1. Today’s Agenda
Take out your Composition Book for notes!

2. Making Sense of It
USING MLA STYLE

3. What is MLA style?
MLA stands for Modern Language Association. It is the two-part documentation system that writers use to explain borrowed information.

4. “So what is borrowed information?”

5. It is any information that a writer copies, summarizes, or paraphrases from another source. In other words, it is anything that is NOT your original thoughts or ideas.

6. TWO-PART DOCUMENTATION SYSTEM
In-text parenthetical citation using author’s last name and page number.
Alphabetical listing at the end of the report called the Works Cited page.

7. If I’m writing a research paper, how do I begin?

8. Get started by collecting and recording your information
Get started by collecting and recording your information. You can do this by using 3X5 cards.
Use the lined side to write notes.
Use the blank side to record source information.

9. SEEING
RED
YET?

10. HANG IN THERE, YOUNG WRITER! I’LL SAVE THE DAY.
____________________
“There are 2.5 million_ people who are_______ homeless or displaced in the American system.”__
Source Name
Author’s Name
Article/Website
Page/Paragraph #
Source Info
Notes

11. Writing a Literary Response or most kinds of prompts
use the author-page number format.
“No news is often considered good news” (Shepherd 27).

12. FOLLOW THE RULES Do not prepare a title page.
Include a header (your last name and page number in the top right corner).
Create a heading
Double space everything.
Use the author-page citation system.

13. “So what happens if I forget to document my infomation?”

14. STOP

15. It’s called
PLAGIARISM,
you
and
don’t
want to do
that!

16. According to the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, plagiarism is 1) the act of stealing and passing off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own without crediting the source. 2) committing literary theft; presenting an idea or product as new and original when it’s not.

17. PLAGIARISM is punishable by law (school law, that is)
PLAGIARISM is punishable by law (school law, that is)! Don’t risk getting a ZERO and having another consequence.

18. Special thanks to…
You Can Teach Writing at
For more information on MLA style, check out Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) at