PPT on MLA Style

An MLA Style Paper should:  Be typed on white 8.5“ x 11“ paper  Double-space everything  Use 12 pt. Times New Roman font  Leave only one space after punctuation  Set all margins to 1 inch on all sides  Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch (or 5 spaces) Format: General Guidelines

MLA Style  stands for Modern Language Association which explains guidelines for preparing student research papers and projects and scholarly manuscripts in the humanities.  “MLA style” refers to a system of citing research sources.

The first page of an MLA Style paper will:  no title page  Double space everything  HEADING: (Upper Left Hand Corner List your name your instructor's name the course Date (Day (#) Month (name) Year (####) Formatting the 1 st Page

First page continues...  Center the paper title (use standard caps but no underlining, italics, quote marks, or bold typeface)  Create a header in the upper right corner at half inch from the top and one inch from the right of the page (list your last name and page number)

Sample 1 st Page

 Summarizing: Briefly stating the main points in a piece of writing  Paraphrase: restating in your own words.  Citation: identifying sources used in writing, such as a research paper or project  If proper citation is not used, the writer is committing plagiarism: a form of cheating or stealing. It is the unacknowledged use of another person’s words or ideas. Certain Terms to Understand

 Summarizing: Briefly stating the main points in a piece of writing  Paraphrase: restating in your own words.  Citation: identifying sources used in writing, such as a research paper or project  If proper citation is not used, the writer is committing plagiarism: a form of cheating or stealing. It is the unacknowledged use of another person’s words or ideas. Certain Terms to Understand

Quotation vs. Paraphrase  Direct copy of the text  Word-for-word restatement  Uses quotation marks  Uses parenthetical citation  Summary restatement of the text  SIGNIFICANT changes to syntax and diction  No quotation marks  Uses parenthetical citation

Quote Paraphrase “Admissions officers see themselves as being responsible to their school as a whole. They are building a freshman class, which must become a successful part of the college or university at large.” The job of the admissions officer is to select students for the freshman class who will contribute to the overall success of the college or university.

How Do I Cite? There are two parts to citing according to MLA style: 1. Brief In-text citations (in parentheses) within the body of your essay or paper 2. List of full citations in the Works Cited page at the end of your paper

Within the text, MLA uses parenthetical citations.  Usually contains: (Jones 54).  Author’s last name  Page number for that information  No page number?  Author’s last name only  No author?  Title of the work (full the first time)  Underline or use Quotation Marks as appropriate ***Punctuation is always placed outside the parenthesis No comma!

Examples of parenthetical citations:  With one author:  Humans have been described as “symbol-using animals” (Burke 3).  With no known author:  We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has “more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change…” (“Impact of Global Warming” 6).  With multiple authors:  The authors explain that “tighter gun control in the United States erodes Second Amendment rights” (Smith, Yang, and Moore 76).

Parenthetical Citation Continues...  May contain only the page number IF:  The previous citation was from the same source, only a different page  The author’s name appears in the lead-in/context of the quote/paraphrase  Example: Morrison aptly concludes the novel’s quest theme with Milkman’s final insight: “if you surrendered to the air, you could ride it” (337).

If you paraphrase...  If you mention the authors, you are still required to include the page number at the end.  Smith, Yang, and Moore argue that tougher gun control is not needed in the United States (76).

Work Cited Page:  It is the last page of your paper  It must be listed in alphabetical order  If it continues after the first line, it must be indented (use tab button once)