Second-degree citations in MLA

November 23, 2004 5:11 PM

MLA Citation Filter: The information I'm citing was found on a website. However, the person who made the website did not create this information. The information I'm putting into my paper is all from articles cited on the website; it's either a direct quote from the journal article that I copied and pasted from the website, or it's factual information from the articles that is presented and cited by the website author.

In my paper's bibliography, how should I cite the copied portions of journal articles? How should I cite the facts from the journal articles that are presented by the website's author? Do I cite the journal article, or the website?
posted by punishinglemur to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

I would find copies of the articles cited, read them, and then cite directly to them. Acknowledge the assistance of the website in a footnote.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 6:01 PM on November 23, 2004

Monju_bosatsu is totally right. That's the way it's done in the legal world, too.
posted by gokart4xmas at 6:12 PM on November 23, 2004

Thirded: almost always you have to cite the original source of the material you quote.

In my grad program, for example, you can't cite an essay as appearing in the Norton Anthology; you have to cite it in its original, published form.
posted by josh at 6:22 PM on November 23, 2004

Fourthed. It's a primary lesson of all good research: follow all tributaries upstream to the source.
posted by Mo Nickels at 7:03 PM on November 23, 2004

AcademicWorkEthicFilter: Track down the original articles and read them (or at least skim them, and carefully read the relevant sections), so you have a better understanding of the topic you're researching. Then, cite the original article.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 7:11 PM on November 23, 2004