Question about citing a story

[Freshgeardude]

I am writing a research paper and one of the sources has to be this story that is inside a literature book.

the literature book is a general one with many different stories, nothing in common.

the story inside of it is an excerpt from a larger book. I do not have this book, nor was it required.

so, 2 questions.

do I cite the main book or do I cite this small part inside the main book.

also when I quote a sentence, do I use the author of the main book's name or that of the smaller book's name

I already emailed the teacher, but knowing atot, you guys are much faster to answer.

I am using This site to help me correctly cite the material.

thanks

 

[0roo0roo]

mla...seriously they gotta throw that sh*t out.

 

[Freshgeardude]

I agree, but for now I need to follow it

 

[esun]

I'm not entirely sure, but my instinct would be to cite the author of the overall work. Remember, the point of citations are to allow someone reading your paper to go and look up the quote that you cited in the exact book (or whatever reference material) that you found it in. If I'm browsing a library to find the book containing the collection of stories, I need the author of the collection and the page number. The author of the actual story doesn't do me any good.

 

[BoomerD]

Cite the text you got the quote from. The reader could then find that text, then find the original text if they wanted.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/