How to format your Research Papers

 For your research paper you are expected to have your paper in tip top shape.  You need to make sure that your paper matches the criteria that goes along with MLA Style

 Margins: 1 inch: top, bottom, left and right  If you are including page numbers make sure that they are ½ an inch from the top upper right-hand corner (make sure your last name comes before it and make sure there is a space between your last name and the page number.  Ex: Yannucci 1

 Font: Times New Roman  Size: 12 point Font  Make sure the whole paper is DOUBLE SPACED  Leave one space after a period. (After a completed sentence.)

 Heading begins at 1 inch from the top of the page:  Your Name Teacher’s Name Course Number /Name Date  Put the name of your Research Paper on a new line…make sure that it is centered.  DO NOT: Bold Face, Italics, or Underline your title.

 Parenthetical or In-Text Citations  When you are summarizing, quoting or referencing information that is not your own you need to make sure that you give proper credit to where it’s due.  The In-Text citation references that sources you used, and will match the information provided on your Works Cited Page  There are three different ways that you can use parenthetical citations in your paper.

 1. After you summarized a text: Ex: 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).

 2. In the middle of a sentence, after the piece of information you need to cite: Ex: The citation occurs midsentence 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.bear rug

 3. A citation after a long quote: Ex: 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)

 This is the list of sources that you used in your research paper, it needs to be in ALPHABETICLAL ORDER.  Page Heading: Works Cited is to be written in the top center of a new page( 1 inch below the top of the page)…DO NOT Bold or Underline the title.  The sources are to be numbered  DO NOT indent when you write each source…but if the source information runs for more than a line then you have to indent the second line. (1/2 inch from the left margin)

 Double space between and in each entry  The Works Cited Page is to be in Alphabetical Order: Use the author’s last name, and if that’s not given then use the book or article’s title.

 Book with one author: Name of author inverted. Title of book. Place of publication: Name of publisher, Year of publication.  Lipson, Charles. Reliable Partners: How Democracies Have Made a Separate Piece.Princeton: Princeton UP, (Use the grammar that is shown in the sample)

 Encyclopedia: Name of author inverted. “Article title.” Title. Edition. Date.  Hernandez, Tomas. “Portugal.” The World Book. International ed

 Website: Name of author inverted. Full Title. Publisher, Publication date. Access date URL of source.  Psychology Today Dec

 Newspaper Article (Found on the Internet): Name of author inverted. “ Article Title.” Name of Newspaper Year or date of publication: page numbers. Access date.  Achen, Joel. “ America’s River.” Washington Post 5 May Feb

Nguyen, Stephen. MLA Format Works Cited. 17 Oct Dec cited/