In-Text Referencing of a Play
When referring to a part of the play in your own piece of writing you need to acknowledge the Act, Scene and line being spoken. The traditional method was to use Roman numerals, e.g. IV, vii, ll. 2-12. The capitalization of the Roman numerals indicated the difference between the act and scene. If there is only one line being cited, use one ‘l’ and the line number. If two or more lines, use ‘ll’ and then the line numbers.
However, the modern approach is to use Arabic numbers instead of Roman Numerals and instead of words, full stops. So the above example would be, 5.7.2-12 In the modern approach it is assumed that the reader understands that the order is always act, scene and line.
Poetry
A literary work written as poetry (i.e. in verse) is broken into separate lines and often uses incomplete sentences.
For poetry, use the line numbers. For the first reference, place "lines" in the citation. After the first time, just list the numbers. If you quote two or three lines, place slashes to designate the line's end; place a space before and after the slash.
Langston Hughes looks forward to a time when "Nobody'll dare / say to me / 'Eat in the kitchen'" (lines 11-13).
Later in the poem, Hughes writes, "Tomorrow, / I’ll be at the table / When company comes" (8-10).
If your quotation ends in a dash, comma, or semicolon, you should omit that punctuation mark if it does not make sense in your sentence.
If you cite two or more lines of poetry, include them as a block quotation by starting each line of verse on a new line, pressing Tab twice to indent the entire quotation one inch, placing the punctuation at the end of the quotation, and including the line numbers in parentheses.
Langston Hughes explains his resilience against racism: I am the darker brother They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. (2-7)
The three verbs in the final lines of this passage, “laugh,” “eat,” and “grow,” all convey life; the speaker will …
Notice that the quotation is double-spaced and does