Inserting Images into Your Research Paper Images, charts, graphs, and illustrations are not a required part of your essay, but they can help present evidence to your reader in a persuasive way. If you choose to use images in your essay, you must follow correct MLA format and cite the image in your works cited page. *using images can help you make your essay a bit longer, but don’t overdo it – keep your images relatively small and don’t use more than 2 or 3*

First, find a useful image online; Find extra help for this in your textbook on page 72, and pages 219-225. Use OWL Purdue’s rules for figures, tables, and examples when inserting images: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/14/ Make sure any images you include add meaningful content to your argument: don’t use images as illustrations (for example, if your topic legalization of marijuana, inserting an image of a pot leaf is not going to help your argument, but a map that shows which states have legalized medical marijuana could).

Here’s how to insert an image: Find an appropriate place for your image; basically, put the image close to a part of your essay that addresses the ideas that your image illustrates. In this case, I’ll be using a chart to help illustrate how employment in manufacturing has changed since the 1970s, so I’ll put the chart near my paragraph about the same concept.

Right-click on the image you’ve found, and select “Copy image.” Then, right-click again on your Word Document;

When you’re done, it will look like this: Below the image, a citation appears, giving a brief description of the image and a citation. The image is “text-wrapped” using the “tight” setting

It will be a bit weird the first time you try it out, but keep messing around until it looks professional. For your works cited page, follow this basic format: Author/Creator. “Title of Image” Container. Publishing Organization, Day Month Year;  table 1a.