1. MLA paper basics http://academictips.org/mla-format/the-format-of-the- research-paper/

2. Format of Paper Use white paper, 8 1/2 x 11 inches. If you lack this paper, you can use the closest available size. Print on single side only. 1 inch for all top, bottom, left, and right. (1 inch = 2.5cm) For page numbers, set at 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) from the top upper-right hand corner, flushed to the right margin.

3. Text Format Font: Times New Roman Size: 11 points Do not justify the text Double-space the entire research paper Leave one space after a period

4. Heading Begin at 1 inch from the top of the page, type: Your name Professor name Course number Due date All on separate lines then begin your research paper title on a new line and center it (see first page sample below). Do not: Italicize, underline, in quotation, boldface, or type in all CAPs your title. There is no period after your title or after any heading in your paper

5. Number pages Place page number in all pages Place page numbers 1/2 inch from the top-right margin Type your last name before the page number: your last name followed by a space then page number.

8. Title Page Centered on Page Top 3 rd of page Institution Research/Essay title Bottome 3 rd of page Your name Course title Instructor Due Date

10. For future reference only! For the US History assignment you are to do the cover page AND the first page heading. In college - if your instructor requires a cover page, you may omit the main heading on your first page. Here is an example of the first page if a cover page is used. You still need your last name and page number on the first page and every other pages.

11. For Future Reference only! Do NOT start your essay like this (for your CBA assignment)

12. MLA Citations Sometimes called parenthetical citations or in-text citations. The purpose of MLA citation is to document where you found your information and give credit to the authors for using their works. The citations refer your readers to your Works Cited page at the end of your research paper.

13. Placement and Punctuation Rules: Put your MLA citations close to the quotation, information, paraphrase, or summary you are documenting.

14. At the end of a sentence before the final punctuation: Wayland Hand reports on a folk belief that going to sleep on a rug made of bearskin can relieve backache(183). After the part of the sentence to which the citation applies: The folk belief that “sleeping on a bear rug will cure backache” (Hand 183) illustrates the magic of external objects producing results inside the body. At the end of a long quotation set off as a block, after the end punctuation with a space before the parentheses: Many baseball players are superstitious, especially pitchers. Some pitchers refuse to walk anywhere on the day of the game in the belief that every little exertion subtracts from their playing strength. One pitcher would never put on his cap until the game started and would not wear it at all on the days he did not pitch. (Gmelch 280)

15. MLA Citations Examples: 1.Author’s Name in Parentheses: When people marry now “there is an important sense in which they don’t know what they are doing” (Giddens 46). 2.Author’s Name in Discussion: Giddens claims that when people marry now “there is an important sense in which they don’t know what they are doing” (46).

16. 3.General Reference: A general reference refers to a source as a whole, to its main ideas, or to information throughout; it needs no page number. In parentheses: Many species of animals have complex systems of communication (Bright). In discussion: As Michael Bright observes, many species of animals have complex systems of communication. 4.Specific Reference: A specific reference documents words, ideas, or facts from a particular place in a source, such as the page for a quotation or paraphrase. Quotation: Dolphins can perceive clicking sounds “made up of 700 units of sound per second” (Bright 52). Paraphrase + Facts: Bright reports that dolphins recognize patterns consisting of seven hundred clicks each second (52).

17. 5.One Author: Provide the author’s last name in parentheses, or integrate either the full name or last name alone into the discussion: According to Maureen Honey, government posters during World War II often portrayed homemakers “as vital defenders of the nation’s homes” (135). 6.Two or Three Authors: The item is noted in a partial list of Francis Bacon’s debts from 1603 on (Jardine and Stewart 275). For three authors: (Norman, Fraser, and Jenko 209). 7.More than three Authors: Within parentheses, name the first author and add et al. (“and others”). Within your discussion, use a phrase like “Chen and his colleagues point out…” or something similar. If you name all the authors in the works cited list rather than using et al., do the same in the text citation. More funding would encourage creative research on complementary medicine (Chen et al. 82).

18. 8.Corporate or Group Author: When an organization is the author, name it in the text or the citation, but shorten or abbreviate a cumbersome name. The consortium gathers journalists at “a critical moment” (Comm. of Concerned Journalists 187). 9.No Author Given: Use the title instead. Shorten a long title as in this version of Baedeker’s Czech/Slovak Republics. In 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (Baedeker’s 67).

