Student Examples

Directly below is a template you may follow for the student examples in MLA style. The citation is for a standard one author book. If you are using something from an anthology or the internet, you will have to use the correct citation for that source.

Name

Prof's name

Class

Date

Title

Author's last name, author's first name. Title of book. City of publication: Publisher. Date.

Give as much information about the text, author, why the author revised the text in the manner she did, how this version is different from the "original" as you can, or whatever information seems applicable. if any illustrations accompany your story then you may comment on them as well.

Below is an example from one of the Cinderella texts I brought to class. Each example will be a little different depending on what type of story I am asking you to bring in. With the natural phenomena example you will not really be comparing it to an "original" unless your story seems to warrant that. Just give whatever information seems applicable (the more the better). And feel free to cut and paste any information from the web or scan in information, just be sure and quote it and correctly cite it (no plagarism!).

Cathlena Martin

Cathlena Martin

LIT 2120

January 16, 2004

Cinderella Student Example

Louie, Ai-Ling. Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China. New York: PaperStar. 1982. Illustrated by Ed Young.

Yeh-Shen illustrated certain Chinese cultural distinctions from other versions of the Cinderella story, while at the same time keeping the similar structure of teh general Cinderella tale. [Here you could list similarities: parents die and the Cinderella character is raised by a jealous stepmother, one magical agent/friend/fairy godmother to grant wishes, longing to go to a festival/ball to which she is forbidden, transformation of protagonist with aid, an identifying article of clothing/shoe given with some sort of warning or rule, ends in marriage.] The story deviates or is culturally different by using a fish as her magical agent as well as a spirit man who informs her of where the fish's bones are buried. Also, the Cinderella character does not attend a ball in which a prince is trying to find a wife; instead, she attends a festival, loses her shoe, which is sold and taken to a king in another place. The king actively searches for the wearer of the shoe, but doesn't go door to door. He sets up a pavillian where the shoe was found and invites any woman to come and try it on. Again, the Cinderell character is not looking for a husband (arranged marriages were common and it would be presumptuous for the young girl to seek a husband on her own). She only goes to the pavillian to get her shoe back. [There are additional things I could write, but that should give you an idea about what type of information I am looking for. And PLEASE keep this information saved in an accessable location on your computer because all of your student examples will be part of the web project.]

The following information was given on the first page of the story as a preface to the tale: "The story as it appears in The Miscellaneous Record of Yu Yang, a book which dates from the T'and dynasty (618-907 AD). The author was one Tuan Ch'eng-Shih. Tuan's book was subsequently incorporated in an excyclopedic work which went through many edition. Shown here is the Hsueh Chin T'ao Yun edition from the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1912) [the following page has the orginal Chinese characters/version in Chinese]. This modern reissue still uses the original black-printed page. The oldest European version of Cinderella was found to be an Italian tale from 1634. Since the Yeh-Shen story predates that tale, Cinderella seems to have made her way to Europe from Asia" (Louie 1).