Transcript The Research Paper Following the MLA Guidelines

The Research Paper
Following the MLA Guidelines
Many thanks to Diana Hacker, The Purdue Online Writing Lab, and Stacey
Miller! Your work has contributed greatly to this culmination of research writing
instruction and support.
Focus
• For this essay you should be answering a bigger question,
not just reporting on a topic:
– Why should your person be considered a National Treasure?
• Avoid simply reporting information
• You need analysis, too– lots of analysis!
MLA
• You must follow the MLA formatting
guidelines for this assignment
• Here are two useful websites for help
with all things MLA:
OWL MLA
Diana Hacker MLA
Plagiarism
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Your research paper is a collaboration between you and your sources. To
be fair and ethical, you must acknowledge your debt to the writers of
these sources. If you don’t, you are guilty of plagiarism, a serious
academic offense.
Three different acts are considered plagiarism:
• Failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks
• Failing to cite quotations and/or specific facts and ideas
• Failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your own words,
with your own style and structure.
Here’s a useful website for help with avoiding plagiarism:
OWL plagiarism
Penalties for plagiarism for this class include the following: a
zero on the assignment, no option to redo assignment,
and a referral.
Paraphrasing
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To paraphrase, you restate an author’s ideas in your own words and style.
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When you paraphrase, remember the following points:
• You must alter the style and wording of the original material.
You can’t just insert a few synonyms.
• You should not alter the meaning of the original material in any
way.
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Here’s a useful website for help with paraphrasing:
OWL paraphrasing
Quoting
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Integrate quotations smoothly enough for readers to move from your
words to the words of a source without feeling a jolt. Avoid dropping
quotations into the text without warning; instead, provide clear signal
phrases, sometimes including the author's name to prepare readers for
the quotation.
Dropped Quotation: (bad)
Although the bald eagle is still listed as an endangered species,
its ever-increasing population is very encouraging. "The bald
eagle seems to have stabilized its population, at the very least,
almost everywhere" (Sheppard 96).
Quotation with Signal Phrase: (good)
Although the bald eagle is still listed as an endangered species,
its ever-increasing population is very encouraging. According to
ornithologist Jay Sheppard, "The bald eagle seems to have
stabilized its population, at the very least, almost everywhere"
(96).
[notice you do not use last name in citation – you've already
informed readers who the quote is coming from, so there's no
need to include that in the citation]
Splicing quotes
• It is not always necessary to quote full sentences from a source.
At times you may wish to borrow only a phrase or to weave part
of a source's sentence into your own sentence structure:
– Brian Millsap claims that the banning of DDT in
1972 was "the major turning point" leading to the
eagles' comeback (2).
– The ultrasonography machine takes approximately
250 views of each wing, step by step. Mary Spletter
likens the process to "examining an entire loaf of
bread, one slice at a time" (40).
Modifying quotes
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Brackets (square parentheses) allow you to insert words of your own into
quoted material. You can insert words in brackets to explain a confusing
reference or to keep a sentence grammatical in your context.
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Example:
Robert Seyfarth reports that "Premarck [a scientist at the
University of Pennsylvania] taught a seven-year-old chimpanzee,
Sarah, that the word for 'apple' was a small, plastic triangle"
(15).
Block Quotes
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When you quote more than four typed lines (which you should rarely do),
set off the quotation by indenting it ten spaces from the left margin. Use
the normal right margin and do not single-space. Long quotations should
be introduced by an informative sentence, usually followed by a colon.
Quotation marks are unnecessary, because the indented format tells
readers that the words are taken directly from the source.
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Example:
Desmond describes how Washoe tried signing to the other apes when the zookeepers
returned her to an ape colony in Oklahoma:
On one particularly memorable day, a snake spread terror through the
castaways on the ape island, and all but one fled in panic. This male sat absorbed,
staring intently at the serpent. He seemed completely fixated on the curious sight,
and hadn’t noticed the other apes running away. Eventually he looked up and
noticed that he was the only remaining ape in the area which didn’t appear to
concern him. Then Washoe was seen running over signing to him. (42)
Citing Sources
• In MLA documentation style, you acknowledge your
sources by making brief parenthetical citations in
your text. These are called in-text citations or
parenthetical references
• Your in-text citations correspond with an
alphabetical list of works that appears at the end of
the paper. This list is called a Works Cited
In-Text Citations
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Every time you quote or state a specific fact or idea that is not common knowledge,
you must cite your source. This happens on a sentence-by-sentence basis.
