ESTABLISHING YOUR AUTHORITY/INTEGRITY AS A WRITER DOCUMENTATION OF SOURCES: RHETORICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Back up your ideas with credentials, authority, research Demonstrate that you’ve done your research on a topic, that you’re not just speaking from a place of bias or from an uninformed perspective Show that your opinion is based upon a careful consideration of various perspectives, facts, valuable opinions

Maintain your integrity as a writer Back up all your ideas, assertions with proof that goes beyond your experience Show your intended audience that you expect them to think critically-- that you would expect them to question your sources, where you found your evidence to support, develop your ideas

What is MLA? MLA stands for: Modern Language Association: its basically a bunch of people who care about maintaining standard ways of documenting sources and citing outisde information in writing in the humanities (English, literature, theater and sometimes in the social sciences- sociology, art history, history etc.)

What is all about? MLA has three parts: 1: Formatting: what the paper looks like, physically on the page (the spacing, the font, the margins, the pagination) 2: In-text (parenthetical) citations: how the writer introduces texts and gives publishing credit to where that information came from in the context of the paragraph where it appears 3: Works Cited page: every in-text cittaion should have a corresponding listing of the text and all it’s publishing information (authors, publishers, copyright date, original source, date, etc.)

Formatting: Pay attention to the following: Font size: 12 point, Times New Roman Spacing: Double spacing throughout Margins: 1” Heading: Full name, professors full name, title and section of class, date (17 March 2010) Pagination: upper right hand corner- Huerta 1

Formatting: You try See handout

In-Text Citation: Refer to Rules for Writers

MLA Works Cited Page