1. Writing Your Research Paper

2. Writing Your Introduction
Don’t obsess over your intro. Chances are you will change it at the end of the writing process, which is normal.
Remember to follow the order I gave you:
a. introduce general topic
b. present both sides of the controversy
c. emphasize my side of the argument
d. thesis statement
You do not use citations in your intro. It is all YOUR OWN words.

3. Writing Your Background Information
Remember to keep this section of your paper BRIEF. It is not the point of your research paper, it is merely information to help your reader better understand the information that follows.
You will need to use citations in this paragraph.
Do not give any information that will appear later in your paper. If you feel like you will repeat information, take it out of your background info section.

4. Writing Your Arguments
Each body paragraph must start with a strong TOPIC SENTENCE. The topic sentence of your paragraph should be developed from the “arguments” you wrote in your outline.
Once you present and idea in your topic sentence, you must STICK to it throughout your paragraph.
One argument should not equal one paragraph. It should take multiple paragraphs to fully discuss each argument.

5. Writing Your Arguments
These are the sections of your paper that are going to have the most citations.
You NEVER begin or end a paragraph with a quote or a citation. You always begin a paragraph with a TOPIC SENTENCE and end a paragraph with a Closing sentence or a transition sentence.

6. Writing Your Arguments
Your body paragraphs must be a mixture of your own words and quotes/statistics from your sources.
Remember, you are using your sources to backup and SUPPORT your words and your arguments.

7. Citing Your Sources
There are two ways to utilize your sources within your paper. You can either directly quote a source or you can summarize the thoughts and ideas of a source.
WHENEVER you use words or ideas from one of your sources you must CITE IT.
If it did not come from your brain, you CITE IT.

8. Citing Your Sources
Remember what it is you are doing when you are citing:
“In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what is known as parenthetical citation. This method involves placing relevant source information in parentheses after a quote or a paraphrase.”
You are giving credit to the sources you are using. If you do not give someone credit for their ideas or words, you are plagarizing which is a very big deal, especially at the college level.
When in doubt, CITE!

9. Citing Your Sources
The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1.) upon the source medium (e.g. Print, Web, DVD) and (2.) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited (bibliography) page.
Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page.
Also, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text, must be the FIRST thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry in the Works Cited List.

10. Citing Your Sources
MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text.
For every source used in your paper, a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page.

11. Citing Your Sources
There are TWO ways to cite your sources within your paper:
The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.
For example:
Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).
Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).
Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

12. Citing Your Sources
With more and more scholarly work being posted on the Internet, you may have to cite research you have completed in virtual environments. Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of author names and page numbers. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:
If the online source has an author name, of course cite that.
If there is no author name, write the article name in italics.
If there is no article name, write the website name. NO HYPERLINKS.
You do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.

13. Citing Your Sources
For information on how to cite other types of sources within your paper, refer to the following page:

14. Writing Your Research Paper
When you are writing your research paper, remember that organization is KEY.
Present an argument clearly, present your points orderly, supply strong support from your sources to help you prove it, and then move on to you next argument.

15. Writing Your Research Paper
Pages 1 & 2 of your research paper are due Monday.

16. What is MLA?
MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities.
This resource offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, and the Works Cited page.

17. Basic in-text citation rules
In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what is known as parenthetical citation. This method involves placing relevant source information in parentheses after a quote or a paraphrase.

18. Remember:
Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page.
More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your reader in the text, must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry in the Works Cited List.

19. Types of In-text citations
MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text.
The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.

20. For Example:
Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263). Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).
Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

21. Both citations in the examples, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth.
If reader wants more information about this source, he can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, he would find the following information:
Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. London: Oxford UP, Print.

22. Sources Other Than Books
For Print sources like magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.
Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as "symbol-using animals" (3).
Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).

23. Sources with no known author
When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number.
Example:
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).

24. This is how that source would appear on the Works Cited page:
"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs Web. 23 Mar

25. Citing a work by multiple authors
For a source with three or fewer authors, list the authors' last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:
Smith, Yang, and Moore argue that tougher gun control is not needed in the United States (76).
The authors state "Tighter gun control in the United States erodes Second Amendment rights" (Smith, Yang, and Moore 76).

26. Citing non-print or sources from the Internet
With more and more scholarly work being posted on the Internet, you may have to cite research you have completed in virtual environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work, some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research.
Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:
You do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
You must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry. DO NOT include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as these: CNN.com or Forbes.com. Do NOT write out or

27. Creating a Works Cited Page
According to MLA style, you must have a Works Cited page at the end of your research paper.
All entries on the Works Cited page must correspond to the works cited in your paper.

28. Creating a Works Cited Page
Begin your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your research paper.
It should have the same one-inch margins as the rest of your paper
Your last name and the page number must appear in the header of the page.

29. Creating a Works Cited Page
Label the page: Works Cited
Do not italicize the words Works Cited or put them in quotation marks.
Center the words Works Cited at the top of the page.

30. Creating a Works Cited Page
Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries.
Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations to create a hanging indent. For example:
Dean, Cornelia. "Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet." New York Times. New York Times, 22 May Web. 25 May 2009.

31. Creating a Works Cited Page
For every entry, you must determine the MEDIUM of publication. Most entries will likely be listed as Print or Web sources, but other possibilities may include Film, CD-ROM, or DVD.
Writers are no longer allowed to list URLs for Web entries.

32. Creating a Works Cited Page
Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc.
Use italics (instead of underlining) for titles of books and magazines (large publications) and quotation marks for titles of poems and articles (shorter works)

33. Creating a Works Cited Page
Entries are listed alphabetically by the author's last name.
Author names are written last name first. Middle names or middle initials follow the first name:
Burke, Kenneth M.
Alphabetize works with no known author by their title. Even if you abbreviated the title in your in-text citations, write the entire title on your Works Cited page.

34. Creating a Works Cited Page
This is the simplest form of a citation. This format is for a book with a known author. Remember, punctuation and font format count!
Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.

35. Creating a Works Cited Page
MLA lists electronic sources as Web Publications. Thus, when including the medium of publication for electronic sources, list the medium as Web.
MLA no longer allows the use of URLs in MLA citations. Because Web addresses are not permanent (they change often) and because documents sometimes appear in multiple places on the Web, MLA explains that most readers can find electronic sources via title or author searches in Internet Search Engines.
Author or Editor Name. Article Title. Name of Website. Name of institution/organization Affiliated with the Website, Date of Source Creation. Medium of publication. Date of Access.

36. Creating a Works Cited Page
For information on citing other types of sources visit: OR

37. Creating a Works Cited Page
Sample Works Cited Page: