Honors English I Ms. Hebert August 2013

Why Use MLA Format?



Allows readers to find an author’s sources easily



Provides a consistent format within a discipline



Gives credibility to writers



Protects writers from plagiarism

Finding Sources/Cross-referencing

 Cross-referencing allows readers to locate the publication information of source material.  This is of great value for researchers who may want to locate a writer’s sources for their own research purposes.

Using a Consistent Format

 Using a consistent format helps readers understand arguments and the sources they’re built on.

 It also helps writers to keep track of their sources as they build their arguments.

Establishing Credibility

 The proper use of MLA style shows the credibility of writers; such writers show accountability to their source material.

Avoiding Plagiarism

 Proper citation of sources in MLA style can help writers avoid plagiarism, which is a serious offense. It may result in anything from failure of the assignment to expulsion from school.

MLA Style: Three Parts

MLA documentation usually involves just three components : 1.

2.

3.

Parenthetical citations A.

B.

C.

Directly quoting Summarizing Paraphrasing : in-text notes for every source used in a paper or project and are used when: Works Cited page: A.

A complete list of every source that is referenced in an essay Provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any sources cited in an essay B.

Every time a writer uses an in-text or parenthetical citation, there needs to be a source listed for that on the Works Cited page. The first word in the parenthetical citation will be the first word for that source on the Works Cited page.

The format of the essay itself : Size 12, Times New Roman or Arial font, heading in top left corner, header on top right corner (except first page), 1 inch margins

When to Use Parenthetical Citations:

Direct Quotations

Direct quotations are used when a writer quotes any words that are not their own Use quotations for various reasons: -Quoting means to repeat another source word for word, using quotation marks -To focus on a particularly well stated key idea in a source How to handle quotations: -Select them strategically and then fit them seamlessly into the paper or project. -To show what others think about a subject— either experts, people involved with the issue, or the general public -To give credence to important facts or concepts -Every quotation in an article should contribute something your words cannot. -To add color, power, or character to your argument or report -To show a range of opinion -To clarify a difficult or contested point NEVER USE QUOTATIONS TO AVOID PUTTING IDEAS IN YOUR OWN WORDS OR TO PAD YOUR WORK -To demonstrate the complexity of an issue -To emphasize a point

DIRECT QUOTATION RULES

 Direct quotations REQUIRE the use of quotation marks.

 Introduce indirect) borrowings in some way.

all direct (and  Short introductions, attributions, or commentaries are needed to introduce readers to materials you’ve gathered from sources  Give all borrowed words and ideas a context or frame Example: “One reason you may have more colds if you hold back tears is that, when you’re under stress, your body puts out steroids which affect your immune system and reduce your resistance to disease,” Dr. Broomfield comments.

          Accept Add Admit Affirm Allege Argue Believe Confirm Deny Disagree

DIRECT QUOTATIONS

        

Verbs of Attribution

Emphasize Insist Mention Propose Reveal Say State Think Verify   Most borrowings in your paper should be attributed   Either name (directly or indirectly) the author, the speaker, or the work the passage is from OR explain why the selection chosen is significant The verbs of attribution shape the way the reader perceives the quotation that follows: Benson

reports

that “high school test scores have dropped again.” Benson

complains

that “high school test scores have dropped again.”

DIRECT QUOTATION RULES

 Tailor your language so that direct quotations fit into the grammar of your sentences  Use  ellipses (three spaced periods: . . . ) to indicate where you have cut material from direct quotations Use when you do not need to use the author’s entire quote  If the quoted material begins with a small letter , readers can assume introductory words have been cut, so no ellipses are needed  Use square quotation brackets [ ] –to add necessary information to a  Use [sic] source to indicate an obvious error copied faithfully from a  Place prose quotations shorter than four typed lines between quotation marks  Indent poetry more than three lines of using slashes (/) to mark separate lines  Refer to events in works of fiction, poems, plays, movies, and television shows in the present tense Example: Cinna

orders

for me” (Collins 121).

