single / double quotation marks mla

iselim
I am using Zotero on different computers. On one of them (windows 7, zotero 3.0.8) quotation marks for articles are single in mla. On my Mac, on the other hand, they are correctly displayed as double quotation marks. I am using the same versio of Zotero and the latest versions of Word and the plugin on both computers. Any ideas?

On a different note, for certain works cited parenthetically, the short title vanishes after a while, although I have several works by the same author in the document.

Thanks,
Markus
  • adamsmith
    We'd need examples for the vanishing short title if you can replicate that somehow with a minimal set of references.
    Single vs. double quotation marks is most likely a function of one of your computers having a GB English Firefox and the other having a US English Firefox: By default, GB goes to single quotation marks.
  • iselim
    Thanks for the information on the relevance of the firefox version in terms of language. That worked.

    I just realised that the vanishing short title is only a problem up to the page when the second work by the same author is quoted (which I guess is the way it should be?). Is there a way of having short titles throughout?
  • adamsmith
    Could you clarify the short title issue?
    Zotero _should_ produce consistent citations throughout (i.e. an item should either be cited with, or w/o the short title, not sometimes this way and sometimes that way), if it doesn't, something isn't working right. Make sure you have click the "update" button in the work plugin.
  • iselim
    I am using two works by the same author. As long as I only cite one of these works in the text, there is no short title in the citation. After citing the second work by the same author, all citations (of both works) contain the short title.

    I tried the same with works by another author, which creates the same result. That's why I was thinking that up to the moment a second work by the same author is introduced, the style is set to include no specification concerning the work in the parenthetical reference.

    Another issue related to that is that short titles cannot be excluded manually from the citation, right? If author and work are mentioned in the text, the page number is sufficient according to MLA but zotero included the short title in any case.
  • fbennett
    edited November 7, 2012
    It sounds like collateral updates (what I call "tainting") is not working correctly inside the CSL processor when this type of disambiguation is triggered. I'll try to build a test and get it fixed in the next processor release. If all goes well the processor update should be ready in time for the upcoming November 20 release of Zotero 3.0.9.
  • ssecunda
    Still have a problem with single quotations when using MLA in a word doc. I use Zotero standalone and the Word plug-in. Don't even have firefox installed on my computer. Any suggestions?
  • fbennett
    @ssecunda: Can you be more specific?
  • ssecunda
    Now I see that I wasn't in MLA but Modern Humanities Research Association. So I guess the real question is, is there a way to customize the way the source appears in my footnotes (not the biblographies)?

    It appears like this:
    Yael Israel-Cohen, ‘Jewish Modern Orthodox Women: Active Resistance and Synagogue Ritual’, Contemporary Jewry, 32 (2012), 3–25.

    I would prefer like this:
    Yael Israel-Cohen, "Jewish Modern Orthodox Women: Active Resistance and Synagogue Ritual," Contemporary Jewry 32 (2012): 3–25.

    That is (1) with double-quotes), (2) with the comma before the last quotation mark, (3) without quotation markes after journal title, (4) with colon before the page numbers.
  • adamsmith
    Sure that's possible, but that would no longer be MHRA style. You can modify MHRA style ( http://editor.citationstyles.org/about/ ). If this is for an existing journal or large professional organization we'll try to do it, otherwise you're on your own.
  • sarahcarol
    Dear zotero team, I encountered the problem that my bibliography in Chicago Manual of Style 16th edition (author-date)contains single instead of double quotation marks although I have downloaded the latest version and the example on the webpage is also with double quotation marks.

    I would be very grateful for your advice.

    Thanks, Sarah
  • adamsmith
    see my answer here: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/35934/inconsistency-between-standalone-and-firefoxs-zotero/#Item_3
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