For your work in my classes you will be required to consult a variety of works: books, periodicals, databases, films, CD ROMs, and/or internet sites. Good research makes use of this variety of media to develop background for a project from different perspectives; thorough, creative work does not rely on a single source or a single medium. For my purposes, I would like to see you use at least five sources from at least three different media. The most common of these will be books, print periodicals, and websites, but I encourage you to look into videos, CD ROMs, and online sources of periodicals as well (such as those made available through the Library).

All bibliographies require alphabetical listings of works by author (or by title if an author is not listed) and include titles, publication information, and dates of publication (not copyright dates). Double-space all entries except annotations, and indent second (and subsequent) lines. Since I want you to become familiar with the Modern Language Association (MLA) bibliographical style, it will be useful to know the following pattern:

Author (Last name first; subsequent authors of the same source are listed first name first).

Title (underlined or italicized for long works; shorter works are noted in quotation marks).

Publication information and date of publication.

Use my "Flintstone Bibliography" as a model for how various sources are set up within this pattern, and consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th Edition (on Reserve in the Library). Textbooks for most written communication courses also contain information on MLA style, as does my MLA Style page.

The information you provide should usually be as succinct as possible. Therefore, a university press can be listed as "Princeton UP" rather than Princeton University Press; "Routledge and Kegan Paul" is typically listed as "Routledge," and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. is listed simply as "Abrams." Leave out "Inc." and "Ltd." and Company, and use only the first city listed if more than one appear on the title page.

Remember that the purpose of a bibliography is to tell your reader where you got your information, so that he or she can pursue a topic you raise, or check on the reliability of your sources. It's therefore to your benefit to locate the best possible sources to support the work you do in this class.

Important things to remember about bibliographies:

They are not numbered! The reason the author's name is reversed (Uhlmeyer, Candace) is so that it can easily be alphabetized; numbering a bibliography is superfluous and also indicates that you're not paying attention. Don't bullet entries, either (even if you have access to lovely bullets like mine).

It follows logically, then, that instances of multiple authors require that only the first author's name be reversed: Fry, Roger, and Vanessa Bell. If more than three authors are listed, you may choose to use the Latin abbreviation et al. (et alia = "and others") after the first one or two.

Bibliographies should contain sources appropriate to a college-level assignment. This means that encyclopedias (except for those devoted to a particular subject, like The Grove Dictionary of Art) and dictionaries (except historically-oriented, scholarly efforts like The Oxford English Dictionary) are not suitable sources for my classes. If you know absolutely nothing about a word or a topic, or if you don't understand something you read or I say, by all means look it up. But this kind of basic information does not reflect the level of research you need to be conducting for this class. When using a dictionary, by the way, try to consult one with at least 50,000 words listed. And please be sure to keep the context of what you're reading in mind. Since most words have multiple meanings, it makes no sense at all to simply take the first meaning listed and assume that it's correct for any context.

I realize that many of you have spent a good deal of money on textbooks. However, for research purposes, textbooks are only marginally appropriate sources. Even a comprehensive art history survey text, such as Gardner's Art Through The Ages or Janson's History Of Art are meant to be used as general reference books, not the the kind of specialized resources I want you to locate. So unless the textbook includes signed articles by qualified experts or noted writers on the subject (such as critical articles that might appear in a writing anthology), try not to rely on textbooks if you don't have to. Using something you've already bought just because you have it indicates that you lack the kind of seriousness of purpose you're supposed to be developing in these assignments. Ditto on your grandmother's twenty-five year-old copy of Janson, or an out-of-date book on a particular artist (unless you're treatments of a topic historically). Because scholars' research is always providing us with new information, up-to-date sources are much more reliable and appropriate. An exception to this "rule" is the use of classic essays on particular subjects, such as Clement Greenberg's criticism, that offer perspectives on how art has been viewed in the past.

Bibliographies must be properly formatted on a word processor, and all entries (including names) should be properly spelled. Edit your work; don't simply slap your bibliography into the computer and print it out. Carefully go over it for spelling, punctuation, etc. before you print it. After you print a copy, go over that, and make any changes necessary before you print the final copy. Spell-checkers are not trained to recognize many proper nouns, names, foreign words, etc., so you will need to examine details carefully.

Annotations in bibliographies let your reader know something about the source, and remind you of what you found useful or valuable about it. If you do not find anything of use, don't list the source.

Annotations should be made in complete sentences, and set aside visually so that the fact that they are separate from the entries themselves is apparent. One way to do this is to reduce the size of the font you are using, and block-indent the annotation. I require a minimum of two or three complete sentences in an annotation.

The proper heading for a general bibliography is simply Bibliography. No quotation marks, no "works cited," no nothing. Just Bibliography. For a process essay in Humanities or a concept statement in art and design history classes, you may submit a "Works Cited" page--in addition to a general bibliography--which includes sources which you actually quote, summarize, or paraphrase in the essay itself, but this will generally not be necessary.

Publication information in bibliographies includes the following: City (with standard state abbreviations, not postal codes, to identify lesser known cities): Publisher, year published. Well-known cities like New York, Los Angeles, etc., need not be identified by state, but towns like San Fernando, Calif. should note the state. Most dictionaries list proper abbreviations. Foreign publications also need to list the city, not just the country.

Did I mention that bibliographies are not numbered? Rather, they are alphabetized according to the first letter of the entry (usually, but not always, the author). Please remember that in English, the articles a, an, and the do not "count" in determining alphabetical order.

Feel free to consult me for advice and information. As you all know by now, I'm full of it . . .

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06.24.07