Katniss to “twirl

Punctuation with Direct Quotes

Use commas to introduce quotations or to follow them. Examples:

The lawyer insisted , “He can’t be held responsible.” “Don’t ever tell me he can’t be held responsible , ” bellowed Judge Carver.

Ms. Rice said , “I’m not sure about the motion on the floor.” No commas are needed when a quotation fits right into a sentence without an introductory phrase or frame. Compare the following: mistakes.” COMMAS NEEDED “Experience,” said Oscar Wilde, “is the name everyone gives to their mistakes”.

NO COMMAS NEEDED Oscar Wilde defined experience as “the name everyone gives to their

Handling Long Quotations: Block Format

YOU MUST Indent any prose quotation longer than four typed lines. This is known as block format.

 MLA form recommends an indention of one inch , or ten spaces (two tabs).

 Quotation marks are

NOT

used around the indented material.

 If the quotation extends beyond a single paragraph, the first lines of subsequent paragraphs are indented an additional quarter inch, or three typed spaces.

 In typed papers, the indented material–like the rest of the essay— is double spaced.

 You may indent passages of fewer than four lines when you want them to have special emphasis.

 Do not do this with every short quotation or your paper will look choppy.

Block Format Example

David becomes identified and defined by James Steerforth, a young man with whom David is acquainted from his days at Salem House. Before meeting Steerforth, David accepts Steerforth’s name as an authoritative power: There was an old door in this playground, on which the boys had a custom of carving their names. . . . In my dread of the end of the vacation and their coming back, I could not read a boy’s name, without inquiring in what tone and with what emphasis he would read, “Take care of him. He bites.” There was one boy—a certain J. Steerforth— who cut his name very deep and very often, who I conceived, would read it in a rather strong voice, and afterwards pull my hair. (Dickens 68) For Steerforth, naming becomes an act of possession, as well as exploitation. Steerforth names David for his fresh look and innocence, but also uses the name Daisy to exploit David’s romantic tendencies (Dyson 122).

When to Use Parenthetical Citations: Summarizing

When

summarizing

a source or identifying its key facts or ideas and putting them in your own words.

-A summary captures the gist of a source or some portion of it, boiling it down to a few words or sentences. Summaries tend to be short , extracting only what is immediately relevant from a source.

-Summarize those materials that support your thesis but do not provide an extended argument or idea that you will need to share in detail with readers -Look for topic ideas in a selection then assemble the ideas into short, coherent statements about the whole piece, one detailed enough to stand on its own and make sense several weeks after you examine the material. -

Summaries should be completely in your own words.

When to Use Parenthetical Citations: Paraphrasing

When paraphrasing a source

-A paraphrase usually reviews a complete source in much greater detail than does a summary.

-When paraphrasing a work, you report its key information or restate its core arguments point by point

in your own words

. -You will typically want to paraphrase any materials that provide detailed facts or ideas your readers will need.     

Effective paraphrasing:

Reflects the structure of the original piece Reflects the ideas of the original author, not your reflections on them Is accompanied by a specific page number from the source when possible Is relevant to theme of essay Is entirely in your own words – except for clearly marked quotations

Parenthetical Citations Recap

 Provide a parenthetical citation (author’s last name and page number of info) whenever you:    Use a direct quote (does NOT have to be dialogue) Summarize Paraphrase  Summaries and paraphrasing are indirect quotes.

 Quotation marks direct quotations.

are NOT needed when you summarize or paraphrase but ARE needed for



When to Use Parenthetical Citations: Important Reminder

The most dangerous and academically dishonest sort of paraphrase is one in which a researcher borrows the ideas, structure and details of a source wholesale, changing a few words here and there in order to claim originality.  This sort of paraphrase is plagiarism even if the material is documented in the essay  Writers can’t just change a few words in their sources and claim the resulting material as their own work.

