APA Referencing †Citing a Newspaper Article

APA Referencing – Citing a Newspaper Article APA Referencing – Citing a Newspaper Article If you’ve been at college for a while, you might already be pretty good when it comes to citing sources. Maybe you know all about referencing books and academic journals. But have you given much thought to newspaper articles? OK, you’re not likely to cite a National Enquirer article called â€Å"BILL CLINTON CONFESSION: I HUNTED ALIENS† in a serious paper about astrobiology. Seems completely legit to us. But discussing politics, culture or social trends can require referring to current events, which usually means citing a newspaper. In today’s blog post, we explain exactly how to do this using APA referencing. In-Text Citations APA conventions for citing a newspaper article are similar to those used for other sources, with the author’s name and year of publication given in parentheses. If directly quoting an article from a print edition of a newspaper (they’re still a thing, you know), you should give page numbers, too: The Guardian reported the plan to secede â€Å"with or without the approval of Madrid† (Jones, 2016, p. 12). If the author is named in the text, simply give the year of publication immediately afterwards and any relevant page numbers after the quoted text: According to Sam Jones (2016), Catalonia is â€Å"is preparing to defy Spain’s constitutional court† (p. 11). If no author is named for an article, APA suggests including a shortened version of the article title in citations instead: Anne Bancroft was reported to sometimes burp in public (â€Å"I’m A Slob,† 1964). Yes, that last one was a genuine story. Although only insofar as anything in the National Enquirer can ever really be called â€Å"a genuine story.† It seems more plausible than the alien thing, at least. Reference List: Print Articles When an article is cited from a print edition of a newspaper the information to include in your reference list is: Author name and initial(s). (Year, month and day published). Article title. Newspaper, page numbers. For the Guardian article cited above, this would appear as follows: Jones, S. (2016, July 27). Catalonia tells Spain it will push for secession with or without assent. The Guardian, pp. 11-13. If no author is named, the full title of the article is used in its place: I’m a slob: I burp and slurp in public. (1964, December 20). National Enquirer, pp. 1-3. We promise that’s the last time we’ll mention the National Enquirer. Reference List: Online Articles The only difference when referencing the online version of a newspaper article is that you need to give the URL rather than page numbers: Author name(s) and initial(s). (Year, month and day published). Article title. Newspaper. Retrieved from URL The online version of the Guardian article above would therefore appear as: Jones, S. (2016, July 27). Catalonia tells Spain it will push for secession with or without assent. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/27/catalonia-independence-spain-democratic-mandate

Everything You Need to Know About Shakespeares Plays

Everything You Need to Know About Shakespeare's Plays William Shakespeare is best known for his plays, although he was also an accomplished poet and actor. But when we think about Shakespeare, plays like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing immediately spring to mind. How Many Plays? A remarkable fact about Shakespeares plays is that scholars can’t agree on how many he actually wrote. Thirty-eight plays is the most popular hypothesis, but after many years of wrangling, a little-known play called Double Falsehood has now been added to the canon. The main problem is that it is believed that William Shakespeare wrote many of his plays collaboratively. Therefore, it is difficult to identify the content penned by the Bard with any accuracy. What Were Shakespeares Plays About? Shakespeare was writing between 1590 and 1613. Many of his early plays were performed at the building that would eventually become the infamous Globe Theatre in 1598. It was here that Shakespeare made his name as a budding young writer and penned such classics as  Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Taming of the Shrew. Many of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies were written in the early 1600s and would have been performed at the Globe Theatre. Genres Shakespeare wrote in three genres: tragedy, comedy, and history. Although this seems very straightforward, it is notoriously difficult to categorize the plays. This is because the histories blur comedy and tragedy, the comedies contain elements of tragedy, and so on. Tragedy Some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays are tragedies. The genre was extremely popular with Elizabethan theatergoers. It was conventional for these plays to follow the rise and fall of a powerful nobleman. All of Shakespeare’s tragic protagonists have a fatal flaw that propels them towards their bloody end. Popular tragedies include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet,  King Lear, and Macbeth. Comedy Shakespeare’s comedy was driven by language and complex plots involving mistaken identity. A good rule of thumb is if a character disguises themselves as a member of the opposite sex, you can categorize the play as a comedy. Popular comedies include Much Ado About Nothing, and The Merchant of Venice. History Shakespeare used his history plays to make social and political commentary. Therefore, they are not historically accurate in the same way we would expect a modern historical drama to be. Shakespeare drew from a range of historical sources and set most of his history plays during the Hundred Years War with France. Popular histories include  Henry V and Richard III. Shakespeare’s Language Shakespeare used a mixture of verse and prose in his plays to denote the social standing of his characters. As a rule of thumb, common characters spoke in prose, while noble characters further up the social food chain would revert to iambic pentameter. This particular form of poetic meter was extremely popular in Shakespeare’s time. Although iambic pentameter sounds complex, it is a simple rhythmic pattern. It has ten syllables in each line that alternate between unstressed and stressed beats. However, Shakespeare liked to experiment with iambic pentameter and played around with the rhythm to make his character’s speeches more effective. Why is Shakespeare’s language so descriptive? We should remember that the plays were performed in daylight, in the open air, and with no set. In the absence of atmospheric theater lighting and realistic sets, Shakespeare had to conjure up mythical islands, the streets of Verona, and cold Scottish castles through language alone.