How to include translator/editor in bibliography

kk36523672

Hi, I've just started using Zotero and I'm coming across a major problem.
I'm using MLA citation style, and I can't get the translator's information to show up on the bibliography, even though I've included this information under the "Translator" entry in Zotero. The MLA style requires that you cite the translator, so I'm not sure what's going on.

Thank you.

adamsmith

Which MLA style exactly? Which item type? I don't see any way the translator wouldn't be included in a Zotero MLA 8th citation and it certainly is in the most common format, i.e. an book with an author and a translator.

kk36523672

I selected "Modern Language Association 8th edition." In my Zotero entry, I have entered both the author's name and translator's name. When I "add bibliography" on Words, the generated bibliography includes the author's information, but not the translator's.

kk36523672

The item type is "Book."

adamsmith

Could you paste the citation here, please? Note that the citation style for "Add bibliography" is set per document, under "Document Preferences" -- whatever happens to show as selected under Citation Styles in the Cite tab of the Zotero preferences doesn't actually have any effect on anything.

kk36523672

Sure. And yes, I've always selected citation style using "Document Preferences" on Words.

So, the following is what shows up when I select "generate report" for the entry:

Time and Narrative

Type Book
Author Paul Ricoeur
Translator Kathleen McLaughlin
Translator David Pellauer
Volume 1
Place Chicago and London
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Date 1984
Date Added 12/16/2020, 9:54:55 PM
Modified 12/19/2020, 5:48:00 PM


And this is the generated bibliography on words:

Ricoeur, Paul. Time and Narrative. The University of Chicago Press, 1984.


Also, thank you very much for your help. I greatly appreciate it.

adamsmith

Thanks. I suspect you're not actually using that item when citing in Word. When I use those data with MLA 8, I get:

Ricœur, Paul. Time and Narrative. Translated by Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer, vol. 1, University of Chicago Press, 1984.

But I saw that importing the ISBN into Zotero, e.g., misses volume number and translators. You can test by right-click--> create bibliography on that item, selecting MLA and clipboard and pasting here. I suspect you'll get the same I did.

You could check if you have a duplicate copy in your Zotero library. If not, test with Word in a new document.

kk36523672

Thank you! I tried it on a new word document, and it works.
It must have conflicted with a previous version of the entry.

adamsmith

You might need to remove and -re-insert the item in the original Word doc.