A Sample Essay: Parenthetical Citation to Works Cited Page

Many find modern society hectic and overpowering: “we seem to spend all of our time searching for bits of peace and quiet for ourselves” (Carter 287). (Carter 287)

Works Cited Carter, Stephen L. Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy. New York: HaperPerennial, 1998.

Parenthetical Citations

 For conventional sources with authors and page numbers, enclose the author’s last name and the relevant page number(s) within parentheses . Here’s how you would cite a passage from Civility by Stephen L. Carter.

Many find modern society hectic and overpowering: “we seem to spend all of our time searching for bits of peace and quiet for ourselves” (Carter 287).

Parenthetical Citations

What’s the point?

 The note in parentheses (Carter 287) tells readers to look for a work by Carter on the Works Cited page of the project; they will find the quoted sentence on page 287 of Carter’s book.  Notice that a single typed space separates the author’s name and the page number, that the note itself falls

outside

the quotation marks, and that it is

followed

by the punctuation mark.  In MLA documentation, page numbers are not preceded by p. or pp. or by a comma.

(Carter 287)

Parenthetical Citations You can shorten naming the author of the source in the body of the essay a parenthetical note by ; then the parenthetical note consists of a page number only.

Stephen L. Carter , professor of law at Yale, notes that “we seem to spend all of our time searching for bits of peace and quiet for ourselves” (287) .

Parenthetical Citation Tips



This is a common and readable form, one you should use regularly, especially when you build an entire paragraph from material in a single source.



As a general rule, make all parenthetical notes as brief and unobtrusive as possible.

For sources without conventional authors or page numbers…  The note will be a little more complicated. Ordinarily, you cite such a source just by naming it or describing it in the paper or project itself: A.

Included in the “When Nixon Met Elvis” exhibit at the National Archives online Exhibit Hall is… B. The Arkansas State Highway Map indicates … C . Software such as Microsoft’s FoxPro …

Parenthetical Citations

 You would also use this form when citing a complete book, article, or Web site rather than just a specific chapter, section, or passage: A. The Media Research Center Web site offers… B. In “Hamlet’s Encounter with the Pirates,” Wentersdorf argues… C. Under “Northwest Passage” in Collier’s Encyclopedia…

IMPORTANT!

One principal remains the same: the Works Cited page. readers must be able to connect any source you cite in the project to a corresponding item on

 That means that the name you use to identify a source in the paper

page

electronic address).

has to be the same name by which you list the item on the Works Cited

—where readers can find more information about the source (for instance, its

Works Cited

Generally, many sources you cite will need to be documented in the following way: -Author’s first and last name -Title -Place of publication -Publisher -Date of publication -Medium of publication consulted *Not every source will be this simple to document. For example, what do you do if citing a newspaper or web page? Sources vary…if you are not sure, you may need to look it up.

Works Cited On a separate page at the end of your paper or project, list alphabetically every source you cited.

–

This list of sources is titled “Works Cited.” The Works Cited entry for Stephen Carter’s book mentioned previously would look like this.

Carter, Stephen L. Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy. New York: HarperPerennial, 1998.

Types of Sources: Book, Generic

Carter, Stephen L. Civility: Manners, Morals, and the Etiquette of Democracy. New York: HarperPerennial, 1998. Print.

When documenting a generic book (much like The Hunger Games) include the following information in the order listed below:

Provide author (last name, first). Title (underlined). Place of publication: publisher, and year of publication. Medium of publication consulted.

Notice: punctuation in the entry examples above; your Works Cited pages need to follow this exactly.

-Author’s last name followed by a comma, then first name followed by a period. -When you underline a title, the period after the title is not to be included with the underline .

-If there the source is missing information., for example, no publisher is given, skip that and move to the next required piece of information.

-When an entry from one source moves to the next line, a hanging indent (equivalent of 5 spaces or one tab) for that line and subsequent lines of the entry is required.

