Citing Electronic Sources

Citing an electronic source is a lot like citing a written source, although for any given electronic source several parts may be missing. Ideally, you would be able to cite all the following:

• author's name (last, first)
• title of work cited
• date it was published (in this format -- i.e., where it's published right now)
• title of web site
• web address.

Eldridge, Earl. "Works Cited Sucks!" 23 Oct. 2005. Useless Information. 4 Mar. 2006 < www.moreuselesscrap.org >.

Blog sites create some problems in writing. For instance, it is really hard to indent lines. For all works cited entries, the first line is not indented, but all subsequent lines are.

All of the punctuation is critical in a works cited entry. Every comma, every period, every underline, even those little triangles, must be there. And for goodness sake, spell the stuff correctly.

The following is an example of how I would cite Mr. Eldridge in a text.

There are many scholars who claim "...citing Internet sources are about as fun as have a root canal...." (Eldridge)

Notice that there is no punctuation following the parenthesis.

If something is missing from a works cited entry, for instance, if the entry had no author, then you would just move everything over one notch as follows.

"Works Cited Sucks!" 23 Oct. 2005. Useless Information. 4 Mar. 2006. < www.moreuselesscrap.org >.

When citing it in the text of your paper, you would cite it as follows:

In addition, there are those who state "...hell is an eternity of citing sources off the Internet." (Works Cited Sucks)

In short, whatever appears on the top line to the left of each works cited entry is what you cite in text. Notice, though, that I didn't include the quotation marks in the text citation. The object of an in-text citation is to make it as unobrusive as possible (hence, the lack of punctuation). Had the title been especially long (for instance: "A Brief Discourse on the Effects of Teaching Quantum Physics on the Psyche's of Kindergarteners when Introduced Before Nap Time") I could have shortened it (A Brief Discourse). You shouldn't, however, make them too short (for instance, A).

On Internet cites, it is often hard to tell what the title of the web site is, or even to know what the dates are. If in doubt about what the title of the site is, guess. Your guess is as good as mine.

All Internet citations, regardless of how confusing, will have a minimum of three components:

• The title of the web site
• The date accessed
• The web address

If you are uncertain of the web title, it could very well be the web address.

With the web address, sometimes they get downright silly. The address I'm looking at right now is http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=23419226&postID=114149750822561233. That's short for some. If you were citing this address, all you would need would be: .

The one thing for certain with citing the Internet is that it will never be easy. Oh yeah, that and don't forget to capitalize the word Internet. Don't ask me why, only that it's a proper noun. Personally, I wouldn't've made it a proper noun. I've seen some of those web sites, and boy howdy, there's nothing proper about them. And don't use double contractions in formal papers.

That's pretty much it.