Disambiguating entries with same author and same/similar title in MLA 9

iswaryaval

Hi!

I have three entries with the same author and (unfortunately generic) title but different years of publication. My Zotero MLA 9 does not seem to disambiguate the following entries:


Stoppard, Tom. “A Conversation with Tom Stoppard.” Sillages Critiques, edited by Elisabeth Angel-Perez et al., no. 13, Oct. 2011, http://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/2497.
---. “A Conversation with Tom Stoppard.” Lincoln Center Theater Review, no. 28, Spring 2001, pp. 5–6. Lincoln Center Theater, https://www.lct.org/explore/magazine/invention-love/.
---. “A Conversation with Tom Stoppard: A Wilma Theater Symposium.” Wilma Theatre, 4 Dec. 1999. Internet Archive, https://web.archive.org/web/20010425164236/http://www.wilmatheater.org/inventionoflove/news_dec4_transcript.html.


The in-text citations (with author suppressed) show this since all the short titles say "Conversation":

("Conversation";"Conversation";"Conversation")


Is there something I should change in the entries to disambiguate?

DWL-SDCA

I don't know if there is a better way to handle this but when the automatic short-title is similar for several articles I manually add something more to the automatic short title.

So something like:
Conversation- Sillages Critiques
Conversation- Lincoln Center
Conversation- Wilma Theater

I cannot say that a dogmatic professor or editor would find that an acceptable format for MLA style but I've not had a problem when I've manufactured my "own" short-titles.

adamsmith

Yeah, modifying the short title in Zotero seems like the right way to go. Does MLA have any guidance? We might be able to add the date or so, but not sure that is particularly helpful

iswaryaval

Hi,

So the standard guideline from MLA is that when the titles are the same, some other element in the entry, (like editor, date, translator, edition, anything unique) has to be added in square brackets to distinguish the two entries.

For instance, please see this example given by MLA:

https://style.mla.org/ordering-editions/

So, I guess my in-text citations needs to be:

("Conversation"[2011]; "Conversation" [2001]; "Conversation" [1999])


Update:

I found the exact guideline from my MLA 9 handbook, section 6.15. Not sure how helpful this is in terms of automation since it leaves a lot to the subjective choice of the writer. I guess the devs have to take a call on the possible hierarchy of choices:

If two or more works by an author have the same title or if works listed by
title have the same title, additional information is needed in the citations so
that the reference will lead clearly to the works-cited-list entry. Include either
the first unique piece of information from the entry or the information that is
most important to your discussion. This information might be the editor,
translator, edition number, publisher, or publication date. Whichever piece of
information you use, use it consistently for all works in your project. Insert
the information in square brackets after the title.

iswaryaval

Hi,

Just wanted to check if anyone has looked into this!