Book with No Author

 Cite the book by its title, alphabetized by the first major word (excluding The, A, or An). Use a shortened title in any note.

IN-TEXT NOTE: ( Kodak 56-58) Works Cited Kodak Guide to 35mm Photography. 6 th ed. Rochester: Eastman, 1989. Print.

Book, Two or Three Authors or Editors IN-TEXT NOTE: (

Collier and Horowitz

24) Works Cited

Collier

, Peter, and David

Horowitz

. Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the ’60s. New York: Summit, 1989. Print.

Note: the names of second and third authors are given in their normal order, first names first .



WWW Page--Generic

The variety among Web pages is staggering, so you will have to adapt your documentation to particular sources.  A typical MLA Works Cited entry for an electronic source may include the following information, though few items will require all these elements.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Name of the author, compiler, director, editor, narrator, performer, or translator of the work.

Title of the work (italicized if the work is independent; in roman type and quotation marks if the work is part of a larger work Title of the overall Web site (italicized), if distinct from item 2 Version or edition used Publisher or sponsor of the site; if not available, use N.p. Date of publication (day, month, and year, as available); if nothing is available, use n.d. Medium of publication (Web) Date of access (day, month, and year) Include a URL only when the reader probably cannot locate the source without it or when your teacher requires it. If you present a URL, give it immediately following the date of access, a period, and a space. Enclose the URL in angle brackets, and conclude with a period.

WWW Page--Generic

 Quite often you will be citing Web pages without authors or creators named. Here, for example, is a citation to an entire Web site.

IN-TEXT NOTE : More information on National Parks in the United States can be found at Parknet … Works Cited Parknet . National Park Service. 12 Dec. 1999. Web. .

WWW Page -- Generic

A citation to a particular page on that Web site would look like the following: IN-TEXT NOTE: (“ New Lease ”) Works Cited “ A New Lease on Life : Museum Conservation in the National Park Service.” Parknet. 7 Dec. 1999. National Park Service. 10 Feb. 2000. Web. .

WWW Citation Tips

 For any Web site you document, MLA suggests that you provide the full Web location or Uniform Resource Locator (URL), the familiar address beginning with http://www .  You may find that URLs for some Web pages, especially for materials stored in archives, may be too long to offer as a reference.  In such cases, give the readers the URL to the home page of the Web site where the material is located: the home page will typically have a shorter Web address.

 Then offer readers the keyword, links, or directions they can use to locate the particular document(s) on that site.

 Similarly, if you search for information on meta-search engines such as Ask Jeeves that search other search engines, the sites you locate may have inconveniently long URLs. In such cases, you may want to track the material down to its original Web locations and offer those much shorter URLs.



WWW Citation Tips Don’t give readers a URL they can’t access themselves .

 For example, an index or Web search tool at school might bring up information within its own local network, but readers without that service or tool may not be able to access that information.  When possible, try to track the information down to a URL available to readers from outside the network.

WWW – Online Scholarly Journal



Since most online articles do not have page numbers, avoid parenthetical notes by identifying the site in your paper itself.

IN-TEXT NOTE: In “Tenure and Technology,” Katz, Walker, and Cross argue… Works Cited Katz, Seth, Janice Walker, and Janet Cross. “Tenure and Technology : New Values, New Guidelines.” Kairos. 2.1 (1997). JSTOR. Web. 20 July 2007. .

Note: Multiple authors -Journal name goes in quotation marks and comes BEFORE the title of the journal.

-The title of the journal is underlined (or italicized) -The title is followed by the volume number (2.1) of the journal and the date of that specific article’s publication in parentheses.

