The primary purpose of documentation is to enable your readers to locate the sources that you have used in your work. So, documentation is a way of leaving a trail for them to follow, like dropping breadcrumbs in a forest.

The first breadcrumb is the parenthetical citation you give following the information you have used in a sentence. Here is an example.

In literature, symbolism is an important device for writers. Literary symbols extend meaning beyond the prosaic representation of realities afforded by literal description, or extracted through analysis and exposition. Symbols do this by combining "their literal meaning with the suggestion of an abstract concept" ("Symbol"). Two kinds of symbols are commonly recognized. There are symbols "that carry complex associations of meaning no matter what their contexts, and those that derive their suggestive meaning from their functions in specific literary works" ("Symbol").

Notice that each quotation requires its own parenthetical documentation but that in this example the information given in each parenthesis is the same since the quotations are from the same source.

The works cited entry is the second breadcrumb you leave for your reader to follow. The entry for the source used above looks like this:

"Symbol." Glossary of Literary Terms. Thompson/Gale. 20 Jan. 2005. http://www.gale.com/free_resources/glossary/glossary_s.htm#s

Here is the original text from which the quotation was taken:

Symbol: Something that suggests or stands for something else without losing its original identity. In literature, symbols combine their literal meaning with the suggestion of an abstract concept. Literary symbols are of two types: those that carry complex associations of meaning no matter what their contexts, and those that derive their suggestive meaning from their functions in specific literary works. Examples of symbols are sunshine suggesting happiness, rain suggesting sorrow, and storm clouds suggesting despair. (Compare with Archetype and Symbolism.)

If you use two web sources to give information on the same term, then you must distinguish between the sources in your parenthetical citation. Here is an example.

In literature, symbolism is an important device for writers. Literary symbols extend meaning beyond the prosaic representation of realities afforded by literal description, or extracted through analysis and exposition. Symbols do this by combining "their literal meaning with the suggestion of an abstract concept" ("Symbol" Gale). Two kinds of symbols are commonly recognized. There are symbols "that carry complex associations of meaning no matter what their contexts, and those that derive their suggestive meaning from their functions in specific literary works" ("Symbol" Gale). The first type is often called a conventional symbol. An example might be a hawk circling overhead. The hawk is just that, a bird in flight; however, it can also be used to represent the abstract concepts of power and freedom. An example of a personal or private symbol is the white whale in Moby Dick. In the course of telling his story, Melville makes it clear that for Captain Ahab the whale is a symbol of evil. The use of symbols in a literary work often becomes quite complex since writers " can develop symbols created by others, and can reinterpret conventional ones" ("Symbol" UVic).

This is the way the works cited would look for these two web sources:

"Symbol." Glossary of Literary Terms. Thompson/Gale. 20 Jan. 2005. http://www.gale.com/free_resources/glossary/glossary_s.htm#s

"Symbol." The UVic Writer's Guide. University of Victoria. 20 Jan. 2005. http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/RhetSymbol.html

Here is the text from the UVic web site:

Writers can develop symbols created by others, and can reinterpret conventional ones; Adrienne Rich, in "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" counterpoints the energy and beauty of a Blakean tiger with the symbol of a wedding ring in such a way that the conventionally threatening tiger becomes attractive as it "paces" in "sleek chivalric certainty," and the conventionally desirable wedding ring becomes oppressive as its "massive weight . . . / sits heavily" on Aunt Jennifer's finger.

If you supplement the information from the web with that from a reference work in printed form, this is how the parenthetical documentation would look:

In literature, symbolism is an important device for writers. Literary symbols extend meaning beyond the prosaic representation of realities afforded by literal description, or extracted through analysis and exposition. Symbols do this by combining "their literal meaning with the suggestion of an abstract concept" ("Symbol" Gale). Two kinds of symbols are commonly recognized. There are symbols "that carry complex associations of meaning no matter what their contexts, and those that derive their suggestive meaning from their functions in specific literary works" ("Symbol" Gale). The first type is often called a conventional symbol. An example might be a hawk circling overhead. The hawk is just that, a bird in flight; however, it can also be used to represent the abstract concepts of power and freedom. An example of a personal or private symbol is the white whale in Moby Dick. In the course of telling his story, Melville makes it clear that for Captain Ahab the whale is a symbol of evil. The use of symbols in a literary work can become quite complex since writers " can develop symbols created by others, and can reinterpret conventional ones" ("Symbol" UVic). In summary, any object or process may assume a symbolic importance in a literary work when it serves as a token allowing comparison with its counterpart, as in the example above, where the unfettered movement of the hawk on the wind is a token for the unrestricted thought and action that constitutes freedom for a human being in society("Symbol" American).

Here is the etymology from the dictionary that is the source for the last sentence in the paragraph above.

[Latin symbolum, sign, token, from Greek sumbolon, token of identification (by comparing with its counterpart) from sumballein, to throw together, compare : sun-, together + ballein, to throw (see gwel- ¹ in Appendex^* ).]

Take note that as a rule, a general dictionary is not the best source of information when trying to define a rhetorical or literary term. Common words used in rhetorical or literary studies are often given specialized meanings, and so an ordinary dictionary may not provide a relevant definition. I have used a general dictionary here simply to give a model of how to document a printed reference book.

Here is the way the works cited would look for all three of these sources :

There are several things to notice.

• A works cited list is always organized alphabetically. Since the first word in all three of the sources is the same, then the list is alphabetized by the first word in the title of the book or web page.

• Page numbers are never given for a printed reference book like a dictionary or encyclopedia that is organized alphabetically. The reason is obvious.

• In the parenthetical citation in the paragraph, and in the works cited entry, the term that was looked up is enclosed in quotation marks. The reason for this is that the term is treated as the title of an article. And in documentation, you give the title of the article first if no author is listed.

• On line dictionaries and glossaries, like printed dictionaries and glossaries, are considered reference works. So it is the MLA model for a reference work that is your basic guide for dealing with these sources.

• Go to this website for detailed information on MLA documentation style.

• Information about how to document reference books can be found on this page.

• The general order of information in an MLA citation is always the same: Author (or title if no author is given); the source of the work (the title of the book, website, etc.); publication information (for web sources this will include the sponsoring company or institution, the date of access and the web address).

• You may not be able to find the exact model for every source you encounter, but keep in mind what your purpose is and give all the relevant information that is available in the appropriate order.