How to cite a dictionary definition à la MLA

Hat tip to Mariana for the question!

Again the caveat: do not spend time formatting your essay according to MLA arcana when you could spend that time working over your analysis and argument. Analysis and argument are 90% of your essay grade; MLA formatting is 0%.

Parenthetical citation:

Jane’s image of Georgiana as “the cynosure of a ball-room” has a mocking undertone (Brontë 280). Brontë compares Georgiana’s intent to marry into money to the meaning of “cynosure” introduced into English in 1596 by Sir Francis Drake: the Pole-star and, figuratively, “Something that serves for guidance or direction” (“Cynosure,” defs. 1 and 2a).

Entry under Works Cited:

“Cynosure.” Defs. 1 and 2a. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 6 July 2008 <http://dictionary.oed.com&gt;.

(That, by the way, is the simplified format; perfectionists may turn to this PDF from SUNY to learn more rigorous formatting rules.)

Three quick usage rules:

1. Incorporate a definition into your essay only when that definition is unusual and interesting—as a general rule, give definitions only for meanings that are uncommon (example: the theological sense of disgrace) or that have gone out of use since Shakespeare’s time.
2. Use the definition to further your argument. If you take the space to spell out an unusual meaning of disgrace but don’t explain how that unusual definition betters our understanding of the sonnet, that space will be wasted.
3. Don’t begin an essay with a definition. Although this might give you a way to break the blank page, your reader is more interested in the argument of your essay than in the OED definition of “love.”

Tags: 2008, Citation, Essay 2, Essay stuff, Picky stuff, Vocabulary