-Title of the database is italicized -Medium of publication given -The entire date of the journal itself is next (follow the format) -Complete web address



Article in a Newspaper

Provide author, title of article (in quotation marks), name of newspaper (underlined), date of article, and page numbers. For page numbers, use the form in the newspaper you are citing; many papers are paginated according to sections. IN-TEXT NOTE: ( Rorty E15) Works Cited Rorty , Richard. “The Unpatriotic Academy.” New York Times 13 Feb. 1994: E15. Print.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: A plus sign following the page number (for example, E15+) indicates that an article continues beyond the designated page, but not necessarily on consecutive pages.



WWW—Online News Source or Newspaper

Since most online newspaper stories or editorials do not have page numbers, avoid parenthetical notes by identifying the site in your paper itself.

IN-TEXT NOTE: Sue Ann Pressley suggest that the movement to teach manners in school is… Works Cited Pressley, Sue Ann. “Louisiana’s Courtesy Call.” The Washington Post Online 5 Mar. 2000. 6 Mar. 2000 .

Compare/Contrast

Newspaper Article

Works Cited Rorty, Richard. “The Unpatriotic Academy.” New York Times 13 Feb. 1994: E15. Print.

Online Newspaper

Works Cited Pressley, Sue Ann. “Louisiana’s Courtesy Call.” The Washington Post Online 5 Mar. 2000. 6 Mar. 2000. Web. .

In what ways are these citations alike?

How do these citations differ?

Other Citable Sources

           Book, four or more authors or editors Translations of books Work of more than one volume Book, movie, music reviews Magazine articles Articles from anthologies Editorials Cartoons Personal Interviews Lectures Advertisements             Reference work (encyclopedia) Bulletins Pamphlets Government documents Computer software WWW page, personal home pages E-mail CD-ROMs TV Programs Radio Programs Bible Drama or plays

Works Cited Page

 Works Cited list contains full bibliographical information on all the books, articles, and other resources used in composing the paper and is the last page of the essay  If no author is given for a work, list it according to the first word of its title, excluding articles (A, An, The).  Be sure the first line of each entry touches the left-hand margin. Subsequent lines are indented five spaces.

  Center the title “Works Cited” at the top of the page. 

DO NOT UNDERLINE, BOLD, ITALICIZE, USE ALL CAPS, OR DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT TO THIS

TITLE. EVER. EVER. REALLY.

Include only sources you actually mention in the essay itself, not all that you might have examined in preparing for the work  Double space the entire list. DO NOT QUADRUPLE-SPACE BETWEEN ENTRIES.

 Punctuate items in the list carefully. DON’T FORGET THE PERIOD AT THE END OF EACH ENTRY.

 Arrange the items in the Works Cited page alphabetically by the last name of the author.

MLA Style Format

Basics Margins

 Use size 12 Times New Roman or Arial font  Double space throughout the entire paper including the outline, quotations, and the list of works cited  Print on 8 ½ by 11 inch white paper  Print only on one side of the paper  Set 1 inch margins at the top, bottom, left and right  Indent the first word of each paragraph ½ inch from the left margin (one tab)

MLA Style Format

Heading Title

 MLA Style does NOT require a title page  After the date, double space and center the title  Beginning 1 inch from the top of the first page and flush with the left margin, type on separate lines and double-space between each line:  Double space between the title and the first line of the text Your name Your teacher’s name The course number and block 

DO NOT UNDERLINE, BOLD, ITALICIZE, SUPERSIZE, UNDERSIZE, COMPLETELY CAPITALIZE, CHANGE THE FONT OF, OR DO ANYTHING ELSE DIFFERENT TO THE TITLE THAN YOU WOULD FOR THE TEXT OF YOUR ESSAY.

Due date (Day Month Year)

Header and Page Numbers

 Number all pages consecutively throughout the paper in the

upper right-hand

from the top and flush with the

right

corner, ½ inch margin.

 Type your last name

before

the page number (e.g. Allegretto 2)  Do NOT use the abbreviation p before a page number  Do not add a period, hyphen or any other mark or symbol  Position the 1 st 1 inch from the top of the page line of text  Number your outline pages with lowercase

Roman numerals

beginning with i