Citing a Weblog Comment in MLA Style
I couldn't immediately find Susan's full name when I looked at her website, so for the above example I treated "Susan" like a nickname; the quotation marks indicate that I haven't simply forgotten to type her last name.Note: See also "Citing a Weblog Entry in MLA Style".Citing a Weblog Comment in MLA StyleJerz's Literacy Weblog)Works Cited"Susan" (smgct1@comcast.net). "Oddly enough..." [Weblog comment.] N.d. "More Questionable Use of My Work." Dennis G. Jerz. Jerz's Literacy Weblog. Seton Hill University. 10 Dec 2003. (http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog/permalink.jsp?id=1998)Poster's Lastname, Firstname, I. (or screen ID) "Title of comment, or first few words." [Weblog comment.] Date comment was posted. Title of blog entry. Author of blog entry. Name of Weblog. Sponsoring organization -- if any. Date blog entry was posted. (URL that displays the comments in context, if possible.) Date you accessed the comment.
I think the bracketed label "[Weblog comment]" is probably necessary for clarification.
The URL for the citation should display the comments in context, rather than a link that opens a pop-up window with the comments inside (and no easy way to see the entry that prompted the comments).
As with any MLA citation, if the information is lacking, keep a placeholder there. Thus, since my system doesn't at the moment display the date when a comment was posted, I added "N.d." (for "no date") in the slot where the date should be.
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Thank you, sir!
Aaah the english professor obsession with MLA has always amazed me. You guys write a 500 page paper - then use a compressed format to list references. *sigh* What's wrong with doing something like:
The only answer I've ever gotten is that it "saves space". All this obsession and needless agony over convention, just to save a page or two in a book? Somebody has to much free time on their hands!Author: Dennis Jerz
Title: More Questionable Use of My Work
Url: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/weblog/permalink.jsp?id=1998...
Will, I think elsewhere you've vented about the cost of textbooks, no? You should praise the MLA style because it does, in fact, save a bit of money! More seriously, I think your format is less scannable. In the humanities, academics tend to publish mostly solo papers, and they tend to publish fewer papers than is common in the sciences. I find that I often scan works cited lists looking for last names that I recognize. The format that you suggest would make it harder to do that. Of course, if all humanities professors would magically and simultaneously switch to TEX or some other database/markup/automated system, that would solve a lot of problems. But the only way it would even be possible to think of organizing all professors to do that would be through the help of the Modern Language Association (who publishes handbooks on MLA style). So we're stuck with MLA style, which evolves only very slowly.
I have no defense against the charge of obsessiveness, by the way.
Thank you very much. This is great. I know it was created 3 years ago, I've just found it and am thankful.