was in fact using the 
     psychosis of the governess to comment on repressive Victorian sexual ideals 
     and their effects on individuals. Renner uses a little bit of biography to show 
     that James would have been familiar with "sexual hysteria", but the more 
     successful part of the article is his careful analysis of physiognomical 
     stereotyping in the Victorian Era. His central argument effectively links the 
     onset of the governess's sexual hysteria and hallucination with the influence 
     of Victorian assumptions about character and physical appearance.

The Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill created the example MLA annotations.