HOW to Properly Alphabetize MLA Works Cited

EndNote EndNote General
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Here’s the MLA rule:   When there is no author listed for a work, you still have to list that work alphabetically in your Works Cited page by using the first significant word of the title.  In other words, MLA requires that the whole Works Cited be alphabetized regardless of whether the word has quotes as a title, or is an author, or whatever word begins the entry.

Here’s what I want:  

 

Acheson, Sam. “Dallas Yesterday: Travis Was First Artist Born Here.” Dallas Morning News 22 Feb. 1971: 2-D.

 

“Algerian Costumes for Beaux Arts Ball.” Dallas Morning News 23 Feb. 1930. The Dallas Morning News Historic Archive. Dallas Public Lib., Dallas, TX. 2008.

 

Askew, Rual. “Art and Artists: Wide Scope Marks Work of Students.” Dallas Morning News 6 May 1948. The Dallas Morning News Historic Archive. Dallas Public Lib., Dallas, TX. 2008.

 

“Benton Ousted by Art Museum.” Dallas Morning News 7 May 1941. The Dallas Morning News Historic Archive. Dallas Public Lib., Dallas, TX. 2008.

 

Bullock, Helen. “Changing Scene: The Many Faces of McKinney Ave.” Dallas Morning News 7 May 1961. The Dallas Morning News Historic Archive. Dallas Public Lib., Dallas, TX. 2008.

  

Here’s What I Keep Getting (Author, Title):

“Algerian Costumes for Beaux Arts Ball.” Dallas Morning News 23 Feb. 1930. The Dallas Morning News Historic Archive. Dallas Public Lib., Dallas, TX. 2008.

 

"Art and Artists: Wide Scope Marks Work of Students." Dallas Morning News 6 May 1948. The Dallas Morning News Historic Archive. Dallas Public Lib., Dallas, TX. 2008. 

 

“Benton Ousted by Art Museum.” Dallas Morning News 7 May 1941. The Dallas Morning News Historic Archive. Dallas Public Lib., Dallas, TX. 2008.  

Acheson, Sam. “Dallas Yesterday: Travis Was First Artist Born Here.” Dallas Morning News 22 Feb. 1971: 2-D. Askew, Rual.

 

Bullock, Helen. “Changing Scene: The Many Faces of Mckinney Ave.” Dallas Morning News 7 May 1961. The Dallas Morning News Historic Archive. Dallas Public Lib., Dallas, TX. 2008.

 

PLEASE HELP!!

I will have about 25 pages of bibliography - I’m all set to do a copy/format independently; the only problem is that all the sort features tend to see the lack of author on my newspaper clippings as “empty” and therefore they all just flop to the top.  I have TONS of these, and don’t want to have to manually alphabetize.  I’ve spent the whole day looking for how to solve this so your help is greatly appreciated.  PLEASE tell me I’m missing something! (And yes, I know I have to do a hanging indent, but this page took them out : )

Message Edited by Travellini on 12-19-2008 02:41 AM

Message Edited by Travellini on 12-19-2008 02:46 AM

Message Edited by Travellini on 12-19-2008 11:07 AM

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I am not quite sure why it isn’t working for you.  I have played and played and get the correct sort order in X2.   Do you put the quotes in the record or depend upon the style to insert them?  What is the Sort order for Bibliography in the MLA style you are using? 

Can you attach your style?

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First, thanks so much for your reply!! 

(I just edited my original message to show my true “WHAT I’M GETTING” information - basically non-authored sorted first, then authored…the screen was a bit “slippery” when I was putting that together.)

 

 

My style is a slight modification of MLA because our school had some customized requirements, but when I chose the orginal MLA, I get the same problem. I don’t THINK I’ve ever modified the original MLA since I usually try to keep the original files without changing - but maybe.  I’ve just upgraded from Endnote 4 to X2.

 

I depend on the style to insert the quotes.  The sort order is Author + Title, though I’ve tried all the others - and I’ve tried changing it in the “Sort Library” segment … Style attached!!

 

Thanks!!

Message Edited by Travellini on 12-19-2008 02:40 AM

Message Edited by Travellini on 12-19-2008 02:44 AM
Pacifica’s MLA.ens (48.8 KB)

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Do you have “short titles” in your records?  Is it using those instead?  try changing the anonymous author setting to full title?

