1. What you should and should not do when writing a formal research paper  No personal pronouns I, My, We, Me, You  No contractions –Don’t, didn’t, won’t, it’s, etc.

2. Do Not Cut and Paste the consequence will be steep! Summarize the information: Read it and put it into your own words.

3. You need Paragraphs  Use topic sentences to organize your paper. Do not insert information that does not pertain to you topic sentence.  Example: Toni Morrison was an excellent writer and public speaker. She received many awards and was invited to speak at various functions. In addition to writing short stories she also wrote poetry. Toni married six different men and was a Baptist preacher.

4. A research paper must have parenthetical documentation  Internal or parenthetical documentation is used to support your claim or the answer to your questions. Do not throw in a quote just to say you have one.  Example: Langston realized that by faking a vision (with Jesus) he had trespassed on the faith that Auntie Reed had in him…One of his pieces, the poem “Goodbye Christ,” created such an unfavorable response from the public that Hughes had to repudiate the poem and apologize. Hughes biographer Arnold Rampersad, in his introduction to The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, says that, “Hughes…wrote some of the most radical poems ever published by an American, as well as some of the most poignant lamentations of the chasm that often exists between American social ideals and American Social reality.” (4)

5. No isolated quotes Example:  It is important that we study and teach Hughes because he is arguably one of the most significant American poets. “When Langston was about five or six years old, Carrie (Hughes’ mother) and her estranged husband decided to reconcile. (Hughes 207)

6. How to cite  Books are underlined  Put quotes around poems  Movies are underlined  Short stories put quotes around  Articles: quotations

7. MLA Style Documentation  Entire paper is double space including the heading, 12 font, Times New Roman  Header: Last name and page number Robinson 1  Works Cited page is double spaced  URL’s are tabbed www.brobinson@blogspot.com

8. What you must know  Without internal documentation you do not have a research paper.  Without a works cited page you do not have a research paper  Without either you will receive a grade of zero  If the source is in your paper, it must be on the works cited page  If the source is not in your paper, it should not be listed on your Works Cited Page

9. Works Cited page  12 Font  Times New Roman  Double Spaced  Alphabetical order –Basic Citation for electronic source Author and/or editor names. Name of the database or title of the project, book, article. Any version numbers available. Date of revision. Publisher information. Date you accessed the material. Electronic address. Robinson, Bonita J. The Life of Langston Hughes. Google. 21 January 07. 07 January 08. http://www.roadmaptolangstonhughes.org

10. PS:  Participation Grade!