19. 10.More Than One Work by the Same Author: When the list of works cited includes more than one work by an author, add a shortened form of the title to your citation. One writer claims that “quaintness glorifies the unassuming industriousness” in these social classes (Harris,Cute 46). 11.Authors with the Same Name: When authors have the same last name, identify each by first initial (or entire first name, if necessary for clarify). Despite improved health information systems (J. Adams 308), medical errors continue to increase (D. Adams 1).

20. 12.Indirect Source: Use qtd. in (“quoted in”) to indicate when your source provides you with a quotation (or paraphrase) taken from yet another source. Here, Feuch is the source of the quotation fromVitz. For Vitz, “art, especially great art, must engage all or almost all of the major capacities of the nervous system”(qtd. in Feuch 65). 13.Multivolume Work: To cite a whole volume, add a comma after the author’s name and vol. before the number (Cao, Vol. 4). To specify one of several volumes that you cite, add volume and page numbers (Cao 4:177). In 1888, Lweis Carroll let two students call their school paper Jabberwock, a made-up word from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Cohen 2:695).

21. 14.Literary Work: After the page number in your edition, add the chapter (ch.), part (pt.), or section (sec.) number to help readers find the passage in any edition. In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain ridicules an actor who “would squeeze his hand on his forehead and stagger back and kind of moan” (178; ch. 21). Identify a part as in (386; pt. 3, ch. 2) or, for a play, the act, scene, and line numbers, as in (Ham. 1.2.76). For poems, give line numbers (lines 55-57) or (55- 57) after the first case; if needed, give both part and line numbers (4.220-23). 15.Bible: Place a period between the chapter and verse numbers (Mark 2.3-4). In parenthetical citations, abbreviate names with five or more letters, as in the case of Deuteronomy (Deut. 16.21-22).

22. 16.Two or More Sources in a Citation: Separate sources within a citation with a semicolon. Differences in the ways men and women use language can often be traced to who has power (Tanner 83-86; Tavris 97-301). 17.Selection in Anthology: For an easy, story, poem, or other work in an anthology, cite the work’s author (not the anthology’s editor), but give page numbers in the anthology. According to Corry, the battle for Internet censorship has crossed party lines (112). 18.Electronic or Other Nonprint Source: After identifying the author or title, add numbers for the page, paragraph (par., pars.), section (sec.), or screen (screen) if given. Otherwise, no number is needed. Offspringmag summarizes current research on adolescent behavior (Boynton 2).

23. Short Quotations Fewer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of verse in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author and specific page citation (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the text, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text. For example: According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree. According to Foulkes's study, dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (184). Is it possible that dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184)?

24. Long Quotations longer than four typed lines free-standing block of text, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line with the entire quote indented one inch from the left margin; maintain double-spacing. Only indent the first line of the quotation by a half inch if you are citing multiple paragraphs. Your parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark. Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her narration: They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

25. Long quote looks like this: Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her narration: They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)

26. How to Format the Works Cited page Page Format: Use the heading “Works Cited” centered one inch below the top edge of a new page. Do not bold or underline this heading. Page Number: Begin the list on a new page and number each page, continuing the page numbers of the research paper. For example, if the text of your research paper ends on page 10, the works- cited list begins on page 11. The page number appears in the upper right- hand corner, half an inch from the top and flush with the right margin.

27. Indentation: Do not indent the first line of each entry. If an entry runs more than one line, indent the subsequent line or lines 1/2 inch from the left margin. Spacing: Double-space the entire list, both between and within entries. Continue the list on as many pages as necessary. Alphabetize: Alphabetize entries in your list of works cited by the author’s last name, using the letter-by-letter system. In this system, the order of names is determined by the letters before the commas that separate last names and first names. Spaces and other punctuation marks are ignored. The letters following the commas are considered only when two or more last names are identical. A, An and The are ignored.

28. Hints Titles of books, periodicals, films, etc. are italicized (was underlined in the MLA 6th Edition.) All entries in the list of Works Cited, the Publication Medium (i.e. Print, Web, DVD,Television, etc.) must be included. Dates are written in MLA format, Day Month Year, with the longer months abbreviated. For example: 7 Feb. 1996. Indicate When Data is Missing: Many sources do not have a date, publisher or pagination. MLA advises, where applicable, to write: n. pag. for those sources without page numbers, n.d. for no date, n.p. if name of the publisher or place of publication is omitted. The URLs for web sources are now optional. MLA suggests not using them but recognizes that some educators might still require them. Therefore, ask your teacher if he/she requires URLs for your web sources. Mrs. Brzovic requires URLs

30. Good Luck!