1. How To Format Your Research Paper

2. Our goals today are to learn how to:  Correctly format your paper  Create in - text citations for sources and avoid plagiarism  Develop the Works Cited page

3. What Spacing does MLA require for a research paper?  Double space throughout the entire paper

4. How are pages numbered in MLA style?  In the top, right hand side of each page, including the first page  With the author ’ s ( your ) last name followed by the page number  Right margin aligned

5. Example of page numbering in MLA

6. How is the first page header set up for a paper in MLA style?  Student ’ s name  Instructor ( s ) name ( s )  Course title  Date  ALL LEFT MARGIN ALIGNED

7. Example of the header set up for a paper in MLA style…

8. Sample First page in MLA style

9. Plagiarism: What’s the Big Deal?  Definition : Using others ’ ideas and / or words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.  Why do we care ?  It ’ s ethical  It ’ s the law  Intellectual theft / artistic & intellectual ownership  People need to be able to trace your research and, if they cannot, you are guilty of plagiarizing, regardless of how innocently it may have happened !

10. How do I know when to give credit to other sources?  To avoid plagiarism when you write your paper, you must give credit whenever you use…  Another person ’ s ideas, opinions or theories  Any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings, photographs  Any pieces of information that are not COMMON KNOWLEDGE  Quotations of another person ’ s actual spoken or written words  Paraphrase of another person ’ s spoken or written words

11. How do I know what is COMMON KNOWLEDGE? COMMON KNOWLEDGE includes :  Familiar proverbs : “ You can ’ t judge a book by its cover.”  Very well known quotations : “ To be or not to be ?”  Commonly understood information such as “ George Washington was the first president of the United States.”

12. What qualifies as plagiarism?  Using another person ’ s phrases or sentences without putting quotation marks around them or providing a parenthetical citation is considered plagiarism even if you cite the source on your Works Cited page !

13. Examples:  Original material from :  “ Shakespeare must have been mercilessly ribbed all his life.”

14. What is parenthetical citation?  An acknowledgement of the original source within YOUR writing.

15. How do you introduce and integrate a cited material into your writing?  Introduce sources of quotations, summaries, paraphrases by referring to an author, a book title, a website, expertise, credentials, etc. before getting into the specifics…  OR you can mention these items toward the end of the cited info…  BUT they should NEVER pop up without warning !  THEN END with the page number in parentheses, followed by a period.

16. How do you introduce and integrate a cited material into your writing?  IF you already mentioned an author ’ s or interviewee ’ s full name once, you need to use only the last name subsequently ( afterward )  DO VARY your wording !  AND us a varied mix of quotes, paraphrases and summaries  Using your research to strengthen your own arguments rather than overpowering your own writing. DON ’ T QUOTE BOMB !  THINK of it the way you might think of SPICES… Just give it flavor and depth !

17. Creating the Works Cited Page The FINAL step to your paper !

18. What’s a Works Cited Page?  This is the page at the end of your document that lists all the sources that were quoted throughout your paper. It contains your MLA in - text documentation.

19. How should the MLA Works Cited page be organized?  Alphabetically, by the AUTHOR ’ S LAST NAME  Or BY TITLE if no author is known  ALWAYS with a HANGING INDENT !  Mircosoft Word will do this easily with the hanging indent option.  Go to Format, Paragraph, Indents and Spacing, Indention, then open the more options arrow under “ Special ”

20. Where should the MLA Works Cited page be placed? At the end of the research paper on a new, separate page

21. Friendly Reminders  Do not number a Works Cited list.  Alphabetize your Works Cited list.  Double - space, hanging indent.  Don ’ t be afraid to ask for help.  Give credit where credit is due :  Source : Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers : Fifth Ed. New York : The Modern Language Association of America, 1999.

22. What did you learn today?  How to correctly format your essays.  Create in - text citations for sources while avoiding plagiarism.  Develop the Works Cited page.