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I don’t have any short titles in that field.  I’m not sure what you mean about changing anonymous author setting to full title, though I’ll look around to see if that becomes clear.  I’m at my wit’s end, because it seems ridiculous that it won’t sort according to MLA and I have SO many newspaper articles without titles!!  I REALLY appreciate your help.  I otherwise love this progam!

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See the attached image for the Anonymous Works options.  Try Leave author blank or Use full title in place of author settings. 

anonymous.gif
anonymous.gif685×578 51.1 KB

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WOW, Leanne - I REALLY thought this was it, and it seems it IS part of it!!  I’ll paste the annoying but welcome information from the Help files.  (MLA does not want the use of Anon or Anonymous.) Yet -even when I change the Output Style from “Leave Author Blank” to “Use Title in Place of Author,” which is my preference, the problem remains … ugh.  I even cleared everything from “sort library,” and there’s is nothing in my “Short Titles”…  I’ll keep noodling with it, but so far, my problem remains!  I welcome your thoughts!  Susan

Anonymous Works

Anonymous works are defined by EndNote as references where the Author field is blank (not “Anonymous”). The settings in the Anonymous Works panel apply to all sections of a style (Citations, Bibliography, and Footnotes).

Leave Author Blank : The author section of the formatted reference is left empty. If the references are to be sorted by author names, the anonymous works would be sorted at the top of the list because they have no author.

Use Title in Place of Author : Where the author would have appeared, the title is used instead. If the references are sorted by author, the anonymous references will be sorted as though the title were the author. If you would prefer that EndNote use the contents of the “Short Title” field in place of the full title (where available), click the “Use Short Title” check box. If EndNote encounters a reference that does not have anything entered into the Short Title field, it uses the contents of the regular Title field instead.

Use APA Specifications : The American Psychological Association format (used by many journals) requires a special variation of the “Use Title in Place of Author” option.

Insert Text : The text that you enter here appears in the author’s place in the formatted reference, and it is used for sorting purposes if the references are to be sorted by author names. Commonly this text would be something like the word “Anonymous” or “Anon.”

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I also tried “Use Short Titles” - that didn’t work either …:cry:

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WOW - now my Output style VANISHED - gone from Style folder altogether - how FORTUITOUS that you asked for a copy on one of your messages!!! Aren’t you the BEST!!  It took a long time to get that customized, so HURRAY!!  I’m still looking for the sort solution, but having the style is … important!  Thanks, Leanne!

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check your messages (upper right hand) here in the forum.

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After extensive testing, we figured out that if you insert using CWYW the citations, the Bibliography is correctly sorted, but if you ctrl K (copy formated) and paste into a document or export using the same style, the sorting is incorrect. 

Thus, the only way (unless Tech support has another idea-edited-they acknowledged the bug and suggested similar workarounds) to get the correctly sorted bibliography, is to insert the references in groups of 50 or less (in Travelinni’s case 50x6 or 7, for 300 references)  and format the font as hidden for the “citations” that you don’t really want to appear, or after pasting to unlink the fields and throw away the citations.

We have not tested other styles, just MLA and MLA modified styles.

Message Edited by Leanne on 12-22-2008 09:41 PM

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Full Tech support response:

 

There does appear to be a discrepancy between how EndNote X2 sorts the references when you insert using the Copy Formatted/Paste option as opposed to using the Cite While You Write tools. Unfortunately, there is no fix for this particular issue.

 

You can manually edit the document to get the desired Output in one of two ways.

Once you have finished using the document with EndNote, you can make a backup of it and then use the EndNote > Remove Field Codes option. This will remove the link between the document and EndNote. You can then edit the document manually. At this point, you could manually copy formatted and paste individual citations into an existing bibliography. The other option would be to insert the citations into the document so they appear in the bibliography and then manually remove the ones you do not need in-text.

I will report the issue with the sort order to our development team.

If you would like, you can submit this as a request through our suggestions form:

http://www.endnote.com/ensuggest.asp

This goes directly to our Product Management Group and is the best way to make your voice heard when it comes to anything you may want to see included or changed in the software.