In-text citations are made with a combination of signal phrases and parenthetical
references.
A signal phrase indicates that something taken from a source (a quotation, summary,
paraphrase, or fact) is about to be used; usually the signal phrase includes the
author's name or perhaps the title of the source.
The parenthetical reference, which comes after the cited material at the end of the
sentence, usually includes the author’s last name (and a page number, if you know
the page), or if you don’t know the author, then you should use the title of the
article/section, or name of the sponsoring organization.
What you include in the parenthetical reference will depend on what you include in
your signal phrase and your source.
Through your signal phrase or parenthetical reference, you must direct the reader to
the source listed on your works cited page and you do so by providing the first part of
the entry.
If you have to use the source’s title because you don’t know the author, you can write
a shortened form of the title in your parenthetical reference.
In-Text Citation help
• Here are some useful websites for help
with your in-text citations (there are good
samples here too):
OWL In-Text Citations (basic)
Diana Hacker In-Text Citations
A few more things about
in-text citations
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Everything that you cite in the body of your essay must correspond to
your list of sources (Works Cited) at the end of the paper
You need to cite your source after every sentence of quoted or
paraphrased material with specific facts/ideas.
There are two exceptions to the sentence-by sentence citation rule:
1. block quotes
2. what I call the “sandwich” method.
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The sandwich method???? As long as you mention the author or the title
of the source in your signal phrase first, then you can write two
sentences of quoted or paraphrased material and end with the
parenthetical reference.
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Here’s what it looks like:
According to Judy Stagnaro, only twenty two percent of students know
how to use MLA format properly. That number is significantly lower in
Sophomore classes (42).
Works Cited
• This is the list of works that you actually cited in your essay
• If it wasn’t cited in your essay, it doesn’t belong on this page!
The Format
 Begin the list of works cited on a new page at the end of the paper.
 Continue to use your header and maintain your one inch margins.
 Center the title Works Cited about one inch from the top of the page.
 Double-space throughout.
 Alphabetize the list by the last names of the authors (or editors); if a work has no
author or editor, alphabetize by the first word of the title other than A, An, or The. If
you don’t know the title, use the name of the sponsoring organization.
 Do not indent the first line of each works cited entry, but indent any additional lines
one-half inch (or five spaces). This technique highlights the names of the authors,
making it easy for readers to scan the alphabetized list. I call this “reverse
indentation.”
 I do not require that you include the URL’s, so don’t worry about them.
Sample Works Cited Page
• Here is a website with an excellent
example of a Works Cited page:
OWL sample WC
What is included on the
Works Cited Page?
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Because every source is different, it’s difficult to know exactly what
information or data is required for each entry.
For online sources, this is the sequence of what you need:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Author. (last name, first name)
“Title of article or short work.” (notice the quotes)
Title of Site. (notice the italics)
Publisher or Sponsor,
Date created or updated.
Medium. (this means web)
Date you accessed the site.
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If you don’t have a piece of information (because it wasn’t provided), you
simply can’t include it.
The most recent version of MLA asks you to write n.p. for no publisher and
n.d. for no date.
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Works Cited Help
• Here are some websites to help you with
your Works Cited entries:
OWL WC Basic
Diana Hacker WC Entries
Easy Bib
More helpful stuff
Diana Hacker
OWL
• These are among the most helpful websites when it
comes to MLA format and the research paper, and I’ve
included links to specific pages by topic throughout this
PowerPoint.
• I highly recommend that you refer to these sites in their
entirety as you work on your research paper and
encounter your own individual challenges.
MLA Essay Samples
• Here are some examples of properly
formatted essays:
Diana Hacker Sample
OWL Sample
turnitin.com
• One of your last steps is to submit your paper to
turnitin.com
• Once you have electronically submitted your paper,
you’ll need to note the paper id number (it’s like a
receipt number) and write it on your grading rubric.
• Without completing this step, I will not accept your
essay!