Transcript MLA Format

MLA Format
What it is.
How to use it.
What is MLA format?
MLA format is the format
adopted by the Modern
Languages Association.
It is revised and published
in a new edition every
few years.
MLA Format – General Notes
MLA is the format adopted by HHS. Any major assignment you hand in at HHS
should be done in MLA format!
At a minimum, your assignments should have the proper:
– Title Page format
– Line spacing (double-spaced throughout)
– Font size (12 throughout)
– Page numbering (e.g. “Name 3” in the upper right-hand corner on every page
of the text of the piece of writing*)
– In-page references when you quote a text or make reference to specific details
in it.
– List of Works Cited at the end
MLA Title Page Format
Essays or Shorter Works
Beginning one inch from the top of the first page and flush with the
left margin, type on separate lines and double space between each line
1.
2.
3.
4.
Your name
Your teacher’s name
The course number
The date (Day Month Year)
• Double space again and center the title.
• Double space between the title and the first line of the text.
• Do not underline your title or put it in quotations marks or type it in all
capital letters.
Right 1
Tracy Right
Mr. Stoddart
English 10
31 January 2007
A Doubled Vision:
Narrative Perspective in To Kill a Mockingbird
Authors sometimes present readers with narrative perspectives
that are specific to characters that are also a part of the action.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is narrated by Scout Finch, a
MLA Title Page Format
Longer Works or Works with several parts –
Alternate MLA Title Page Format
You may use the alternate title page for shorter works, but it is less
environmentally friendly, and not recommended.
New Computer Users and Fear:
A Review of Some Related Literature
Samantha Smith
1947009183
Media Studies 112
Mr. Stackhouse
28 February 2007
• If you include an outline/preface/etc. with
your paper, it should precede the paper
itself. (e.g. a Table of Contents), and be
numbered i, ii, iii, etc.
Smith i
Table of Contents
Why am I so scared?: Elderly computer users . . . . . . 1
New tech, new problems: Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Re-defining “user friendly applications” . . . . . . . . . . 14
How to Refer to a Source
Quoting Literary Texts
Vocabulary
parenthesis – also called “brackets”, e.g.
(word) = “word” in parenthesis
reference – to refer to another person’s work or
ideas, e.g. quoting a book.
parenthetical reference – to refer to another
person’s ideas while
acknowledging them in
parenthesis.
Parenthetical References
If you are quoting directly from or referring directly to a
text, you must provide a reference.
There are THREE main goals when using references in a
text:
1. To clearly indicate ideas that are not your own, and
2. To clearly state the source of the information with as little
interruption to the text of your own work as possible.
3. To direct readers to the Works Cited list at the end of your work
for complete details of the publication(s) you used.
A properly-used reference acknowledges the idea as being someone else’s,
and avoids the problem of plagiarism.
(We will deal more with plagiarism later.)
Parenthetical References
References in an essay always have TWO
elements:
1. The author’s last name.
2. The page number that the quote or
information is from.
The name of the author can appear in your
sentence or in parenthesis.
The page number always appears in parenthesis. It
should follow as close as possible to the quotation
itself without interfering with the flow of the
sentence.
Incorporate brief quotations – key words, phrases, or
sentences – as smoothly as possible within your
own sentences.
Use double quotation marks.
Using Brief Quotations
A quotation can appear at the beginning, middle, or end of
your sentence. Try for variety!
Examples:
Lee suggests that Scout, and the reader, should not judge
someone until they “climb into his skin and walk around in
it” (30).
To teach her about empathy, Atticus tells Scout she should
not make judgments about someone until she climbs “into
his skin” (Lee 30), meaning that she should see things from
others’ points of view.
Using Longer Quotations
Quotations that would take up five or more lines of
text on the page should be separated from the
rest of the paper
Indent the quotation one inch (10 spaces) from the
left margin.
If you must use a long quotation like this, it should
have an adequate explanation of its relevance
before an introductory statement, followed by a
colon.
Longer Quotation Example
… While this movement in art was a rebellion against academic values, Fischer
is critical of it:
Impressionism became more and more
expressive of a very complex, very short-term subjectobject relationship. The individual, reduced to
loneliness, experiences the world as a set of nerve stimuli,
impressions, and moods, as “my” experience, “my”
sensation. (71)
The role of art as a force for achieving political awareness is clearly an
important one. …
Quotation Tips
• The purpose of referring to a text is to use it to
SUPPORT YOUR ARGUMENT (or thesis). Do
not put in quotations for their own sake!
• Avoid long quotations, especially in a short
essay.
• Do not use too many quotations. Quote only key
passages, and only when necessary.
• In English essays, only about 10-15%
(maximum) of an essay should be quotations
from a text.
Works Cited
Preparing a Works Cited List
Works Cited
The works cited page lists every work you refer to
in your own work.
For book details, refer to the title page and the
back of the title page (called the copyright
page), NOT the cover.
There are four main sources for your works cited
page. They are:
1. Print Sources
2. Government Sources
3. Media Sources
4. Internet Sources
Works Cited Page Format
• Centre the words Works Cited 1/2 inch below the line
with the page number.
• List items alphabetically by author’s last name. If no
name is given, begin with the title.
• Double space everything.
• Do NOT number the entries.
See the handout (or pp. 64-85 of the College Style Guide)
for examples of how to write references for different
sources.
The basic Works Cited entry:
Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City,
State: Publisher, year.
Smith 8
Works Cited
Freud, Sigmund. A General Selection from the Works of Signmund Freud. Ed.
John Rickman. Garden City, NY: Anchor-Doubleday, 1957.
Rossetti, Christina. “An Apple Gathering.” 1861. The Norton Anthology of
English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams et al. 4th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton,
1979.
Tyler, Anne. “Holding Things Together.” We Are the Stories We Tell. Ed. Wendy
Martin. New York: Pantheon, 1990. 150-63.
Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction. New
York: Harper, 1976.
Exercise
Using your class textbook(s), write the
publication information as a works cited
entry.
Stuck?
Try this site:
http://citationmachine.net/