MLA (8th ed.) In-Text Citation Bug, re: same source

adimitri · May 10, 2019

When one cites a source (in-text) for the second consecutive time without inserting an intervening source, it is customary to *not* repeat the author name and source title (only the page number if it is different), but Zotero keeps including the author name and source title, and I can't seem to change this without going into the classic editor which, as we know, does not update automatically.

As the MLA Handbook notes, “[W]hen an entire paragraph is based on material from a single source,” you might “define a source in the text at the start” (125). If you continue to cite the same source in subsequent paragraphs and no other source intervenes, you do not need to identify the source again unless ambiguity would result. (https://style.mla.org/same-source-multiple-paragraphs/)

Can anyone please help me modify Zotero settings to do precisely what the MLA handbook is suggesting above? Whenever I've used Chicago style, it has always done this correctly by writing an "ibid" instead of repeating the same source, but now I'm using MLA and it's not following the same rule (using MLA parameters).

Thanks!
-AD

adamsmith · May 10, 2019

The problem is that, different from Chicago ibid rules, the MLA rule is really just for the same paragraph or adjacent ones. You really shouldn't do this if the next reference is to the same item, but one page along, say. Zotero has no way of knowing this.

I think you can approximate this using suppress author though.

adimitri · May 10, 2019

Thanks, @adamsmith. That makes a lot of sense: there is no way for Zotero to know how far apart your "ibid"-equivalent citations are in MLA style. I just wish that--given the existence and popularity of this MLA rule--there was a way to at least suppress author AND suppress title, leaving only the page numbers for certain, carefully selected in-text citations.